There Will Be No More Night

The recent death of a promising young man – only 22 years – from fraternity hazing is a very painful tragedy for his loving parents and adoring sister. It is one that evokes empathy in the hearts of millions of Filipinos. Horatio Castillo is the only son of a Filipino people who have been blessed with two children – the other of whom is a daughter, the younger child. Why the violence? Why hazing? Why inflict pain in order to accept one into brotherhood? Why death?

The war in Marawi in Mindanao, Philippines is over with the death of the young Maute-ISIS leader and an ISIS-affiliated Muslim leader. Their bloodied, lifeless faces were shown on television. But I cannot help but think: “What is this extremist ideology to which they have given over their lives in a senseless way?” Many of the labeled terrorists were young Muslim men who had been persuaded or better, deceived by the promises of a false, violent ideology of attaining heaven with one’s martyrdom, or of shedding others’ blood and their own blood for the sake of extending the Islamic caliphate in different parts of the world.

The world rushes on bringing its tides of pain, conflict, devastation, sorrow, and death. Ah, death! I had my own share of pain and tears over death – the death of my dear sister due to kidney failure and two years of emaciating dialysis, the death of my father more than ten years ago, and the more recent death of my beloved mother who had her own share of tears and pain through the years.

But the Christian song entitled “No More Night” gives us a glimpse of a deep hope and faith in the vanishing of all nights, all tears, and all pain from the face of the earth. Night symbolizes darkness, death, pain, and uncertainties. I place the song’s first stanza and refrain below:

The timeless theme, Earth and Heaven will pass away
It’s not a dream, God will make all things new that day
Gone is the curse from which I stumbled and fell
Evil is banished to eternal hell

No more night, no more pain
No more tears, never crying again
And praises to the great, “I am”
We will live in the light of the risen Lamb

We ask and exclaim: “Oh, when will that time be when there will be no more pain and no more tears?” Let us remember that the larvae wiggling in its cocoon speaks of the need to struggle through pain so we can grow into winged butterflies. The parents of Horatio are seeking justice for the death of their only beloved son, but if they can learn to forgive the young men who killed their son unintentionally through hazing, the sentence of the young men involved in that fatal night can be shortened so that they can still have their lives to live after serving their prison terms.

Pain is thus necessary so that we can grow, but pain is uncomfortable. We want a state without pain, without night, without death. We just want to enjoy life, have fun, be merry, and be deeply and forever happy. That time will come but not now. We have to wait. We have to hope. We have to grow through pain. We have to learn empathy, forgiveness, and compassion through our own pain and the pain of other people around us. Life on earth is short, so may God give us the grace to live lives that are well pleasing to Him until we reach the Light and there will be no more night on earth.