Time of prayerand thanksgiving

Ten days before we commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, let’s just focus our attention on the good things and the many blessings coming our way. This is the time for us to be joyful because the only begotten Son of God came down on earth to be with us and show us the way to eternal life of bliss in heaven. So it would be better if we just pause and count our blessings instead of delving on the many calamities befalling our country and on the continuing incidents of lying, cheating and stealing in our government.

Indeed receiving and continuing to possess the precious gift of life and having a closely knit family are already enough reasons for us to “be happy always, thank God for everything and to pray under all circumstances” as exhorted by St Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians (5:16). And much more so if we consider that He has also enabled us to sustain our existence in this world in a way befitting our human dignity. To be sure, there are many others among us in this country who are fortunate enough to have a more decent and pleasant life and should therefore be more thankful especially during this time of the year.

And perhaps one of the most appropriate ways of expressing our gratitude is to share our blessings with others who are less fortunate in this life and who continue to wallow in poverty and deprivation. This aspect of sharing involves not only giving them gifts during Christmas time or extending humanitarian services to the less fortunate especially in times of calamities and disasters. More importantly it involves assisting them on how they will one day be able to live a more decent and dignified life as a human being.

Such kind of sharing is more specifically addressed to the less than ten (10%) percent of our population who controls most of our country’s wealth through their profit oriented businesses. It is about time that they should rethink their self-serving business policy and share their huge profit with the thousands of employees working for them by improving their working conditions and paying them higher wages even beyond the minimum imposed by law. Indeed this is another and a much better way of complying with their corporate social responsibility. It will contribute to the more equitable distribution of the country’s vast resources so that the rich will no longer get richer and the poor, poorer.

But another and perhaps more effective way of helping others which all of us can do, is to pray especially for those who are hapless victims of exploitations by their fellow human beings. Thus it is quite timely that yesterday, the third Sunday of Advent has been set aside by the Church as the “National Day of Prayer to End Human Trafficking.” In order to have a clearer understanding of what this day is all about, let me just cite this article of Archbishop of Capiz, Jose Advincula, Jr., the CBCP Chairman of the Office on Woman.

“As Christians we believe we are all created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). Yet, all over the world, women, men and children are forced daily into labor, prostitution, cybersex/pornography, arms and drug trade and other forms of exploitation that assault and degrade our humanity. They are treated as objects, deceived, raped, often sold many times for different purposes.

The term for all these crimes is human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery, which affects an estimated 27 million victims, many of whom are poor and helpless Filipinos. It is a $32 billion annual global enterprise, the second most profitable criminal enterprise after the arms trade with agents operating wherever they can, maybe even in our own neighborhood.

So grievous is this scourge that Pope Francis has called it a ‘crime against humanity’ and has called upon all men and women of faith and good will to fight with all their strength in defense of human dignity and the sacredness of life. To this call we must now respond with all our minds and hearts.

In the spirit of hope and longing during this Advent season and in solidarity with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, all Masses in the Philippines today (yesterday, Sunday, December 14, 2014) will be offered for all the victims of human trafficking throughout the world. With the intention of this Advent Sunday Mass, we hope to raise the people’s awareness of this grave evil in order to help its victims, prevent potential victims from being deceived by false promises and convert the traffickers away from their life of crime and sin into more productive lives

The time for us to act is now.”

This is indeed a very timely and necessary appeal. In fact we should not only set aside one day to pray for these victims of crime against humanity. We should remember them in our daily prayers year in and year out and, if we can, help in disseminating information to our fellow Filipinos especially the OFWs who may unknowingly and involuntarily fall prey to this nefarious human activities. Indeed there are already many overseas Filipino workers who have been sentenced to death for acting as “drug mules” because they are just victims of circumstances or un-aware that their actions are so heinousness as to merit the penalty of death in other countries like China, Singapore and the other Middle East countries.

Hopefully OWWA has already taken steps to protect and prevent OFWs from this scourge.

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