Luke 21:5-19, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

I had my routine blood test last Tuesday at our Health-Development Office on campus. When it was time to pay, the kind lady said, “Father, charge to Arrupe House po?” Sabi ko: “Lagay n’yo po ‘jan: charge to Zaldy Co po.” She and the nurses hanging around laughed. Then, right after the laughter, we all sighed simultaneously, which we found even funnier. Sabay-sabay kaming napabuntong-hininga.

 In today’s Gospel, people were speaking about “how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings.” History really chronicles the sheer magnificence of the Temple of Jerusalem. Its façade was made of pure white marble and gold. When the sun hit it, it blazed so brightly that people had to avert their eyes. That was from up close. From a distance, the building was so resplendent, it looked like a snow-covered mountain. And that was just the façade. The Temple gate, the doors, the sacred interior, all were nothing short of staggering. Inside and out, it was a monument of incomparable splendor fit only for God’s overwhelming power and majesty. In other words, it was breathtaking. Nakakabuntong-hininga.

Sadly, there was a dark side. The Temple was maggoty with politics and corruption. High priest Annas and his son-in-law successor Caiaphas? They were known as “hoarders of money.” The mag-ama were actually responsible for turning “the Father’s house into a marketplace,” renting out the Temple grounds to negosyantes: money-changers and animal vendors. Of course, the negosyantes inflated the prices since they needed to pay rent to the priests. Furthermore, when poor people brought animal sacrifices from home, the priests were known to reject them and required the pilgrims to buy the “official” animals from the Temple negosyantes. Finally, the choice of priests who ran the Temple? It wasn’t based on religious merit but on palakasan.

So, while Jesus listened to the people marvel at the Temple, baka napabuntong-hininga rin siya. For a much different reason. “All that you see here,” he said, “the days will come when not one stone will be left on top of another stone that will not be thrown down.” At nagkatotoo. Less than 40 years after his Ascension, the Romans thundered in and obliterated the Temple. They torched the whole place. The fire melted all the gold and silver. And the soldiers tore out all the jewels from the stones, really “leaving no stone on top of another,” literally. To this day, the Temple is no more.

Those mansions we now know aren’t dwelled in by people, but are actually bodegas of “basura” for the hoarders of money, those imported cars costing for what can build small houses, that diamond ring adorning one finger of a nepo-wife—think of all that and more, billions more besides– mapapabuntong-hininga talaga tayo. Then, remember sons and fathers salvaging what’s left of their shacks after the earthquake. And remember when Tino and Uwan raged, mothers and children shivered atop roofs. And did you see the floating dead child lovingly recovered by rescuers? Remember these and more besides, thousands more. Mapapabuntong-hininga rin po tayo.

Seeing the poor who have next-to-nothing, on one side of our reality, and on the other, the wealthy but corrupt who steal from the poor, I cannot help but wish for the same thing to happen as we read from Prophet Malachi: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble. And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

I read somewhere, sisters and brothers, that sighing, pagbubuntong-hininga, is vital to our health. We sigh when we behold magnificence. We also sigh when we feel helpless. We actually sigh every five minutes even for no reason. Because physiologically, if we stop sighing, our lungs fail. We run out of oxygenated blood. We run out of breath.

So, every buntong-hininga is like a small resurrection, sisters and brothers. We sigh because we refuse to be suffocated by darkness and emptiness. When we sigh, we breathe in more than what we find bearable, para hindi tayo maubusan ng hininga, para hindi tigilan ng ating puso. At mabuti ‘yon kasi marami pa po tayong kailangang ipaglaban. When we sigh, it’s not because we’re giving up. No, we’re storing up wind and fire, power and strength, especially against people who try to obliterate us by their breathtaking corruption, their unbelievable greed.

May the Spirit keep breathing into us the breath of life, sisters and brothers. May he keep us blazing with righteous anger, so we never for a moment avert our eyes from demanding and fighting for justice. If we who are comfortable cannot do this for ourselves, we have sisters and brothers just trying to survive who depend on us to be their voices. They do not need Temples, jewels, mansions, shiny cars, and diamond rings. They don’t actually ask for much. They just want to keep their loved ones breathing. Kaya mga kapatid, hinga ng malalim. And may the Lord come to rule the Philippines with justice.

*image from the Internet