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Victorious in death

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me will live even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die.’”  — John 11:25

Suffering and Death 

We, church workers, have our own share in the spate of killings under the present administration. We also suffer and die with our people. Last March 9, 2006, two of our pastors in Mindanao were again ambushed along national highway in Barangay Mobod, Oroquieta City.  Rev. Jeremias Aguilo Tinambacan and his wife, Rev. Marilou Lumaya Tinambacan, were traveling from Lopez Jaena going to Oroquieta City aboard their gray-colored Kia van when four suspects riding in motorcycles both with back riders, tailed them and at close range suddenly started shooting.

Rev. Jerry was hit in the head twice and died on the spot.  His wife, Rev. Marilou suffered a non-fatal wound in the forehead and was rushed to the Misamis Occidental Provincial Hospital in Oroquieta City where she remained confined.  Fortunately, Rev. Marilou was able to identify one of the suspects, a certain Mamay Guimalan who was known as a military intelligence, and a resident of Barangay Calaran, Calamba, Misamis Occidental, where the couple are assigned as pastors of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).

What is quite alarming is that Rev. Jerry is already the fifth church leader of the UCCP who has been killed in cold blood these past two years under the Arroyo Administration. And none of the four previous killings has been resolved, although there is the usual declaration of political leaders and military officers that they are giving all-out support to the investigations to be conducted.  The problem, however, is that all the suspects in these killings are connected with the military establishment.    

We denounce in strongest terms what they have been doing to our fellow church workers! We cry and long for justice! But how could we find justice, if those who are supposed to investigate are the ones suspected of committing the dastardly acts?  Could we really find genuine justice in this world?  Do we still have to wait for the Final Judgment to come, wherein all of us will make an account before God of what we have done to our fellow human beings, even things done in secret (cf. Eccl. 12:14)?  Can God intervene now in our history, as God has done in the past, and put a stop to this madness of killing innocent people in the name of the false god of national security being worshipped by our political and military leaders? 

Jesus’ Teachings

How do we comfort ourselves in these trying times? As Christians, we always view death not as defeat but victory.  For not until we look at death victoriously can we learn to live victoriously; and not until we live victoriously can we face death victoriously.  Jesus’ own teachings about life and death are our sources of hope, comfort and consolation.

First of all, Jesus teaches us not to fear those who can destroy the body only.  Rather, we should fear him who can destroy both the soul and the body in hell (cf. Mt. 10:28). We do believe that we are not merely physical beings. According to the Scriptures, God has breathed the breath of life in us, and thus we have become a living soul.  Our soul is our inner life.  It is our sense of what is right, what is just, and what is true.  This is a gift of God that no one could ever destroy.

Perhaps, those who killed Rev. Jerry thought that they could end his ministry for the poor and marginalized if they would kill him. Perhaps, they thought that they could stop him from speaking for what is true and just. But they are seriously mistaken, because they may have killed his body, but they could never kill his soul.  Rev. Jerry may have died physically, but the life he lived will continue to speak to us. What is right, just, and true will continue to surface in the historical horizon and will triumph in the end.  Jesus Christ our Lord said, “Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it”(Mt.10:39).

The problem of our society today is that many of us have no more souls, or as one writer said have damaged souls.  For instance, every election time, we put into power people who do not have the national interest at heart, but people whose ambition is only to amass personal wealth. We applaud leaders who are merely verbose and bombastic rather than truly intelligent; the shrewd and merely clever rather than the wise; the dishonest and corrupt rather than the ones with integrity and mental honesty.  We have become an economically impoverished nation, simply because our souls have been impoverished or seriously damaged, or simply disappeared.

Secondly, Jesus also teaches us that there are some things worse than dying.  He said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but looses his own soul?” (Mt.16:26).  It is bad enough that Rev. Jerry – a man of God who spent his life in speaking for the truth and helping to uplift the lives of the poor and marginalized – was killed in cold blood.  But it is far worse for those who masterminded, planned and executed his killing. 

The loss of Christian virtues and respect for human rights, sacrificing human life for selfish gains, denying the truth for the sake of a lie  - these things are far worse than dying physically.   For the death of our souls is an eternal death

And thirdly, Jesus also teaches us that the quality of life is far more important than the length of life.  According to historians, Jesus started his ministry at the age of thirty, and he ministered to the people of his day for two to three years.  He had never written a book; he had no letters attached to his name.  He never established an empire nor built a mansion for his own.  But of all the politicians who sat in parliaments, of all the generals who won in battles; no one had ever influenced the world like this man of Nazareth, who spent his short life in caring for the poor, the sick and the downtrodden.

Rev. Jerry was only at the middle of his life when the instruments of the state allegedly snuffed it out.  

Science has learned to preserve and lengthen human life.  Modern medicine can cure our bodies of nearly every malady.  It is marvelous, indeed.  We take pride in long life, but what if we have nothing to live for?  Martin Luther King, Jr. onetime said,  “He who doesn’t know the thing he would die for is not fit to live.”  There is no virtue in number of years, if we have not learned how to live.  Quality life is more important than quantity.

Sometimes we actually live more in one day than we do in one month, or more in one hour than we do in an entire day.  Rev. Jerry’s death may be short and tragic.  However, the most tragic death is that of the one who has never learned to live.  When a person dies without friends - that is tragic. When a person dies without having contributed for the good of the world – that is disaster.  When a person dies without having created within a spirit worthy of fellowship with God and his fellowman – that is ultimate failure.

Our life consists not in the things we possess, nor in the abundance of our years, but in the quality of our living. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me will live even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die”(Jn. 11:25).  This is the kind of life that live victoriously even in death.  As one poet says,  ”For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He writes – not that you won or lost – but how you played the game.” #

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