When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ Luke 21:5-6

Not too long ago, I used to start almost every reflection with the phrase, “sitting on the steps of the Cathedral”. I hardly mention it now. At times we even completely forget that we used to wait for our children there. We are still in close vicinity of the Cathedral. Despite its towering, it is easy to forget its existence. All these years, we have never seen a representative from the Cathedral reach out to the homeless. There are at least a thousand who sleep outside its doors. Actually, there was someone who did approach them once. It was not a priest but rather a transitional deacon who came out to chat with the homeless. He was not even a Brazilian but a Vietnamese. He hardly spoke the language. Nevertheless, he was well received by the homeless. The language did not hinder his love. Then he was gone. I am sure he is somewhere else doing exactly what he attempted to do on the steps of the Cathedral. Beside this young deacon, we hardly see any priest or religious orders associated with the Cathedral interacting with the homeless.

Despite these discrepancies, I like the Cathedral. I would be horrified if someone told me that one day it would be destroyed. Once someone vandalized the walls and it disturbed us. On another occasion, we heard an overzealous evangelical Christian pray for the destruction of the Cathedral. One needs to understand the mutual animosity between the Roman Catholic and Neo-pentecostal Christians in this country where one considers the other a demonic force. I do not remember much of her prayer except this one particular thing. I guess the rest was irrelevant after such a devastating statement. This cannot to be compared to horror which the apostles would have sensed when Jesus told them about the Temple. For starters, there was only one Temple and it was the symbol of their identity and unique vocation in the world. Jesus claimed that it would be totally destroyed. Unlike our over enthusiastic evangelical acquaintance, He did not harbor any animosity towards the Temple. He merely stated the fact, not to shock nor frighten his disciples. No doubt He wanted to warn them not to be impressed with the wrong things. Symbols as powerful and wonderful as they, after all, are mere symbols but not to be confused with the real thing.

Perhaps some might read about the Cathedral and feel a tinge of sadness in their souls. Yes, it is tragic that something which represents the presence of the living God is not itself a channel of that love to those just outside its doors. At the same time, it should not surprise us. Nothing in this world lasts forever. Good intentions eventually wither away too. Nature reveals to us that everything eventually deteriorates and eventually they just die and decompose. Besides, symbols of God’s action in this world cannot contain the infinity of God’s love. Even though this does not seem to stop us from trying to restrict God’s actions and power within the framework of our created symbols. The Cathedral was built to reflect God’s majestic presence in this world. Instead, it has become a place for the princes and nobility of modern times to celebrate their special events. Jesus does not need an overpowering symbol to assert His presence. He is present in a quiet and unassuming manner.

In our case, He is just outside the entrance of the Cathedral.

The problem is that it is not always easy to identify His presence outside the designated religious symbols. Consequently when these are taken away from us, we tend to feel that it is the end of the world. We think God has abandoned us. Without a doubt, there is much darkness in the world and the absence of symbols of light might drive us to despair. For some reason, darkness always seem to dominate our imagination. Maybe it is because we are discipled to be sensitive to it. We are constantly bombarded with news of the darkness in the world. Sometimes we talk about it when all other superficial subjects have been exhausted. Every time two or three are gathered, they always talk about how the world is going to h…. It seems like we only reflect about God’s goodness in the confines of our “temple”. However, all temples eventually fall apart and we need to be prepare ourselves to recognize God’s presence beyond our religious symbols.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6:22

We are going through a dark period in this country. It has been happening for some time now. There is surge of crime and violence. Just yesterday, we saw three separate acts of violence within ten minutes. This is disturbing in itself but what makes it worse is that the perpetrators are known to us. The victims are just regular hardworking people who hardly earn enough to survive. The cruelty and callousness of these actions brought much despair and a sense of hopelessness to our souls. Ironically, all this happened right by the side entrance of the cathedral with their security staff watching the incidents and yet doing nothing about it. This in itself is symbolic of the present state of things. This is the reality.

I have to admit that whenever I see any acts of violence, my heart is filled with disgust and rage. We have witnessed these unfortunate incidents many times and yet it still disturbs us to the core. I realize that my reactions are natural. However, if I allow them to strive in me, then I am merely perpetuating this culture of cruelty and violence which is also very natural to humanity. I would become salt that has lost its saltiness. I cannot abide by my natural instincts. I cannot feed my natural tendencies with thoughts of hatred and revenge. I need to rise beyond my human nature. The only clear example we have is in the person of Jesus.

Despite all the darkness around us, Jesus has called us to see the Light. It is a different way of looking at life. It does not avoid the difficult and cruel nature of life. He invites to look at it with a different perspective. He wants to use our eyes to seek His Love but not be impressed with the darkness.

Just before we witnessed these heinous crimes, we gave one of the older youth a gift for his birthday. It was really nothing much. It was two cans of his favorite soda and two chocolate truffles. Things that he really loved. He was one of those who decided that he was not going to engage in criminal act and not even beg. He lives entirely on donations and sometimes scavenges things for recycling. Therefore, he cannot afford to indulge in these simple pleasures. He was so happy and he said jokingly to the other kids, “These are my true friends.” The rest laughed. Even though it was said in jest, he meant it. Later on, after the incident, he was with us and brought us to another location so we would not be witnessing more scenes of violence.

Last night, my mind was occupied by the sad scene we witnessed but today I realized that we have many images of Light which we saw in the lives of these children and teens. They live in a world surrounded by darkness but the Light is present among them. The birthday boy was one of them. He is not, by any means, a saint. At the same, none of us are. All of us need to deal with our imperfections. However, the gospel draws our attention not these things but to the presence of the everlasting Light guiding and revealing to them how to live their lives in a better way through following the example of our Lord Jesus.

The world might fall apart. It is quite discouraging. However, Jesus invites to not to be impressed with the darkness around us. We are called to seek the Light in the midst of our darkness. Only then can we become the salt and light of this world.