Apathetic People

Commentary : Politics, prayer and fasting

Denis Murphy
Inquirer News Service

RALLIES, marches, public relations experts and spin masters can usually be part of political change, but it seems clear this time we need more. Ordinary people are more apathetic than they've ever been in the country's great crises. Few attend the rallies, for or against the government, unless they're paid or pressured by their bosses, for example. A few are angry, but most are just apathetic. Apathy is the political equivalent of the sin against the Holy Spirit, namely despair and loss of hope that are both unforgivable and the end of the road.

An attempt to go beyond the old approaches is the initiative now at the Edsa People Power Monument. It calls for prayer and fasting and asks people to listen to God's voice in their heart, so they will know what to do in the present political turmoil. This effort of prayer begins with two premises: that we haven't listened enough in the past, and we don't know what the solution is now.

Three groups have united to organize the work: Pag-asa (Nicky Perlas), Kapatiran (Nandy Pacheco) and Gomburza (Fr. Robert Reyes, Fr. Raul "Puti" Enriquez and Msgr. Gerry Bitoon). All who join have committed themselves to prayer and fasting for 40 days and to make other sacrifices.

It is not a perfect work by any means. The crowds are small, though the organizers hope they will build up. People say there is too much political talk, as if it is already clear what God wants. Some people complain there is too much talk in general and little help with prayer: how should we pray and how should we know the voice we hear is God's and not our own? The activity is supposed to be for all religions and for people of no religion, but it seems nearly all are Catholic. The organizers are determined to im prove in these matters.

What gives the effort its backbone and charisma is the presence of Father Reyes every day, all day at the monument. He is fasting, taking only fruit juices. On Sunday, July 31, he was on the 22nd day of the fast. "Attention must be paid to this man," to borrow a line from "Death of a Salesman."

Father Robert is my parish priest. I know he has many critics in and out of the priesthood. He has faults, for sure, most of which he readily admits and some of which he still has to face, but we should recognize that he is a special person. Some call him a "prophet." That's a lofty title for someone who often comes to our house to drink beer and talk. We are his parishioners in the Project 4 area of Quezon City.

The People Power Monument is a wonderful place for this mixture of prayer, fasting and politics. Just 50 meters in front of the statue, where the MRT runs now, ordinary citizens stopped the tanks of Ferdinand Marcos. The tanks then broke through the stonewall into a field just south of the statue, now Corinthian Gardens, and waited for further orders. My memory of the whole situation is that it was touch and go: The soldiers were confused and surly and if ordered, I think they would have gone back and finished their journey to Camp Crame.

There is no common political agenda in the group. Everyone is invited: people of contradictory opinions are welcome to come and sit quietly side by side. All religions are welcome.

The fast began on July 3 with a new moon, and for a night or two, Venus was close by. They were two young girls in the night sky, sisters, the older sister watching the younger play, a scene you see often in Manila. The noise of the traffic on the Edsa highway makes it difficult to hear the speakers. If you're meditative or sleepy, however, the traffic roar begins to sound like the "Om" of Buddhist and Hindu mystics.

The fourth night at the monument, the first reading at Mass included the most beautiful lines in the Old Testament: "I have seen the humiliation of my people in Egypt and I hear their cry when they are cruelly treated by their taskmasters. I know their suffering. I have come down to free them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a beautiful spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey." (Exodus 3:8) Madre Filipinas at the top of the statue behind the priest held her hands high in exultation. Her chains, broken now, still hang from her wrists. Such is the magic of the place and people praying for God's liberation and the special hour in the country's history that the words of God to Moses seem spoken again there at the Edsa monument.

Nearly everything remains to be done. People now have a place and an inspired commitment to prayer and fasting as part of a public search for God's will. No one knows what God will reveal. People may find answers to present problems. They may learn in prayer the proper fit between the Gospel and politics for the country, and even the proper fit between the Gospel and the Filipino people. How must the Gospel be preached and how do we pray?

We should be grateful for the work of Gomburza, Pag-asa and Kapatiran.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates.