YACAT - 11939702 GELITPH A56

THEME 6 – RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

I grew up in a somewhat religious and conservative environment, with my Mother

wanting me (their only child!) to become a priest, my school recognizing and awarding me for
my acts of service for the Church, and my friends always remarking my “innocent” nature
whenever I am around them. The expectation to “be good and stay good” has been ingrained to
me by society for the longest time, and only now in DLSU I am able to question that part of me
which I thought was fundamental in forming the identity of “Luke”. Upon reading the short story
entitled “The Cries of Children on an April Afternoon in the Year 1957” by Gregorio Brillantes,
I was able to reflect upon what religion meant to me, what religion could mean to someone with
a different viewpoint from me, and what the world could look like in its absence.
Despite my relatively conservative outlook due to the nature of my upbringing, I have
maintained an open mind when it comes to different and contrasting ideas introduced to me:
constantly questioning whether it is right or wrong to believe in and devote my life to a societal
phenomenon, constantly poking fun at the illogical and seemingly impossible nature of their
stories, and hoping. Constantly hoping that everything will make sense in the end, and that the
ever-growing void closes itself in due time.
That void in our hearts, longing for that sense of understanding the mysteries of our
world and its sheer statistical improbability that allowed us to live in the first place, longing for
the answers and the truth that has been avoiding and dividing all of humankind for centuries,
longing for control and meaning over the chaos and purposelessness of life itself.
Ricky wanted to fill that void too. He wanted to feel as though he is in control of his life.
Amidst the unpredictable nature of the future, he chose to live in the moment, and found the
meaning of his life by embracing the present. I think we all were Ricky once; not willing to
embrace the concept of mortality, wallowing at the cusp of innocence and maturity, and wanting
to make sense of reality.
However, fate can be cruel sometimes. We can never know what the future entails until
we see it face-to-face, and before we know it, the future becomes our present, and we are caught
blindsided in its wake. Fate cares not about your age, your gender, nor your social stature, as we
would see in the fates of various characters throughout the story. As we flash forward several
times into the futures of these characters, we slowly realize that we might not be as in full control
of our lives as we once thought. Like what St. Paul tells the Corinthians, there will come a time
where everything will make sense, but not yet. Such is the nature of life in Brillantes’ eyes.
In my eyes, life is something that our limited human knowledge cannot comprehend, and
thus, we grasp on to whatever explanation that will give it fulfillment and meaning, even if there
is no logical reason to continue living. If so, then are we all not fooling ourselves if we choose to
hold on to hope and live another day, no matter if we are devout or agnostic? But I’ve digressed.
What I’m saying is that there is no perfect way of interpreting the meaning of life, and if what
you believe in gives you hope and willpower, then who am I to take that away from you?
 Yet nothing ever lasts forever. Not even life itself. For every time the sun rises up in the
morning, the sun would eventually find its way to the other side of the horizon, taking with it the
rays of light that illuminate and beautify our world, leaving behind nothing but a faint, sepia-
toned memory etched in our hearts. By the end of this story, Ricky finds himself stuck
“motionless” in between the playful cries of the children and the impending darkness that looms
in the boundless skies above. In a brief moment of helplessness in the face of the fading past and
the limitless future, he is able to embrace the only thing he is able to control: the present, slowly
but surely losing its warmth and vibrance.
This is the magic of Brillantes’ writing for me. He was able to capture the fleeting
moments of childhood innocence and the tragic inevitability of corruption present in everyone’s
personal coming-of-age stories, while also subtly instilling his critique of atheism into his writing
– not through blatant antagonization in its depiction, but rather, through the use of realism that is
typically encouraged by atheism itself. Tragedy befalls the characters, and, through Ricky’s
agnostic perspective, we are left with no option but to accept it as their fate – a result of their
choices, and not the work of the Divine. Through this, Brillantes’ stand and message to his
readers felt relatable and understandable, even if I didn’t wholly agree with his ideas.
I believe Brillantes’ sees us as the Children on an April Afternoon in the Year 1957,
seemingly immortalized at that point in time in his vivid world, desperately warning us to
embrace our childlike innocence and maintain the warm light of happiness and faith within
ourselves in preparation for the cold nights that will come our way.
Now here we are six decades later, unsure if our eyes are being guided or blinded by the
eyes of faith, unsure if our minds should follow a conservative or modern worldview, and unsure
if we would even live another morning. Despite Brillantes’ warnings, the inevitable still
happened. On this April Afternoon in the Year 2020, as dusk comes down upon us once again, I
can only laugh.