ano tani haw - 2nd sunday advent A 2013

Yesterday in my dialogue with our grade seven in the seminary I was trying to explain to them the meaning of advent.  Advent, I said, is about looking forward, advent is about being hopeful, it is expecting the good that is to come, it is about anticipating the joy that will gladden our lives, it is waiting with patience at the light that would brighten our darkness, it is looking forward to the happiness that God will bring to our lives, it is about fulfillment, it is about perfection, it is about completion and the realization of every good desire.  Look at the reading, I added, Isaiah would want us to strain our eyes forward telling us on that day, on that day, on that day when all expectations and dreams will be fulfilled. 

I was so moved by what I said.  However when I looked up I saw written in the faces of my 12 year old audience that they were more amused and perplexed rather than moved.  Ang itsura nila daw nagapamangkot, what is this guy trying to say?  But lo and behold just when I was about to give another theological treatise on advent, a little boy came to the rescue when he said, “ano tani.”  That’s it, I said.  That is what I was trying to say in a dozen sentences – that advent is all about – ano tani.

Try asking yourself ano tani and you will see what I mean when I say that this phrase, this question captures the spirit of advent. 

I was talking to a prisoner and he was complaining about so many things in his life – his wife, his family, the warden, the guards and even himself.  To interrupt his long litany of woes I asked him ano tani haw, kon indi ka sini luyag, ano tani haw?  And there and then I heard the dreams of this man, his wishes for his family and the children struggling without a father, his longing for their education, for their better formation and he even narrated his ideas about the Provincial jail, his dreams for the warden and the guards, and even for society at large.  Hearing him and his dreams you would never think that this man killed two people.  It is proof nga bisan ano kita kalain sang batasan, deep inside kadamo sa gihapon sang kaayo.  Proof that originally gintuga gid man kita nga maayo gid.  We are essentially and originally good. 

All of these came to my mind because I asked the question ano tani, the question that gets us in touch with advent, with our dreams, with our longings that this is not the only life I am meant to live, that this is not the only life I was meant to know and experience.  There is more, there is more to this life, I can do more to improve my life, thus I ask, ano tani.

St. John the Baptist is your biggest Christmas kill joy.  While we are busy shopping we are reminded that he lived in the desert dressed in camels’ hair.  While we are rooting for the coming jamon and queso de bola, even postponing our blood test way after December, we are reminded that John the Baptist lived on a diet of locust and honey.  And while we listen to beautiful Christmas music – joy to the world, silent night and Joemarie Chan basking on their nostalgia and romance, we are awakened from our reverie with John the Baptist’s big voice, repent, prepare the way of the Lord.  Killjoy?

But look again, hear again.  The repentance John the Baptist is preaching to prepare for the coming is not about feeling ever more guilty about what you did, or feeling bad because of what you have done and what you need to change in you.  John the Baptist instead centered his preparation in asking “ano tani?”  Kon bad ti ano tani para mag-good.  Kon good ti ano pa gid tani para mag better.

And advent is believing that there is so much goodness in each person to make us dream and long.  Get in touch with that inner longing.  Indi ka na kinahanglan nga i-remind pa because deep inside, you know what you want, you know what God wants.  Ask yourself, ano tani.  Try asking your children seriously, ano tani haw.  Try asking your parents, ano tani?  And you will be surprised because despite our many differences we are indeed hardwired to real happiness and to deeper values.

Assumption family days are memorable days.  There are not so many things you would want to look forward to in school. But Family Day in Assumption is an exemption.  There was in my school life once, here in Assumption, when my parents begged off from Family Day because it was a December 8, the Fiesta of Oton and social obligations abound.  However, to my mind then they cannot be excused.  They have to come.  Precisely it is called family day and not just children’s day or students’ day, or a little boy’s day.  It was family day.  In short, I argued, I cried and so I won although they were a bit late.  I won because in the end ano tani will always win, - the goodness that would seek fulfillment, the good that will eventually win, ano tani.  And this is what advent is all about – it is believing that God will fulfill our deepest yearnings and our grandest dreams.