BETTER THAN YESTERDAY

Have you seen a ghost?

A ghost is defined as an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to someone alive. There are varied reasons why a dead person returns from his grave: unfinished business, restlessness due to unattained justice for his case, etc. And the living are afraid of ghosts in as much as they (ghosts) do not belong to this realm. The images of people from the past deeply affect others. They bring back memories that the living would rather not recall. They would remind the living about bad experiences they had. Others simply hate the experience of ghosting: nagpakita lang. Thank God, we Catholics do not believe in ghost (in this sense), more so in the practice of ghosting.   

In the gospel (Lk 9:7-9), Herod heard about a ghost from his past. He just heard about Jesus. He did not yet see Him but he was moved to anxiety. He was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” A ghost from his past haunted him. But far from the natural reaction of people to a ghost or an experience of ghosting, Herod was anxious to see Jesus; to have a glimpse of that "Ghost." What could be Herod's reason for desiring to see Jesus? Did he want to frighten himself? Did he want simply to satisfy his curiosity; to see for himself if John the Baptist whom he beheaded truly rose from the dead? Or perhaps, Herod wanted to make peace with his past. Susan Gales once said: “Sometimes you just have to make peace with your past to keep your future from becoming a constant battle.” Since the murder of John the Baptist, the days of Herod must have been dreadful and spent sleepless nights thinking about what he had done. His conscience must have disturbed him for the terrible deed he had committed in the past. With the supposed reappearance of John the Baptist, Herod had an opportunity to make peace with his past.

We all have our past that greatly affects our present, either positively or negatively. To those positive experiences we had, we are to cherish them. To those that haunt us; to the ghosts from the past that hamper us from living the present and chartering a future, we are to make peace with them so that they will neither disturb us in the present nor the future. How can we make peace with them? There is no other way but to see them face-to-face and accept them as a part of us instead of denying them. Only when we accept our past and befriend it, however ugly it may be, we can draw new meaning from it; we can begin to see and understand them from a new vantage point.             

Have you seen a ghost from your past? Make peace with them, that they may truly rest in peace, and you may continue your journey in peace, with a clear conscience, with your eyes set onto the future the Lord offers to you.  

The good news is, even in our past, the Lord is there ready to accompany us; giving us a chance to make ourselves better than yesterday!