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Death speaks

“By means of his faith Abel still speaks,
even though he is dead” — Hebrews 11:4b

Death of Martyrs

As we celebrate the day for our departed loved ones, we remember the lives of God’s servants who were brutally murdered this year for championing the rights of the poor and oppressed. Certainly, their names were added to a long list of heroes and martyrs of the Christian faith.

On March 13, 2005, after celebrating mass in a local mission chapel, Fr. William Tadena of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente left for his next mass schedule in La Paz, Tarlac. He was with his sacristan Charlie Gabriel, his guitarist Carlos Barsolazo and his parish secretary Ervina Domingo when ambushed by two unidentified men riding on a motorcycle. Fr. Tadena died on the spot with bullets hitting his back, nape and head while his three companions were seriously injured.

Fr. Tadena found meaning in his priestly vocation particularly in his consistent and steadfast defense of the homeless and the underprivileged, like the workers of Hacienda Luisita. He was a staunch advocate of workers’ rights. He visited every house in his parish seeking the support of his parishioners for the striking workers in the hacienda. For his fearless advocacy, the military tagged him as an NPA supporter, but he was not easily cowed and continued his prophetic witness although he knew that he was a marked man.

Then, in the evening of May 11, 2005, Rev. Edison Lapuz of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines based in Leyte was also brutally murdered. Two unidentified men approached him while he was resting at home together with his family and relatives who came from the burial of his father-in-law. One of them shot Rev. Lapuz twice, hitting him in the temple and in the stomach. He died on the spot. Alfredo Malinao, a peasant leader who was with the group sustained a gunshot wound in the chest and expired later.

The pastoral vocation of Rev. Lapuz brought him to the marginalized sectors of our society. He consistently believed that the church should be a living witness to the Gospel as it confronts the reality of people’s sufferings. He identified himself not with the powerful politicians but with the powerless and the victims of injustice. This somehow caught the ire of the economic and political elite in his community.

And then, on August 20, 2005, Pastor Raul Domingo of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines based in Palawan, was also shot on his way home by a man riding tandem on a motorcycle. Two bullets from a Caliber 45 entered his back, shattering his spinal cord and damaging his liver. He was paralyzed and comatose for two weeks and died later.

Pastor Domingo chose to cast his lot with the victims of human rights violations in Palawan. Thus, he was fair game to the AFP, PNP and their minions. He trod where angels feared to tread. He insisted that his actions proceeded from his faith that God made humanity in his image and does not allow it to be violated. He believed that justice is of God and that his work among the marginalized was propelled by his strong sense of Christian discipleship.

Now, what is common among these three aforementioned servants of God is the fact that they tried to live out their faith in the struggles of the people whom they committed to serve in obedience to Christ. And consequently, they met their brutal death, like Christ their Lord and Savior. They could have remained safe and secured within the four walls of the church. However, by doing that they would not have been faithful to the crucified Christ.

Tale of Two Brothers

In the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, the writer begins a list of distinguished servants of God with the name of Abel. The story of Abel and his brother Cain, is found in Genesis 4:1-15. As it stands, it is a very mysterious story. According to the story, Cain tilled the ground and brought to God an offering of the fruits of the ground. Abel, on the other hand, was taking care of the sheep, and he brought to God an offering from his flock. Apparently, God preferred Abel’s gift to that of Cain. And Cain, moved to bitter jealousy, murdered his own brother and became an outcast upon the earth.

In the original story, the meaning is very difficult to understand. For instance, there is no indication why God preferred Abel’s gift to that of Cain. It seems quite arbitrary; and there seems little reason or justice in this strange story.

It could be that the meaning of the story is that the only offering a person could bring to God is the offering of the most precious that life supplies. And there is no more precious than life itself. To the Hebrews, blood always stood for life. The life is the blood, and the blood is the life. This is not difficult to understand because when the blood flows away, life also ebbs away.

Therefore, the only true sacrifice to God, in those primitive days, was a sacrifice of blood, because blood is life, the most precious thing that we have. Abel’s sacrifice was a living creature; Cain’s sacrifice was not. And therefore, Abel’s sacrifice was the more acceptable one.

The Jews had a very interesting story to explain the first murder. According to the story, Cain and Abel could not agree as to what they should possess. So Abel devised a scheme whereby they might divide everything and bring an end to contention. Cain took the earth and everything that is stationary; Abel, on the other hand, took everything that is movable.

But in Cain’s heart, there was still bitter envy. One day he said to his brother Abel, “Remove your foot; you are standing on my property; the plain is mine!” And so, Abel run to the hills, but Cain pursued him, saying, “The hills are mine!” Abel took refuge on the mountains, but Cain still pursued him, saying, “The mountains, too, are mine!” And so, in his envy, he hunted his brother until he killed him.

Lessons to Learn

Now, there are at least two lessons we could learn from this story. Firstly, behind the whole thing is envy. Even the ancient Greeks saw the horror of envy. There was a Greek proverb saying, “Envy has no place in the choir of God.” Envy leads to bitterness; bitterness leads to hatred; and hatred leads to murder. Envy is like a drop of poison that can poison all life, and kill all goodness in a human person.

Secondly, there is a strange thought in this story. Up to Cain’s time, there had been no such thing as murder. Cain had introduced that kind of sin into the world. There is condemnation for the sinner, but there is still greater condemnation for the person who teaches “one of the little ones to stumble”, a person who introduces some sin into an innocent life. Such a person, even as Cain was, is banished from the face of God.

And so the Writer of the Book of Hebrews says, “By means of his faith, Abel still speaks, even though he is dead” (Heb.11:4b). A writer onetime said, “Death is never the last word in the life of a righteous man.” When a person leaves this world, he leaves something in it. He leaves an influence of good or evil; he leaves an example of goodness or of sin. Every one of us, when we die, still speaks. And so, may God grant us to leave behind, not the germ of evil, but the lovely thing in which the lives of those who would come afterwards will find their blessing.

The life and death of Abel, of Fr. Tadena, Rev. Lapuz, and Pastor Domingo have a strong message for us. It is telling us that we must do something to stop the killing of Filipinos by fellow Filipinos, the killing of a brother by his own brother. We have to go beyond the military solution in resolving conflicts prevailing in our land.

We have to deal with the root cause of conflicts. For we are not after the victory of an armed group over another, but we are after the well being of our masses of people. We have to follow the path of peace even in our search for genuine and lasting peace in our land. If we can do this, then we can say that those heroes and martyrs of the faith who died in the continuing struggles for peace have not really died in vain. #

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