Christians learning from non-Christians

Last Friday we wrote about the letter of that Vietnamese working as a policeman in the Fukushima area, who wrote that very touching story to his brother about a nine-year-old Japanese boy who taught us a lesson on human behavior especially in times of crisis. This was one article that resulted in a deluge of responses from our readers from all over, some who had my cellphone number texted me, while the rest emailed their thanks for having reprinted the article. So allow me to print only a few of these letters in full.

“Dear Mr. Avila, I was so touched by your article about the Japanese boy and I hope your readers will likewise feel the same. But is feeling enough? Don’t you think it would be better if we apply the lesson of the Japanese boy to our country, our politicians who would like nothing better but to grandstand with anger and revenge in spite of what is happening around us?

“There is so much bitterness and the desire to put one over another, there is no more space for forgiveness and sacrifice in their hearts. It was said that good things are not used in the right time or the right way, thus even “something good” or the “tamang daan” may lead us away from the road to piety and our apostolic commitments.

“We tend to forget that there is a God who would take care of all the wrongdoings that is committed and only He can do justice to these wrongdoings. Let us be like the little boy who did not even think of his misfortune but the good of everybody for a greater society and a greater people. Amanda Sison… [email protected]”

This email is similar to most of the letters I got.

“Dear Mr. Avila, I was deeply touched by your story about the heroism of the Japanese boy. I can’t help but shed a tear. I don’t know if it’s because of shame that I wasn’t or can’t be like him or because we, as a people, do not have that kind of discipline. But whatever it is, it had a profound effect on me personally. Thank you for sharing the story. Sincerely, Ruben Sumo”

Let me point out that I always respond to all the letters emailed to me, but I can’t print all of them, especially the long ones. So here’s the last one.

“Dear Sir: I always read your articles. It is very interesting and full of knowledge. More power. P.S. The article about the Japanese boy and the article about end of time. Yours Truly, Mary Ann B. Dy, Cauayan City, Isabela”

Indeed we were all touched by that letter and it would certainly go to waste if we did not learn any lessons from it. I just hope that someone from the Department of Education (DepEd) would reprint that article and let all elementary pupils read it when school opens. If we have to change as a nation, we must start from our youngsters with stories like that, because to a young child, it is not really an impossible task to share with another child.

God in his mysterious ways always find some good in the midst of tragedy so that humankind can learn lessons from it. I’m sure that the little Japanese boy wasn’t a Christian at all, yet he acted like a true Christian and as our Lord Jesus Christ would say, “There is no duplication in him.” While Christ was referring to Nathaniel, he can very well say this about the nine-year-old Japanese boy, who lost his entire family to the tsunami.

Perhaps we have already forgotten that we were all made in the image of God, hence humankind has within each one of us God’s trait of selfless love, where He did not even spare his only Begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ from suffering and death on the cross to save us from our evil ways.

Thus, we should sing that praise song, “God is good! All the time.”

What’s remarkable in this story is that this non-Christian Japanese boy has touched a lot of Christians one way or the other. Hence this story should be a challenge to us Catholics to share what little we have, simply because God did not destroy our nation through an earthquake or a tsunami. We don’t have to wait for disaster to happen to do some good. One of my best quotes comes from Mahatma Gandhi who once quipped “I love the tenets of Christianity, but I still have to meet a real Christian.” So let’s look at the mirror and ask ourselves…. Are we true Christians?

These days, Catholics are divided on that very hot and controversial issue about the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Many Catholics complain bitterly about the stand of the Catholic Church on this issue. Yet they have completely forgotten, or perhaps do not realize that we are the Catholic Church, as we are all part and parcel of the body of Christ.

How do we know this? Remember the story of Paul of Tarsus, who on the Road to Damascus, was struck down from his horse? The voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul asked, “Who are thou Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus whom you have persecuted.” Read the Bible and you will note that Saul who was renamed St. Paul never met with Jesus. Hence if you persecute Catholics, you are persecuting our Lord Jesus Christ.

* * *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through http://www.philstar.com.