Virus vivifies virtue

“…Megsuweldu na kami…malati mu, pero I would like to share a part of my salary…not a big amount pero bisa ku makasaup maski malati mu…”

It never fails for tears to well up, the eyes coming over messages such as this one in the web, evoking the supernatural grace of the Widow’s Mites in Luke 21:1-4, to wit:

“And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

What little they have, they still choose to share with those with even lesser or have none at all. It could only be agape – unconditional love, seeking no reciprocity, love at its purest. Indeed, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

Wonder now how much love was put in those measly individual packs of a lonesome boiled banana paired with a solitary hardboiled egg “from Senators Manny & Cynthia Villar, Congw. Camille Villar.”

Of course, subscribe we do to Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Still, God forgive, can’t help to see nothing there but some cheap cheer.  

Out of the abundance in being Forbes 2019’s top Filipino billionaire: isang itlog, isang saging! Now, could there lurk some unfathomable message? As in that so great a philosophical truth that it found revelation only in, of all milieu, some forgettable Mark Lapid starrer: “Sa lahat ng puno, tandaan ninyo: saging lang ang may puso.”

At least, it cannot be said that the Villars politicized their relief package. For all its worth – whether in love or in price – it surely will not win a single vote even in a barangay poll.

Cry politics – and fake news too – so did Sen. Bong Go over posts on social media which showed boxes of donated medical goods bearing his name.

The boxes were labeled “400 pieces surgical mask” and addressed to a hospital in Bacoor City, Cavite. The label also had the words: “From Senator Bong Go thru Lucio Tan Group of Companies and PMFTC, Inc.”

"Gusto [nilang] siraan kami and they want to distract us para alam niyo... Ayaw nila tumulong po kami, by spreading fake news,” rued Go.

Coming to the senator’s instant succor, the LT Group, Inc. clarified: “Due to numerous requests for assistance we have received, we have asked the guidance from the Office of Senator Bong Go … in identifying beneficiaries which in this instance, are the medical front-liners in Cavite…It is unfortunate that some quarters are misconstruing Sen. Go’s advice due to labels on the packaging which the Senator has no knowledge of.”

Unfortunately, whatever misconstruing obtaining from their donation, the LT Group failed to straighten out – the apparent reversal of roles: “from” Go – construed as whence the donation came; “thru” Lucio Tan Group – indicative of the channel by which the donation was delivered.  

At least, it cannot be (mis)construed that the novato senator is not in the thick of the fight against the pandemic. Unlike many of his peers that merited an acrid call-out from Manila’s Yor-me Isko No-more: "Mga senador, 24 lang kayo, mga sekretaryo, mga pulitikong katulad ko. Ngayon niyo pakita, ngayon natin ipakita, ipakita niyo ang pagmamahal niyo sa Pilipino."

Instantly drawing a retort in the social media of hospital posted pictures of donations of personal protective equipment and test kits to St. Luke’s and to Batangas health workers, captioned: “Yes, pero tahimik lang para mas bukal sa loob at walang agenda o motibo,” and bearing the benign likeness of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.

Matthew 6:3-4 coming to pass there: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Indeed, amid the Covid-19 pandemic is a profusion of charity not simply recorded but celebrated in social media. So celebrated that it gave rise to questions as to their real intent, to doubts as to their true nature. Hence, where meanings lie – in at least two meanings of the word – motives are magnified.  

Generally so, in the case of government officials engaged in relief-giving, the coming election their overbearing motivation so obvious in their names and faces emblazoned in the relief bags.

Why, even Gapan City Mayor Emeng Pascual's extraordinary conduct – way above par of the LGUs’ usual 5 kilos of rice, 3 tins of sardines, and 2 cup noodles – in giving relief to his constituents – from sacks of rice and live chickens to a choice of cooked viands per household – was not spared of being tagged as “relief in aid of re-election.” 

Covered as it was in mainstream media, and duly posted in the social media.

Thus, Matthew anew, at 6:2: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

But what about the spontaneous, genuine response to the call of Christian charity, so manifest now in both individual actions and collective movements to help, aye, to ease the burden of the embattled frontliners as well as to care for the last and the least, if not the lost, at society’s fringes, they who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus?   

What motives to append, what agenda to pin then to such actions?

Of fashion designers turning from haute couture to the sewing of face masks and PPEs. Of chefs and restaurateurs dishing out their culinary delights for the frontliners. Of families making the home kitchen a community canteen. Of carwash/detailers crafting face shields. Of business firms channeling more than their CSR budgets to this singular effort of fighting Covid-19. Of salarymen and women veritably tithing to donate to organizations birthed precisely to help those in need, be they health workers or the most marginalized in this time of the pandemic. 

Of Lugud Balen or Pamisaupan Kapampangan, indeed.     

Of all things to see, I witness here the supreme irony of the virus vivifying virtue.  

Virtue is its own reward, so trite such truth to have become a truism. So why the need to sound the trumpets, aye, to click the cameras and upload at its every manifestation?

Accountability for one – donor intent upheld; transparency for another – the donations, the collections going where they are most needed. Virtue ethics defined here.   

Hence, virtue need be praised – neither for its own sake nor for the glorification of its possessor – but for the edification of others. Praying that the others be themselves infused, aye, in keeping with the times, inoculated with virtue.     

(Facebook photos. Credit to the owners)