Simbang Gabi, Mass of the Night, got its start in the Philippines back 400 years ago. At the nine-day novena, which my parish observes at 5 a.m., we get a few hundred Filipinos and Anglos every day. It’s generally a joyous Mass, ending with the boisterous “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” (Christmas Is Coming) with the closing line “From now on, even if it’s not Christmas, let us share.”
This morning, we had a sharing of grief and sorrow. On Friday night, parts of the southern Philippines were hit by Tropical Storm Washi, including Cagayan de Oro, the hometown of my friend and our parish Simbang Gabi organizer Litong and his wife, Rachel. More than 600 have died, and more than 100,000 are homeless. Litong and Rachel’s families are fine, but they know people who died.
The tragedy was on all our minds this morning as we moved through the readings and the homily and the music a bit more quietly than usual. Then our pastor invited Litong up to speak before the sending forth song.
Litong’s an attorney and a writer, so he’s used to putting words together. He does it well. But I’ve never heard him speak so eloquently and so from the heart as he did this morning. The area received a month’s worth of rain in twelve hours, he said. People went to bed just as they had the night before, only to be roused and told they had to leave their homes. Our parish is the beneficiary of this year’s Simbang Gabi offertory, and the pastor proposed donating the funds raised during the nine days to the Tropical Storm Washi victims, Litong said. Litong looked stern as he said that would not be done, but that there would be a box available for the remaining days for those who wanted to give to the relief effort.
I started tearing up as Litong sat down. I thought about how this is home for my Filipino Simbang Gabi friends now, and how they feel as tied to this parish as I do. And I thought that it was not exactly going to work to sing “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” about Christmas and new years and happy nations and prosperity after Litong’s words.
And we didn’t.
Instead, we sang three verses of “Silent Night” in English, offering up a prayer of sorts for the victims. I was too choked up to sing most of the song. Afterward, I talked to Jamie, our musician, about the beautiful choice. She nodded and said it had been Litong’s idea and that she had had trouble making it through the song herself.
I’m sure we’ll sing “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” again in the remaining six days of Simbang Gabi. But for me, that closing line–“From now on, even if it’s not Christmas, let us share”–will have a much more profound meaning now.
