Different peoples in different places and in different times have turned heavenwards for divine intervention. While packing my stuff (yes, I’m still in the middle of moving, as regular readers have been informed), I came across an old devotional, a book of readings and prayers put together for Americans posted in Manila. It made quite an interesting perusal, an apt break on a Sunday afternoon spent stuffing a houseful of things into boxes.
The book’s title is Americans Away. (The longer title inside reads Moments of Devotion for Americans Away.) Bruce S. Wright, who was pastor of the American Union Church in Manila, authored the book. Although there is no date of publication, the readings do refer to the "carnage in Europe," a reference to the First World War, which places the printing of the book between 1914 and 1918.
This post Filipino-American War period saw the initial wave of Americans switch from military men, who did the dirty job of overcoming the "natives," to civil servants, missionaries and businessmen – who pursued what they believed was their "manifest destiny" – that of bringing "civilization" to Filipinos. This was a dangerous posting for those (mostly) young men and the newly arrived Protestant churches sought to provide spiritual refuge and moral anchorage to those who sailed far from home.
The book is organized into roughly 60 double spreads with a reading followed by a short prayer. Most readings dealt with the usual devotional messages of "sticking-to the-straight-and-narrow-amidst-the-temptation-and-perils-of-life-abroad," but there were three spreads that touched on city life and our modern existence, the stuff I try to cover in this column.
"The rubbish had to be pulled away before the walls could be put up. ‘Their strength is decayed,’ said Judah, ‘because of the rubbish.’ The most discouraging thing to progress is not what has to be done but what has to be undone. Before the walls of intellectual strength can be reared there are many things which must be relegated. Prejudice, disbelief, superficiality are to be cast aside. Provincialism, partisanship, political bargaining are rubbish upon the ground selected by the people for the building of a nation. Opportunities in the Philippines are unlimited. The greater task is not in meeting the opportunities but in clearing away the rubbish ... The Gospel is an appeal to set aside life’s rubbish..."
Well, today, we still have physical rubbish in a metropolitan garbage problem that won’t go away. The larger problem though is the political garbage that has never been purged. It has festered so long that we have now become oblivious to the stink. Provincialism, partisanship and political bargaining are still with us in a mutant democracy that serves only the interests of the rich and the powerful. Power and its attendant worldly rewards now seem to be the only Gospel read and the main opportunities sought are that of kurakot.
"Cities are moved by different causes. If Manila should learn that the President ... had suddenly died, the city would be moved from center to circumference. If New York were told that America had been drawn to war, what moving scenes would take place on the thoroughfares of that great city? ... A city may be moved by pleasure; sometimes the whole population of a city seems to be pleasure-mad. A city may be moved by a great calamity ... (or) a common danger; a flood threatening a city will move people to be close friends who were before distant strangers. Christ moves a city, and always for good. Cleaner streets, purer homes, happier hearts, brighter faces, greater intelligence, honesty in trade, honor in government, mutual helpfulness, reverence for age, love for children – these are some of the marks of the city moved by Christ. Crime is lessened, wicked ways are forsaken, sin places are forgotten when Christ comes to a city."
Last year, we witnessed scenes of terror unimagined, wrought on the great city of New York. The whole world was moved. Here in the Philippines we have seen martyrs die, and a sea of yellow flooding Metro Manila’s streets. Great calamities, mostly man-made, strike us Filipinos with ridiculous regularity but the greater calamity is that thousands of Filipinos die because of these "events," yet we do not move to prevent these disasters or have the culprits punished. (More have died from inter-island boats sinking than the whole of the Al-Qaeda attack and counterattack!)
"The end of the saying is the beginning of the doing. Amen ends the prayer but begins the task. The people say and then the people start to do. As a boy, I was mystified by the use of the Amen... I learned that every time one said ‘Amen,’ he actually meant, ‘So be it.’ To say Amen means a willingness to shoulder responsibility. When I say Amen to another’s prayer or my own, at that point I start to work to fulfill the petition. Prayer, with its chorus of ardent Amens, is not getting something from God; it is giving ourselves to Him in partnership for the working of His will in the world. Do we say Amen to our nation’s prayer for the continuance of an honorable peace? Then we will talk peace. We will work for peace. We will prepare for peace. Do we say Amen to the prayer that righteousness may prevail in Manila and the Philippine Islands? Then Amen is a pledge that, if need be, we will lay our lives at the altar of sacrifice for righteousness sake."
The reading ends with a prayer: "O Lord, Thou teacher of men, at whose feet the disciples learned, teach us how to pray. Amen and Amen we say. And when the prayer is ended help us to fulfill all that we have prayed. Having said Amen may we strive to bring it to pass. When we have made the response may we meet the responsibility."
As the good Reverend Wright pointed out close to a hundred years ago, the actual task begins after "Amen." I grew up hearing the adage "God helps them who help themselves." I believe that the road to salvation, in urban affairs as well as national ones, lies in taking up the task and assuming the responsibility ourselves. It would also help if we pick leaders who have the strength to do the same.
"What is the city but its people?" said William Shakespeare. It will take a people enlightened by prayer, leaders inspired by the people’s support and driven by action shared by all citizens to bring the city and the nation towards the "path of righteousness."
Amen.