Pope Francis’ Christmas message this year was addressed to the global Catholic population, but may as well have been delivered directly to us Filipinos.
For a second year, we celebrated Christmas under the cloud of COVID-19. Some restrictions have been lifted and the economy has picked up, but the threat of a resurgence due to a new variant looms. And then last week, a typhoon brought devastation to a large part of the archipelago, killing at least 376 with many more missing, and causing damage worth billions of pesos in infrastructure and agriculture.
We face these problems given the backdrop of an election next May that promises to be as exciting as it is divisive. Online and offline, the exchange of words has been acrimonious, and many things are being passed off as truth when they are, in fact, propaganda.
“Our capacity for social relationships is sorely tried; there is a growing tendency to withdraw, to do it all by ourselves, to stop making an effort to encounter others and do things together,” the Pope said.
And true enough, we have stayed close only to the people who think and talk like we do, hating the same enemy and using the same language. We view the others who are not like us as others, and speak about them in disdain.
The conflicts, the Pope said, “never seem to end; by now we hardly even notice them. We have become so used to them that immense tragedies are now being passed over in silence; we risk not hearing the cry of pain and distress of so many of our brothers and sisters.”
There is much noise about the candidates and their likelihood of winning or losing in the next elections. But the election is not so much their battle as it is ours. Its outcome will determine our ability to finally break free from the clutches of the pandemic, and our quality of life in the next few years and more.
Ultimately, it is a high-stakes exercise not for the candidates but for ordinary Filipinos who have to worry about finding jobs, putting food on the table and sending their kids to school.
It is so tempting to be dazzled by the trappings of the holiday season. By all means let us be merry, but more importantly, may our days be meaningful and purposeful, especially now that the pandemic has repeatedly reminded us of the truly important bare essentials.
