through my fault: 29th week tuesday 2012 II

Last week we reflected on our response to the greeting and with your spirit and we saw the importance of this response especially in our faith, that the priest, despite his unworthiness, celebrates the sacraments in persona Christi - not in his person but in the person of Christ.  Thus it is Christ who baptizes, it is Christ who offers the mass, it is Christ who anoints. 

Now we proceed to the confiteor, to the prayer “I confess to almighty God.”  This is part of the Penitential Act and the most obvious change in our new translation is not really surprising because we have been using this in the Hiligaynon translation - sa akon sala, sa akon sala, sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala - through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.  Dala ang pokpok sang dughan . 

The gesture evokes the act of washing clothes in the past when washing machines were not yet in style.  Ginapakang ang bayo, ilabi na gid sang nag-uso ang maong.  Ginapokpok, ginapakang agod makuha ang higko, kay man matig-a kusuon kag kabudlay kuhaon ang higko nga nagpanalupsop sa tela.  Can you imagine the imagery?  Ginapokpok ang dughan as you say sa akon sala, sa akon sala, sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala - through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.  Ang instruction naga-imply nga kaisa lang kuntani pokpokon.  Pero sa akon panan-aw daw wala man na lain kon katatlo.  Basi budlay gid man kuhaon ang sala, nagatapik gid, ti pakangon gid sing pila ka beses. 

Actually there is not much difference in the meaning of the translation except that the new translation is more dramatic than just simply saying I have sinned through my own fault.  I would say it is more emphatic of who did the sin.  So this is our lex orandi.  Why, what is our lex credendi?

Three things though they are deeply interconnected: our belief in human freedom, our belief in sin and our belief in God’s forgiveness.  There can be no sin without the exercise of human freedom - to commit sin means to choose to do evil.  And there can be no real human freedom if there are no choices in our lives.

Freedom is the power to act or not to act, it is the power to do this or to do that.  Because of this we shape our own lives, we determine by our choices how we live our lives.  And thus we are therefore responsible for our actions and our end.  So with human freedom comes a choice, with the choice comes responsibility and with responsibility comes accountability.  Thus, we have heaven and hell.

In our time there is tendency to blame everything to our genes or to blame everything to our upbringing, or to our surroundings. 

Ngaa nagmuna ka?  Kay ari na ni sa dugo namon; ngaa nag amo ka sina?  Kay bal-an mo ang mga ginikanan sang mga ginikanan ko amo man ini sila. 

Ngaa nag amo ka sina?  Ano abi kay ginpadaku ako ni tatay kag ni nanay nga amo ni kag amo na. 

May ara gid man nga kamatuoran sa ginapanubli halimbawa diabetes, ukon heart disease, ukon bisan gani sa aton pamatasan.  But remember these are predispositions nga kon sayuron mag-andam ka.  So kon may predisposition kay sa diabetes indi na magpatama softdrinks ukon gelato, kon may predisposition sa heart disease, indi na magpatama cholesterol.  But you can still choose.  This is our difficulty - we blame others we feign responsibility thinking that we can skirt around accountability.  Sa akon sala sa akon sala sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala is a reminder that we are responsible, we determine the outcome of our lives, we are the captain of our souls.  We can become success or a failures and we can even rise from our failures if we want to.

Bisan palukpan mo pa ang tanan nga bodega sang San Miguel Beer sa bilog nga Pilipinas kon indi sia luyag mag-untat inom, indi gid na sia mag-untat.  Bisan ipatawag mo pa si Pope Benedict para makonbertir sia, kon indi niya luyag makonbertir  indi gid ina matabo.  Kay man: sa akon sala, sa akon sala sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala- we have a choice.  Kon sang bata kita sang una nag-amo kita sina, it does not mean nga maamo na lang kita sini tubtob sa katapusan.  Ngaa? through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Dala pokpok sang aton dughan.  Actually kuntani ang ulo ang pokpokon ta kay man kon kaisa nagaminango gid kita, pero daw kalaw-ay man ina nga sa misa ginapulopokpok ta aton ulo.

Jesus said in our gospel today, “be like men who are waiting for their master to come home. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.”

We are blessed because we choose to wait, we choose to keep awake.  We will be condemned if we choose not to wait and to sleep.  We can choose, so we better choose well - that is our lex vivendi.