a grateful people

Last week I went to the World Heritage City of Vigan to attend a workshop organized by UNESCO for site managers of the world heritage sites found in the Philippines - the Tubataha Reef, the Ifugao Rice Terraces, the Underground River of Palawan, the city of Vigan itself, the baroque churches which included the churches of Paoay, Sta Maria, San Agustin in Intramuros and the Miag-ao church which I represented. They held it in Vigan because they wanted to showcase what Vigan did to preserve the old spanish buildings of the city. If you are an antique enthusiast, Vigan is your city. However, of the many old things that can be seen in Vigan one particular thing caught my fancy. It is called the ex voto. The ex voto are those tiny objects not more than an inch in height, which are placed on shrines and images of saints. These little objects can be anything - the shape of an arm, a leg, an eye, a liver, a kidney, a child, tiny cute houses, a horse - anything. It was a practice then which they did to testify to the intercession of the saints, to honor the saint, and to proclaim that the healing or favors they received were done and answered by God through the intercession of the saints. So if one is healed of an arthritis for example, he or she would commission the making of a teeny tiny leg or arm not an inch high which he or she will tack around the image as a testimony to the miracle of the saint. The ex voto was their way of thanking God and an act of recognition that God through the saints worked out a miracle in the devotees person. Thus, the ex voto.


We are by nature a thankful people. We don’t take lightly our gratitude to the people and to God who have helped us. In fact one of the greatest insults to be hurled to another is to call the other an ingrato - an ungrateful person - a person who failed to be thankful. Because of the importance we attach to gratefulness, most often our sense of gratitude can be a problem more than just a courtesy and a by-product of good manners. Gratitude for a Filipino can be too much, too long, too overly compensated, too demanding. And as they say, too much of anything can be bad.
Let me turn your attention to what we call the sense of gratitude expressed in reciprocity or what we call utang na loob or in our own dialect utang nga kabalaslan. Our gratitude can be such that sometimes we do overly express them, we multiply them excessively, we put ourselves in debt for ever and in paying them back we would do sometimes what is uncalled for. Because of a debt of gratitude I put myself and my family and even the generations who follow me to be forever in debt and even sometimes enslaved. Because of the debt of gratitude I feel I have to accept a petition of favour even if the petitioner is unfavourable and undeserving. Because of the debt of gratitude I would feel slighted when I am bypassed, whenever I am not recognized, whenever my desires are denied. And even more so because of the sense of gratitude we expect and even demand, with the threat of panglibak and panomboy, that people be forever thankful to us and be forever grateful and in debt to us.
Today the readings do not just emphasise the need to thank or the need to be grateful. It also involves the proper expression of gratitude.
To whom should we give thanks, to whom should our gratitude be expressed, for the good in our lives?
When Naaman the Syrian was healed of his leprosy, he came back to Elisha to ask him to accept a gift. But Elisha said, I will accept nothing. Elisha knew that the good he did to Naaman was not his good but God’s good. Yes he was the means by which Naaman would experience healing but he was not the source of healing. Yes he was the instrument of healing but he was not the cause of the healing. By not accepting the gift of Naaman Elisha was instead directing Naaman’s attention and Naaman’s gratitude to God and not to himself. In a way Elisha was saying the good that I did to you was God’s. God is the source of all goodness. You should thank him and not me.
Because of Elisha’s refusal to acknowledge that he was the source of the goodness experienced by Naaman, because Elisha wanted to direct the attention and the gratitude of Naaman to God, Naaman asked and received two cartloads of Israel’s soil so that on going back to Syria he can still praise and thank God standing on the sacred soil of Israel.
To whom should we be thankful then? We should be thankful to God who is the real source of goodness in us, the source of all our wealth, the source of our well-being, of our position and power, the source of all that is good in us. All the good that I do, all the kindness that I show, all the goodness in me has for their source God, the source of all that is good. Do we have also the same attitude? Are we directing the gratitude of people to God rather than to ourselves acknowledging that the good in me has for its source the God of all goodness?
A distorted sense of gratitude has done its share of destruction in our nation. In the name of kabalaslan the wrong people are getting appointed in our government offices. In the name of kabalaslan we enslave ourselves to the power of a benefactor lying, cheating and even murdering in his behalf. In the name of kabalaslan barangay captains who supported the losing candidate become victims of vindictiveness. In the name of kabalaslan we take advantage of people, we take advantage of their poverty and powerlessness and use them for our means. This is a distorted sense of gratitude, a sinful attempt to attribute to ourselves and to others the good that can only come from God. When Jesus said to the leper, “has none returned to give thanks to God he was speaking literally - to give thanks to God, to acknowledge that God is the source of all goodness.
Finally permit me to propose a way of paying back a debt of gratitude.
Sa India may isa anay ka solterito nga nagkadto sa ciudad sa pagpasimpalad. Ano man nga dimalas ang iya nadangtan, gin-snatch sia, kag sa sobra niya nga pulok pangita sang iya wallet ginkawat pati ang iya bag. Wala gid may nabilin luwas lang sang iya bayu nga nasuksuk. Gani nangayo sia bulig sa isa ka tawo niya sa dalan kag sa sobra niya nga pakidluoy gintagaan sia sang equivalent sang 100 ka pesos. Daku gid kaayo ang iya pasalamat sa sadto nga tawo nga bisan waay sia nakilala ginhatagan sia sing kasubong nga kantidad. Sir, siling niya ihatag sa akon ang imo address kag ang imo ngalan kay luyag ko nga balikan ikaw kag bayaran ang ini nga kwarta. Ang tawo naglungolungo lang kag nagsiling, don’t repay my kindness, just pass it on. Indi na pagbayari ang akon kaalwan,himua lang nga magmanginmaalwan ka man sa iban. Kag yadto nga tawo naglakat. Ang pinahulam niya nangin isa sa mga bantog nga leader sang India kag ang nagsugid sini nga istorya isa ka tawo nga ginbuligan sang ginbuligan, sang ginbuligan sadtong una nga ginbuligan – ginpasapasa nila ang kaayo sadtong tawo nga waay gani nagpakilala. Ang kaalwan waay ginbayaran sa amo man sa gihapon nga tawo, sa baylo ginpasapasa ini.
For me this is a greater gratitude sang sa higtan mo ang tawo sa kabalaslan – ginbuligan ko ikaw pues magbulig ka man sa iban. For me this is also a better expression of gratitude – ginbuligan ako dapat bilang pasalamat mabulig man ako sa iban.
Don’t bother repaying my kindness, don’t even bother thanking me, just pay the kindness to others, pass the same kindness to others.