The messiah

“I AM no messiah.”
So was Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio quoted as saying in the newspaper that is prime pimping him for the presidency. This, even as the suspended priest expressed his willingness to “heed the call of the people for a new leader.”
"Changes in Pampanga and the country will take a long, long time and I don't have any delusion of a messiah that I will crush the enemies and I will institute all the changes in a three-year period...that I will bring peace and prosperity, no way."
So Panlilio said to dispel any messianic complex appended to his desire to be Philippine president.
Don Luisito, my seminary elder, was quick to pick on Panlilio’s words and note some rather interesting “slips” there. Even as he picked sparingly on the sumptuous delight laid down on a table at Fortune Seafood resto in the City of San Fernando
“Your compadre speaks from the Judaic tradition, not from a Christian perspective there.”
From suspended priest, Pareng Ed has turned rabbi? So I thought he was just warming up as a Jesus Is Lord fellow.
“Bobo, that’s not it.”
That’s rather heavy, so enlighten me.
“Note his words: ‘a messiah that … will crush the enemies.’ That is the Jewish concept of the messiah, a warrior to defeat all the enemies of the Jews. Hence, the rejection of Jesus Christ as He did not fit their bill for the messiah. Hence, the Jews until now are still awaiting their messiah, beleaguered as they are by enemies from all sides.”
So okay, no shalom in Israel so long as its Arab neighbors cry Allahu akbar!
Back to home base now, at least Panlilio got to clear he has no grand messianic delusions.
“You believe him? For all the nasty things you write about your compadre, he still has a firm hold in your heart of hearts.”
I always give him – as all others – the benefit of the doubt.
“Dispel your doubts. Go into deeper analysis, exegesis, as we say in the seminary, of his words and actions.”
Okay, go on.
“Panlilio says he would run as a ‘last resort.’ That is if there’s no one more competent and willing. So, what do you make of that? He has made himself as the standard upon which all other so-called ‘reform candidates’ are to be measured. Ain’t that messianic?”
No, that comes to me as being sacrificing of Panlilio.
“Sacrificing, you say? As the sacrificial lamb offered in the altar of deliverance which, in the Christian tradition, is the messiah.”
Got me there, Don Luisito.
“The messianic drama of Panlilio is coming into full play, complete with all the requisite characters of a Lenten cenaculo.”
Okay, indulge my fascination. The Holy Week anyway is only a few days away.
“The messiah must suffer. So Panlilio is suffering. Persecuted as he is by his own people. As the crowds that sang hosanna to Jesus on his way to Jerusalem were the same as those that cried ‘Crucify him!’ so Panlilio’s own supporters in his gubernatorial bid were the same as those crying ‘Recall him.’
Caiaphas and the high priests castigated Jesus for breaking the Judaic Law. The bishops suspended Panlilio for disobeying Canon Law.”
Now, now, leave Apu Ceto out of this.
“Bobo, I am just doing an analogy here. Jesus was condemned for saying he would tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days, or some such -- my bible studies sometimes are jumbled up. That is a direct threat on the established order. As was Panlilio saying he would prosecute President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for plunder if and when he becomes president. For that he is being denounced.”
Good parallelisms there.
“And I saved the best for last. Agonizing in the Garden, Jesus asked the Father to let the cup pass, but if it is His will, then, he submitted: ‘Thy will be done.’ Panlilio is professing reluctance to give the presidency a go. But if it is ‘God’s will,’ then His will be done. There is your messiah.”
But how would he know if it is God’s will for him to run?
“Discernment.”
Discernment, Panlilio’s very own buzzword deserving of another column.