the janitor is Christ

When we speak of janitors what comes to mind immediately is a man with a broom or a mop. We find him or her in the restrooms, in the garden, in the yard, in the classroom and offices but only after school and after office hours. A janitor is first to arrive and last to leave. But as always the janitor is one who is associated with the lowly broom or mop.
But janitors have not been always like that. Janitors in the past take up the position of what we now call the custodian. He takes care of the buildings and homes, and he guards these by locking and unlocking the doors. In fact the word janitor comes from the roman god Janus, the double faced god of pagan Rome.
Who is Janus? Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors, and the god of beginnings, endings and transitions. If he is depicted as the double faced god each facing the opposite direction, it is because he watches those who are about to enter the gate and takes note of those who leave, he is guardian of the past and also looks into the future, he is worshipped at the start of the planting season and also at the beginning of harvest. He is worshipped during important transitions like the birth of a child, the coming of age of children and at the start of marriage. His statue also marks boundaries - the boundary between the rural and the city, the boundary that marks the primitive life and civilization. In the end Janus is an important god for the Romans because he protects the city, preserves it from harm, secures its peace. And for the individual Janus is there to guard their beginnings, protects them in the difficult process of transitions in life and preserves them on their way - whether this be a journey on a road to someplace or a journey through life itself.


When Jesus called himself the gate and the gatekeeper, the real janitor came to mind, the Roman double-faced god Janus comes to mind and the importance of this janitor, the importance of a gatekeeper not just for our cities and homes but also for what enters and what comes out of our minds and hearts, the importance of a guide during the difficult years of transitions whether it be during birth, coming of age or puberty and marriage, and I should even include at the start of mid-life, and at the onset of old age in the menopausal stage. In fact by calling to mind the real janitor the role of Christ as gate and gatekeeper can be more clearly explained and understood.
Let’s take for example the role of the door. What is a door for? From where I come from, the seminary that is, our doors have two purposes - it is there to protect us from thieves and robbers and from unwanted visitors and also it is there to protect us from ourselves - to lock them out and to lock us in.
It is right that we need to lock them out, those unwanted guests who may want to barge in, and rightly so we build sturdy doors and acquire for ourselves sturdier locks. But you have also to consider that most of our unwanted guests do not enter through the physical doors we have set up but sneak through our homes and into our lives and thoughts through television, the internet and even cellphones, affecting our thinking, our values and eventually our way of life. Or consider what is taught in the classrooms, what values are transmitted in the songs that we listen to and sing, in the books that we read, and in the friends that we keep.
I am not advocating full censorship though in certain occasions it is proper to have some, but my point here is, I would like us to be aware of the many doors we have neglected and left unwatched and unlocked. Doors are important we say in keeping unwanted guests away. But many of those doors are wide open inviting the uninvited. Make Christ as the gate, permit Christ to be the gatekeeper. When the values of Christ are clear in us, when the values of Christ are taught in our homes, when the faith is taught with rigor, it acts like a door sifting the unwanted from the wanted, the undesirable from the desirable and evil from good. Nowadays when lies are peddled as truth, when evil masquerading with good intentions are aired on TV, when freedom is abused, we need doors and better and sturdier locks.
But doors are not only there to protect us from unwanted guests. They are also there to protect us from ourselves, to keep us in and even to lock ourselves in. In this day and age of openness and liberality we have forgotten boundaries, we have forgotten the importance of setting up borders and restrictions defining what is proper and improper, defining where we can go and where we cannot, what we can do and what we cannot. Nowadays this is no longer clear, not just in the minds of young people but even in the guidance and the discipline which parents and guardians owe to their charges. In the name of liberality and freedom we forgo discipline and permit them to do as they please. Even us priest we could no longer impose proper discipline in the church and in the sacraments because we don’t want to be called outdated, buki or worse ibalita sa radyo ukon isugid sa obispo. Now in the name of financial security parents go abroad and leave their children to grow up no longer under their careful and personal watch, no longer under the discipline of their fathers and mothers. Even parents are afraid to impose discipline on their children nowadays and also teachers because we are afraid of what we may get into if we are strict. So we become permissive. And look where we are right now. And look what dictates us today’s morality and behavior - kun ano lang ang feel ko - this now becomes the measure.
We need to impose boundaries. We need to be guided by discipline, by the sense of propriety knowing the proper behavior at the proper place at the proper time. We need doors to protect us from ourselves. Again we look to Christ as one who defines our person, as one who models what is truly human in us. We look to Christ and not to the artistas - it is not the artistas who defines us but Christ. Ang talaksan amo si Kristo. The door is Christ - nothing comes in and nothing comes out without passing through the measure who is Christ, without passing through the gatekeeper who is Christ.
The next time you see a janitor think about Christ - he takes care of the building, the building that is you by controlling what comes in and what goes out, protecting us from unwanted guests and protecting us from ourselves.