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Culture of chance, enchantment, Ash Wed.


By Fr. Sid T. Marinay
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:47:00 02/25/2009

Filed Under: Casinos & Gambling, Churches (organisations), Religion & Belief


MANILA, Philippines—Four years ago, my cousin’s wife, Marie (not her real name), lost all the dollars and euros her husband earned when he worked as a seaman abroad for two years to the notorious Budol-budol Gang.

Marie gave in without the slightest resistance to the gang members. She said they had “hypnotized” her into parting with her valuables. When she came to, the men had gone and the “fortune” promised her turned out to be useless sheets of paper stashed inside a big bag.

A man had engaged her in small talk as soon as she alighted from a bus on Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong City, recalled Marie.

She does not remember what they talked about, but soon enough found herself joining a group inside a van and drinking a glass of water offered to her.

She had no idea how the gang ended up in her house in Bulacan where they took all the hard-earned money her husband had intended to pay for their dream house and for their children’s tuition.

Marie had voluntarily surrendered her husband’s savings, jewelry and cellular phones to the gang in exchange for “a big sum of money” stuffed in a black bag.

The realization that she was swindled, was, to say the least, a terrible realization for Marie who had fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the world. She took a chance on an instant get-rich scheme and, predictably, lost.

Value of hard work

The pervading culture of chance in our society, which, at its very core is fatalistic, makes many people vulnerable to swindling, manipulation and addicted to gambling their lives away. It is associated with wishful thinking and acquiring wealth without having to work hard.

The newspapers and television newscasts are full of stories of an increase in the sale of lotto tickets and a rise in the number of people who lose their jobs every day. There could be a correlation.

Gambling has greatly diminished the value of hard work and industry. To surmount this cultural malaise requires the collaboration, not the separation, of Church and State. Right now, while the Church has launched an antigambling campaign, the State masks it with legalese.

In Pampanga province, for example, the government is into small-town lottery (STL), which appears to be the legal version of “jueteng.”

Shielding gambling

For it to be able to serve the common good, the State must not take advantage of the people’s vulnerability. Providing a shield or “protection” to gambling for more government revenues by legal means, enhances the culture of chance, and is tantamount to building a nation on shaky ground. That nation crumbles like a cookie and turns into ashes in the face of a storm.

A nation with a vision knows exactly where to go and how to get there. A nation that is fatalistic does not have a clear direction and knows not where it is going.

Education

In a society where so many people are fatalistic, the State, in secular terms, can serve its constituents better by promoting cultural values through education.

On the other hand, the Church, in religious terms, can serve its flock by promoting values found in the Gospels. By joining forces, education and evangelization can cleanse our society of its primitive elements.

Pre-modern or primitive society is characterized by a deep fondness for games of chance, luck, and enchantment, or a fascination for what is hidden and magical. Enchantment perpetuates the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane rooted in an ignorance of nature’s secrets.

In a pre-modern society, destiny is looked upon as the handiwork of unknown and unfathomed forces in nature. This comes from not knowing the Christian faith in general, and the lack of knowledge in the social sciences, in particular. The unappealing combination oftentimes results in allowing superstition to thrive.

One of the perennial problems of Philippine society that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines addressed in past pastoral letters is the inequitable distribution of wealth. The presumption, however, is that equitable distribution of wealth would result in the eradication of illiteracy, on whose fertile grounds thrives the culture of chance, luck and enchantment.

Blessed, not lucky

The equitable distribution of wealth requires empowerment through education. For if uneducated people hooked on the culture of chance were to be entrusted with wealth, it is quite probable that they will just squander it away.

While our neighbors in Southeast Asia have entered the modern and even post-modern era, ours still remains in the primitive stage. While they talk about disenchantment, ours is, for the most part, still enchanted. Many remain in the dark thinking of success in terms of meeting Lady Luck, which is why gambling is a very attractive form of entertainment.

Luck and chance are not biblical categories. In the Bible, the term is “blessed,” not “lucky.”

This leads me to the conclusion that Christian values have not yet sunk deeply into our culture. Indeed, the observation of a missionary priest is quite accurate. He said the Philippines is sacramentalized, but not evangelized.

As we celebrate Ash Wednesday today, many Catholics fill our churches. I wonder what goes on in their heads when the priest, ashes in hand, makes the sign of the cross on their foreheads.

Enchanted world

Ash Wednesday is a time for repentance, symbolized by the ashes. It is a time for conversion, a change of heart, or in secular terms, a transformation. To be able to face the challenges of a constantly changing world, we must be able to undergo an unending series of changes.

The essence of Ash Wednesday must be clearly understood by Catholics, or else it will just perpetuate a ritual of enchantment in this enchanted world of fatalistic people.

Understanding is symbolized by the light, that is also interpreted to mean life, goodness, truth, forgiveness, love, happiness, truth, vision and beauty.

In the Old Testament, God created light first. Jesus, the son of God, is depicted as the true light in the New Testament.

Church and State

The State must continue to educate to be able to cleanse our society of its primitive elements characterized by the culture of chance. The Church must evangelize to be able to transform enchantment, in the mind of Filipino Catholics, into the paschal mystery—the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

The Church, in its mission of evangelization, must help eradicate the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane.

For, according to Jesus, we must worship not just in Jerusalem but in spirit and truth.

(Editor’s Note: Fr. Marinay is the parish priest of St. Maria Goretti church on UN Avenue in Manila. A former Vicar Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, he is also the author of “The Happy Life of Sin,” a biography of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin.)
 

 


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