Do you feel saved?

And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one” (Luke 23:35).

Flashback to the deluge of Ondoy, which drowned many of our cities: Muelmar Magallanes, an 18-year-old construction worker, evacuates his three younger siblings and his parents as the river beside his home bursts its banks. He then swims back to help neighbors trapped on their rooftops and brings them to higher ground. He makes one courageous trip after another and saves more than 30 lives. Shivering from the cold and from exhaustion, he dives into danger one last time to reach a six-month-old baby girl about to be swept away in a Styrofoam box. He gives the child back to her mother before the raging currents carry him away. He saves others from the flood, but he is not able to save himself from the same waters.

No one sneers or scoffs. We know that though he may have died, Muelmar ultimately gains life. Scripture promises us: Those who try to save their life will lose it; those who lose their life will find it (Luke 17:33).

But do we have to wait for life-after-death for this to be a reality? Is salvation only in the thereafter or can we have a taste of it in the here-and-now?

Flash forward to the more recent destruction wrought by Yolanda – her winds may have died down but the smell of death still hangs heavy in the air: In the first Mass a decimated town celebrates after the typhoon, a priest consoles his parishioners huddled together in their roofless church: “We may have lost everything, but we have not lost our faith.”

No one stopped the gigantic waves and the ferocious winds that battered their island. Their houses were not saved. Many of their loved ones were not saved. How can they still have faith? How can they still go to Mass? How can they still believe in salvation?

One of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39).

If Jesus does not save us from trouble, from trials, and from typhoons, can he still be the Christ? Can he still be our Savior?

These are times when we have to expand our vision and enlarge our definition of salvation. First, salvation does not happen only when we die. Salvation begins in this present life. Second, we can have salvation not only when we are safe and comfortable, not only when life is easy and everything is fine. We can lose everything and still be saved.

How? The other man crucified with Jesus made a final request, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus replied, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). We read that and many of us just focus on “Paradise.” But the more important words come before: “with me.” With Jesus! This is how we can be, as St. Paul writes, “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Salvation means not that we do not have crosses but that Christ bears our crosses with us.

Flashback to less than a month before Yolanda strikes, when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Bohol and Cebu: In shock, people shake their heads at the rubble that used to be their homes. They walk around their town to survey the damage and find themselves in front of the pile of stones that used to be their church. They pick through the wreckage and salvage broken images of our Lord and our Lady. They set these on a makeshift altar and just stand there and cry. In my mind, they must have been praying: “Your house is broken. Our houses are broken, too. You are broken. We are broken, too.” They weep, but they are not alone. They weep, but they are strong. God is still with them – broken with them. How can they not be saved?

What is your definition of salvation? What if God does not solve your financial problems? What if God does not cure your cancer? What if God does not heal your marriage? What if God does not grant you what you beg for? Can you still say that you are saved? More than just saying it, can you feel it? Can you proclaim it?

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief (Mark 9:24).