November 4 2007
Ms. Jeniffer S. Francisco
" Sapagkat Kami'y Tao Lamang" is a song about our human condition. While it acknowledges the moral primacy of conscience. ( Kahit Diyos na ang may Utos ), it also humbly accepts our human powerlessness over the dictates of our feelings and emotions. ( Damdaman din ang siyang Nasusunod ). However the song can be made to sound like an act of surrender to our human weakness, an act of despair or even over the impotence of man to transcend himself. ( O, kay saklap ng Buhay! )
The human condition is not really as bleak and bitter as the song would want as to believe. If there are bleak and bitter cases of human misery, depravity, and other over publicized symbols of man's surrender to his weak and fallen human nature, there are also brave and beautiful cases of human achievements, virtue and a thousand other unpublicized symbols of man's triumphs over human weakness. But it is often our weak and defeated side that we seem to want to glamorize- the unfaithful husband, the wayward wife, the prostitute, the bandit, the married priest - and we try to get the audience to shed a tear, hero- worship, and even emu-emulate them for " being human " Sapagkat sila'y Tao Lamang ).
We don't seem to realize that being truly human is to proudly accept the fact that we have the power to become the best thing in all creation precisely because it is the human person, and no other, that God created in his own image ( Gen 2 ). To belittle this fact is to say that man is only an animal, and that human society is a society of animals that look like men, and men who look like animals. If this is what we call " Human condition," then sapagkat kami'y tao lamang which means to reject the capacity of man to rise above his human condition, is not a love song but a dirge.
But man is not tao lamang ( Only Human ) in the sense that he must always succumb as a rule to his baser nature. Man is tao, yes, and he is proud of it because being tao ( Human ) means being Lord, not the slave, of God's creation. He can be a slave if he wants to- slave to money, power and his body- but then, being a slave means being less human.
Sapagkat Kami'y Tao Lamang, therefore should never be used as an excuse for irresponsibility. Instead,it should be taken as a humble acceptance of the fact that man alone ( tao lamang ), without his God, is bound to fail. " Without me, " Christ said, " you can do nothing" ( John 15:5 ). for being merely human can be a boringly close- ended existence. It begins today and ends tomorrow. Everything merely human exhaust itself, and even our most exciting human experience of fulfillment leaves behind and after taste of sadness. And yet the human heart reaches out for some more as if it is made to be happy with what is here and now. And if it does not find it anywhere, it cries out, " O,kay sklap ng buhay."
But this is what it feels to be merely human precisely because being such means being alone without the consciousness of an in exhaustible presence. This presence is what the easter experience is all about. It puts man in the context of a constant living presence which makes him shout with joy, " Hindi na ako tao lamang sapagkat ang Diyos ay kasama ko." ( I am no longer merely human because God is with me ). This "theological" reflection on the song may sound irrelevant to those who do not believe, but those who believe know that it is true because they see it alive in stable and happy marriages, in joyous and meaningful celibate lives, in honest and committed public service, in beautiful and lasting friendship. These serve as symbols of the human possibility of being man-alone and yet also being- with- someone to a point were one can say with conviction, " see, if I can do it, you can do it, sapagkat tayo'y tao nga pero hindi tao lamang!"
Fr. Ruben J. Villote, Sapagkat Kami'y Tao Lamang? and other Filipino christian reflections ( Manila: communication Foundation for Asia, 1980 ),pp. 5-7
Textual Analysis
I agree with Fr. Ruben J. Villote that the song Sapagkat kami'y tao lamang is man's surrender to his human frailties or weaknesses. Beings must be judged not only to their origins but also as to their ends, it is now time for us to look into the end of man. Is he just a forlorn leaf tossed about by uncaring winds? Is he just a biological accident with nowhere to go? If the impetus for life's beginning comes from someone bigger than man, then its directions and terminus must be relevant, If we believed that we are God's masterpiece then all life is cut out determinately toward an end, which is the fullness of being. this stems from the only tree realities of life, Truth, and Love, realities which converge in the reality of the absolute thou. Man's end is God. Man seeks God because God is good. every activity, scientific or artistic, academic or technical, has for its purpose the realization and attainment of something good. It is possible for man to mistake what is good for him, but it is quite impossible for him not to desire that which is good. But the human intellect does not always comprehend what is true, and the will, weakened as it is by human frailties, does not always desire what is really good. too often he yearns only for imperfect goods of this earth: The money, The glitter, The prestige, The power, all like secondhand objects, when he could have the "real thing," these ( thought not all the time ) and the sum mun Bonum or God.
Good maybe imperfect, that is, that which can satisfy limitedly the different powers of a human being. It maybe perfect, that is, that which can satisfy completely and without end the totality of a human being. as there is only one absolute last end, so there is only one perfect Good-GOD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment