The Leaves must fall

Title

Creator

Gatmaitan, Jose S.

Language

English

Year

1964

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

The Leaves Must Fall By JOSE S. GATMAITAN Malolos Lodge No. 46, F. & A. AA. Our modern mind is directed to the emphisis on youth, a movement which gathers momentum every day in our national life. In fact, thc welfare of youth is always the talk in the home, in thc classroom and in the pulpit. Today, men seem to desire welfare, not virtue nor know ledge ami neither justice nor wel fare is the key word of our time — the principal object of government — indeed of all society, especially the youths: they must get what they want — not what they ought to have. It is tragic to learn that welfare is usually defined in material terms -- for happiness and money become important not because it has value to purchase but because it gives the possessor a sense ol power that he must be worth something, since he has something of worth. In our green years, the desire for possession continues until in our disturbing age it becomes a passion and that desire is shown in the excesses of youth until a substitute is sought in thc unli mited desire for things. Money then becomes thc scale and measure of everything. It determines the worth of every man rather than his virtue even after his flesh becomes jaded and man, ii short of cash, be comes low in everybody's expectation inspite of his sublimest dedication to truth — it is not uncommon to hear nowadays that "the heart of the modern man points not to eternal hills, but to golden mountains". Wealth becomes a kind of god and therefore an object of worship. Bui when a man begins to know himsell and be of his senses — when reality confronts him without the mask it was in youth — lie will no doubt use that wealth for charity, a noble purpose, as an exchange for spiritual and heavenly reward. He then be comes a moral man for his acts will be in accord with the laws and cus toms of society and his manners and morals will reach a peak of refinement that serves as the ac cepted standard of behaviour these days. It is not strange that the President c l thc United States takes his oath upon the Bible for that great nation was founded upon the fervor and zeal of religious faith — the spirit which drove the first pilgrims to Jamestown and those founding fa thers were imbued not lor thc pur pose of material wealth but with a burning faith in God. They were convinced of the truth that God go verns the allairs of men for if that was not the case, those early Ameri cans would not have succeeded bet ter in their settlement “than the builders of Babel’’. Molested of their religions freedom and victims of op pression, they felt that the terrors of the wilderness were nothing com pared to the persecutions they had experienced in the Old World. Such June 1964 407 beautiful conduct lias grown histori cally on a religious soil in the mo rality of justice, of honesty and re gard for and respect of the right of others. To them, experience was, indeed, a great teacher. One's limitation is always an oc tassion for sorrow when we see that not all dreams and hopes come true though for a generation we have been emphasizing materials for our wel fare. We began to realize that now is the lime for our bidding. You may ascend mountains, descend valleys, enter legislative halls and listen to judicial proceedings but your search for gold is in vain until you enter a church to hear the soul-elevating and soul-searching gospel — "laith in God”. Faith is not something we stumble upon by accident. It is i lie projection of reason beyond the limits of our knowledge and.-believ ing God at His word. What good is it to be wealthy and with all the material things we have, if we are spiritually bankrupt? That. I be licve, is not happiness. Youth, manhood and age! These are the three stages we bear in life. Youth seeks forward in hope, ex pectation and promise when life is brightly colored and bubbles like pink champagne. Manhood grieves over reality of what life will be when the arts flourished in an atmosphere of fastidious taste. Age matures in the shabbiness of customs when one sees "the tinsel instead of gold” and when you can no longer see beauty upon “conception of Orpheus” and the time when every breath in life should be done in the strictest pro tocol; when one sticks to his stern code to thc end although not every body’s taste is that fastidious. There is no guarranty that we will not pass these stages but if we ever pass on them, then there shall we be re vealed as we stand naked before God. If we are not dressed with virtue, we will feel ashame as Adam and Eve felt when they hid after their sin and "as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," then we must confess our spiritual failure with a deep genuine repen tance that we may be forgiven for God does not allow Himself to be challenged with impunity. The leaves must fall as the years of splendor will, in due time, be gone. Where are the Hapsburgs, the Romanoffs and the Bourbons now when only half a century ago their faces were very dominant in the socials of Europe as its lamous rulers? Men must search for a creed to believe, a song to sing and a leader to follow as we recall their charms and pageantry and the fate ful forces that drove them to their end. To those rulers, that was their good fortune although caused by the sin of thc age. Let us be humble as God is even at the end of the day of our life. There is no vinous man who has not some vice, no bad man who has not some virtue. No body but us can plead for our case and we can not say we were not in our right minds when we did wrong, it will only be the voice of cons cience which will reveal us what we really are and it is not us who will vote for and decide our own des tiny. May we not be like that preten tious Spaniard, a self-ordained “Cointnandante” and “Caballero del Orden de Santiago”, who, said a noted historian in 1663, while taking his ease and smoking a cigar on a bench in Bagumpayan met Don Diego de Salcedo, the governor-general who Turn to p«S» 421 408 LIGHT. . THE LEAVES. . (From page 408) bor; they were also taught to hate their enemy. But the love Jesus taught and practiced is "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray lor them which despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:1-1). This is a very hard teaching because people have been used to "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” and secondly, this is a new teaching and people are not open to new teach ings. Thirdly, people say, (even among Christians who may be Ma sons) they are still human, so they have to retaliate. When Jesus was persecuted and was subjected to niativ humiliations, instead of retali ating, he said, "Father, forgive them; lor they know not what they do,” Previous to his persecutions, he taught us to pray, "Forgive us our sins (debts), as we forgive those who have committed sins against us." It is the hard things and the new ones, particularly this new teaching of Jesus concerning love that makes this world of ours better. One whose love has no bounds, no limitations, ami complies with this new teathing becomes the child of God. As a child he inherits His blessings — His Kingdom of peace and love and the security of eternal life. Jesus challenges us to make use ol the light we received Irom the Father. Any good thing that we acquire if we do not make use of it will deteriorate. The light of the Scriptures is impar led to us lor good — to make men love each other, to hasten the coming ol the Kingdom of God in the world. We are challenged to make use ol this opportunity here and now while we have all the Iacilities, the matetials and all the limes we need be cause time will come when we shall be no mote. was walking alone incognito and dressed only in the rough garb of a mariner was confronted by him with tile tank he (governor-general) held, distinctions of rank were sharp in those days. When the gallant but humble governor-general replied that he was neither a simple alferez, a capitan, a com inandante, a general or a maestro de campo, the said Spaniard was quick on his feet and throwing away his cigar, saluted and exclaimed, “Pardon me, you must be his Excellency, himself". Salcedo, standing erect and unim pressed, said "Sir, you possess none cd our Castilian courtesy and God Almighty and the king together can not make you a gentleman, Good day”. Such words are full of sense as they came from the wrinkles of age and what one learned in youth endures like the engraving upon a rock. And may 1 add — Be your true self, not the self you think you are lor the leaves must fall like the house ol cards notwithstanding the good iife — spacious, opulent and unhuri ied. But such should not be a source of contempt and neither of hatred for the descendants of that haughty Spaniard unwittingly di iccted the course of religious his tory, as an ancient Spanish historian, Amador de los Rios, said "ten tribes ol Israel who settled at Toledo built the most beautiful synagogue, the Great Aljame that had been theirs since the Temple of Solomon” — a dazzling climax reached by Spain s royal splendor of the age long be fore our evangelization by her jarly conquistadores who, centuries later, in our state of darkness brought us "the first light” — “la primera luz” in Freemasonry. June 1964 421

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