Monday, March 31, 2008

"To Be Born From Above" & Fr. Francis Maddhu, SVD

On this day, April 1, one year ago, which was a Palm Sunday (why is it Tuesday today and not Monday? - it's because 2008 is a leap year!), Fr. Francis Maddhu, SVD was shot at close range shortly before he was to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass in a mission station in Barrio Mabongtot, about 4 hours walk from his parish in Lubuagan, Kalinga. He arrived in the Philippines exactly a year, if the liturgy were the basis of this chronological account. He arrived in the Philippines in 2006 also on a Palm Sunday! The killing was senseless as there seemed no apparent reason for shooting him. His dying seemed senseless as well. Until this time, the case has not been solved. The last time I read about his case mentioned that the suspect ran scot free after a few days ofbeing arrested.

From the human point of view, vengeance is the immediate feeling upon realizing this current situation. Justice remains to be served for him. But as it is, a year after his death, justice for his death remains an illusive dream! It is good that he was a priest; hence the thought that Someone knows what has happened can give some consolation. Wasn't Christ likewise killed almost senselessly? But today he speaks about being "born from above."

To be born from above is to be born of the Spirit. It is to live, knowing that our life is not simply our own. Someone owns us, Someone knows us. Hence, to remember that by virtue of our baptism this being "born from above" has indeed taken place, that God has taken us unto Himself through His Son, Jesus, is to realize that living now our lives is living for Christ, for God. Hence, whatever way we die, if it be as God allows, doesn't really matter. What matters is how we live this life of "being born from above." I'd like to believe that Fr. Maddhu was born from above because he lived his life as a priest, and died a priest as well.

To be born from above is to be begotten by the One Who has recreated us anew. Hence, the human person being an image of the Creator, undergoes an identity and reality that surpasses all we can ever imagine about ourselves, that is worthy of respect and valuing. Indeed, if I can say it here, the human person can be higher than the priest simply because the person born from above is the image of God Himself, even today in our midst. Whoever fails to see this reality fails to live his life of being born from above.

To be born from above is also to live as Christ lived. The Crucifix appears to be the best way to show what it is to be born from above. He who hung on the Cross is above all. Hence, it is from this perspective that life has meaning, has direction and has worth. The film "The Passion of the Christ" showed Jesus really hanging from on high on the Cross. Living our being born from above from this angle can really show us lots of insights and meaning. The experience of being abandoned, in pain, thus gains some vicarious benefit. Sometimes the pain and the abandonment can defocus us from this fact and make us forget that we are "above" already with Christ. May our knowing that while "above" in our pains and sufferings we have Christ, may we be strengthened to do the will of the One Who has sent us as He Himself was sent to show us how it is to be "from above."

God bless

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