tapos na, bow - 5th week Tuesday 2013

Before we end the Ordinary Time and go into Lent tomorrow, I would like to end our reflection on the Eucharist which we have continuously done starting September of last year.  Probably most of you have asked, when will this ever end?  So today just before we cross over to the season of Lent I would like to end this today with a reflection appropriate to every ending, which is a reflection on the dismissal of the mass which in Latin says, Ite missa est.  And we respond, Deo Gratias.

The response of the people Deo gratias is easily translated as Thanks be to God, salamat sa Dios – an appropriate response because the Eucharist is after all a eukaristos, which means – thanksgiving, ang pagpasalamat.  Every mass is a thanksgiving.  We have been so used to making petitions during the mass.  We even have intentions offered during the mass.  But we should not forget that the mass is thanksgiving.  By its very nature, it is a thanksgiving.  In fact by its very name, it is a thanksgiving.

Many times our attitude towards life is such that we highlight, we underline our lack more than what we already have.  Wala ako sini.  Wala ako sina.  Kinahanglan ko ini. Kinahanglan ko ina.  Be reminded that for as long as we are in this world, nothing is perfect, nothing will ever make us content permanently - indi gid kita mabusog, indi gid kita mangin kontento.  Otherwise kon mabusog kita kag ma-kontento na kita diri pa lang, ngaa ma-amar pa kita sang langit?  Amo na siling ko sa mga seminaristas kon kadlawan nila nga indi ako kadalagan kay arthritison na ako.  Siling ko, Andaman nyo lang kay pierdihon ko gid kamo sa football didto sa langit.  Of course indi lang amo sina ang langit but I would just like to highlight that our imperfections are never meant to be for eternity.  At least that is how my faith teaches me to see things.  The best is yet to come.

My point is learn to be thankful.  In calling it the Eucharist, a thanksgiving, the Fathers of the Church explain that God has been so good to us he did not even hesitate to give us his only Son.  What more cannot be given?  And what more can we ask?  Ano pa ang indi mahatag, kay nahatag na niya gani ang iya Anak.  Tapos, ano pa ang pangayuon mo kay nahatag na niya ang tanan bisan pa ang iya Anak.

We offer petitions because God is praised and honored when we show our dependence on his providence and care.  We offer petitions because God is adored when we look at him as our Father who gives us our daily bread.  But my point in emphasizing thanksgiving is this – look at the brighter side.   Why do we always have to emphasize our lack, our needs, what is not there, when there is so much in there?  When I was a child we had that picture of the Sacred Heart in our home which has a caption underneath the image.  It says, count your blessings, count your blessing.  Deo gratias – that is supposedly our constant refrain.

I said Deo gratias is much easier to translate.  But Ite missa est is difficult to translate, in the same way that we cannot translate in English the words alleluia and amen.  It is a Roman expression that is understood but cannot be translated in the same way that English cannot translate the Hiligaynon word kwan – ang kwan bala.  Ite missa est is what one says to end a meeting.  It is not goodbye, it is not just the end.  Rather it has a sense of –“ok things have been settled, now let us carry it out.  Now, we know, now let us do it.  Now we have decided, then let us carry it out.”

First and foremost it means that there is an end.  Tapos misa, go home, go back to your office and your responsibilities.  Go and do your duty.  Do not stay here, unless your work is here.  Ang misa may dismissal.  It ends.  Difficulties come when people do not know how to end things.  Indi katapos inom - ti hubog. Indi ka-untat panglibak, ti kundi inaway. Indi ka-untat panunlog, ti kundi sumbaganay.  Kag may iban nga indi katapos especially sang maayo niya nga ginabuhat, indi niay mapasa sa iban, indi niya mapasubli kay sia gid matapos. 

I think and I would like to believe that this is what the Holy Father, Pope Benedict would like to emphasize by resigning. " Tapos na.  Let others take my place.  The Holy Spirit used me for a while, now we allow him to use others as well.  I know I have not completed what I have set out to do, but completing and perfecting is not my work.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit.  I am just an instrument, the pencil in the hand of God.  Kon wala na, kon upod na ang lapis, ti damo pa man da iban."  

If you believe that the Spirit is at work in the Church, if you believe that the Spirit is at work in our lives, then you should not be afraid to go to the center of the stage and take a bow.  Ti hulaton mo gid imo nga makadasma ka kag mamumo?  Take a bow.  In our first reading today God congratulated himself for all his work and rested.  Tapos na.  Bow

Ti halin September hasta subong sa Febrero, ang akon hambal puro lang parti sa Eucharist.  Sakto na ni a.  Bow.  Tapos.