Ang Eskatolohiya ni Macario Pineda

Abstract

Traditional views on eschatology produce a picture of the “end times” at the risk of divorcing it from the fullness of human existence. In this essay, I wish to propose a reconsideration of an eschatological vision rooted in this particular fullness of being human by looking at Macario Pineda’s works, specifically Ang Ginto sa Makiling, “Bawat Looy na Bulaklak,” and “Ang Langit ni Ka Martin.” By looking at the different ways in which the characters develop in these works, we can trace out a triadic eschatology present in Pineda’s fiction: a pre-eschatology rooted in the experience of time in Doro of Makiling; an inaugurated eschatology of the encounter between God and His creation in Tata Teban of “Bulaklak”; and finally, an accomplished eschatology of choice in Ka Martin of “Langit.” These modalities of eschatologies in Pineda’s work show us at once a broad spectrum of responses in relation to this end, and more importantly emphasize how these modalities of responses to the eschaton open up a space where the question of the end finds its locus in the fullness of human existence.