^{VOLUME 22 ISSUE 3 / MARCH 2025}

You did for me

Mt 25:40

On 27 April 2025, we plan to resume our annual gift giving to the poor in the small barrio called San Roque where Jun was born in 1945 in an isolated tiny nipa hut under the coconut trees. It was also there that he attended Grade 1 at an early age of four and a half years.  

San Roque is a barangay in the town of Unisan in Quezon province. Its population based on the 2020 Census was 214, representing less than one percent of the total population of Unisan. For almost two decades, we have been doing this annual gift giving, first at Barangay Magsaysay in Quezon City where we, together with CFC Thailand, constructed 27 houses and one multipurpose hall. 

But when we observed that the community had significantly progressed, we shifted this annual event to the town proper of Unisan where poor members of CFC Unisan were the primary recipients. Then in 2019, we brought it to San Roque, where we observed there were more people in need, but the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted its annual implementation. 

The Road to San Roque 

We visited San Roque a few weeks ago to commence the preparations for the planned gift giving. There is now a narrow, unpaved feeder road leading to the barrio center, although at some parts one’s vehicle could get stuck in deep mud especially during the rainy season.  

We remember that years ago when we visited San Roque together with our young children, we had to walk for over two hours along narrow, sometimes rocky and sometimes muddy, footpaths winding under the coconut trees and traversing through creeks and streams. The children were already crying, wanting to go back. 

Jun’s father once told us that San Roque was then so isolated that during the war, they never saw any Japanese soldier ever reaching the barrio.  

Our paltry and modest effort to help the poor is inspired and motivated by the pericope on the judgment of the nations in the Gospel of Matthew, which in part reads: 

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  
 
Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.

Matthew 25:31-36,40

It is a long pericope of 16 verses which is often called the Parable of Sheep and Goats. Strictly speaking, it is not a parable in the usual sense of a parable being a short fictitious story that illustrates a moral or spiritual lesson. 

It is more accurately classified as a vision of a future event describing Jesus’s return and the separation of people based on their actions toward others, particularly those who are poor and marginalized.  

Generosity in the Old and New Testament 

The pericope talks about accepting God’s loving invitation, about being ready and not living in fear, and about participating in God’s economy of grace and generosity.  

In this pericope, Matthew’s Gospel teaches us that when we face the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in judgment, we will not be asked how many times we have given talks and teachings, how many rosaries we have recited, how faithful we have been in attending household meetings and community recollections and retreats, or how often we have read the Scriptures.  

Instead, we will be reminded: 

I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.

Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me. And these will go off to eternal punishment.

Matthew 25:42-43,45-46

Frightening? Worrisome? But this teaching has been there since Old Testament times. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah emphatically teaches us:  

Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed, your vindication shall be before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Isaiah 58:5-8

Both Isaiah and Matthew teach us that we will be judged not based on religious rituals or outward appearances, but on how we have treated the last, the least, and the lost. We are asked to actively serve and care for those in need, to reflect God’s love and mercy, and to translate our faith into tangible acts of love and compassion. And when we help the poor and the needy, we should be ready for surprises. 

Helping the poor and needy 

During one of our gift giving events, a friend donated old suitcases. They were bulky to transport, and we were not sure if any of the recipients would be interested. But during the event, we noticed one woman taking an old luggage as her first choice.  

Later, we asked her why the old suitcase was her first choice. She told us that her sister in Cebu had been inviting her to visit and would send her a plane ticket. But she could not accept because she did not have a suitcase. Now, her dream of visiting Cebu would finally happen.  
 
Another friend donated various pieces of non-matching drinking glasses, cups, saucers and plates of varying sizes, types and models. Still another friend donated used shoes with long pointed toes. A friend donated used XXL clothes.  

We wondered: Who would want a cup with no matching saucer? Who would wear long-pointed shoes among farmers and fishermen? Knowing that most barrio folks were short in stature, who would wear XXL clothes?  

But we were surprised. All items were always taken showing that the needs of the poor are indeed dire. Thus, at the end of every gift giving event, we experience great consolation for we hear God’s voice saying, you did it for me.