assumption alumni: a reflection on faith as taught by assumption

It took me two weeks to finally accept this appointment, not for anything, but for the obvious reason that I am replacing the grand old man of our alumni gatherings – Fr. Bernard Ybiernas. I hate being a replacement, for two reasons. First it does not help my self-esteem especially if you are following the footsteps of somebody already refined by age and experience. And more importantly because people might be expecting for weeks and even months to see the grand old man of Assumption and hear his booming voice only to end up having to bear with this fellow whose prominent features are his eyebrows and who hobbles when he walks. I just hate it when I become the cause of another person’s frustration.

Nevertheless, I accepted it, again for two v

ery simple reasons. First, because I am going to a gathering of the alumni of Assumption, and forgive me for the sentimentality of the moment, I wanted to see the students and the alumnae in their Assumption uniforms. It’s for old times sake I believe, when my first exposure and attraction to girls were associated with maroon-dominant-checkered skirts and white gala uniforms, whom in my time personify not just beauty and grace but the quintessential colegiala. But more importantly I accepted this despite being a replacement because many things come to mind when I come face to face with home.
Assumption had been home for me. I graduated from this school 26 years ago when the sisters were still called “mothers” and the teachers were all called “Miss” irregardless of their marital status. 26 years is quite a long time and it’s hard to remember the details anymore. But I do remember the SRAs, Individualized Instructions, the morning talks, and the soccer, which back then was like playing baseball with a football – a game I never saw being played anywhere else but here. But that’s Assumption – not being done anywhere else but here.
During those days, we boys did some gardening alright, but I cannot remember ever planting alogbate or camote or tomatoes. We always planted spinach which we never ate anyway. Well I really don’t know why of all vegetables we always end up choosing spinach every planting time. Probably we have imbibed that early the need to be different, the need to be above the normal and the usual – the penchant to do the things not done anywhere else but here – to be uniquely Assumption, to be originally Assumption, to be “surprisingly” Assumption. This is the quality which I would like to rediscover once more in Assumption and among its alumni, the quality that is rooted in the daringness of its founders, the innovativeness of its past, and that constant search for novelty that is ever present through the years. Isn’t this the theme of our centennial celebration – “Love never says, I have done enough.”
Assumption may be steeped in tradition due to its age and years of existence. It has consistently held on to its pure white gala uniform for almost a century now, and yet today dare to call us, its alumni, its old boys and old girls, dressing up our aged bodies once more with elementary school uniforms in a confusing combination of the new in the old, the young in the aged, the fresh in the ripened. “Love never says, I have done enough” – Assumption is ever ancient yet ever new. Assumption education never reaches a plateau.
It is precisely this call that our feast and the first theme for this five-year celebration become significant – “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Elizabeth spoke these words to Mary. “Blessed are you who believed.” Faith. The faith of Mary, the faith that made her say yes to the novelty of the proposition that a virgin shall be with child; the faith that made her keep all these things in her heart even though she did not understand; the faith that made her dare to climb bravely the mount of Calvary to stand beneath the cross, silently suffering yet bravely and daringly standing. Faith.
What is this faith? What is faith for us who are and had been in Assumption?
The faith which Assumption must deliver must be a faith that answers the three classical questions posed to every person in life.
The first question is “what can I know?” Christian faith responds by saying that we can know God as our Father and Jesus as our Lord. Does Assumption still teach us these? Did Assumption teach us these?
Let me go back to memory lane and to aid me to answer that question, I dug out my old files in search of any indication of Assumption education in this regard, and lo and behold I found hard evidence. I found my report card. Grade V: English - VS, Mathematics - VS, Science – VS, Music – VS, Religion - S. My God, I thought to myself, how would I explain this to my theology class in the seminary. Scrutinizing my card more thoroughly however I found my escape. Health – O; Physical Education – O – signed Sr. Luz Emmanuel. This card is less than accurate. With an S in religion I became a priest, and with an O in Health and Physical Education I became an arthritic at the age of 17.
This card is less than accurate for it never measured the chapel visits we were encouraged to do back then, the adoration we were gently persuaded to do just as we were about to leave the departure area, or even just the simple act of leading a young boy in the sacristy and teaching him how to light the candles, or the morning prayers in our morning talks when we sung in full throttle “I am my beloved and he is mine his banner over me is love”; or those silent and committed lives of Sr. Blanca and Sister Incarnacion which inspired young boys and girls, who in hindsight now look at them admiringly as people who did not just teach us religion but people who showed us religion in the simplicity of their lives and faith. These are not measured by S or VS or an O, but the sisters knew that these things provided the difference, that these activities made Assumption education unique and a novelty. That excellence in the knowledge of God that is both personal and human is as important as excellence in science and mathematics. The faith Assumption handed down to us answered this basic question “what can we know?”
The second question that faith must answer is the question “what should I do?” Faith answers that we must do his commandments; that we must love in deed and in truth and not just talk about it (cf. 1 Jn. 2: 3; 1 Jn. 3, 18). Did Assumption provide this answer for us? Did she imbibe in us the kind of faith which is the answer to this question?
In the seminary I work in the library and one day to my surprise as we were arranging the old books I came upon a 1951 edition of Tydings. Hiding a colegiala’s picture, much more a book full of them, would raise hell and high water in a seminary back in 1951. How it arrived at the seminary then and at the library at that with those glaring charming smiling photos of women is anybody’s guess. However, my interest was aroused when I came upon the reports the Assumption girls made during their Sunday apostolate. One entry says: En una de nuestras visitas habia una mujer que queria bautizar a su hijo . . . well to simplify things the English translation says “During one of our visits a woman told us that she wanted her child baptized. We were so glad about it, but when we came back some days after, she told us that she had changed her mind about it and was indifferent to us. We tried to convince her but we never succeeded since her husband would not even consider the matter.”
This is just one entry in this diary of their apostolate. After this long narrative she ended it by saying: “Well maybe we have done much, maybe we haven’t. We can look back however to a few baptisms, several marriages and much material help in the form of medicine and daily sustenance of our poor families. We only pray to have the same privilege of serving God through his poor next year.” Reported by Lourdes Ditching for the Grupo Fortaleza composed of Lourdes Ditching, Dolores Bilbao, Ma. Nieves Diaz and Sylvia Dadivas, 1951. They did these every Sunday serving as Sunday School teachers, catechists and avid supporters and workers for “accion catolica.” Assumption imbibed in them the answer of faith to the question “what should I do?”
For my part I have received this Honor Card for excelling in School Child’s Other Oriented Projects or SCOOP 1977-78. I always bring this memory alive whenever I am in Assumption to show that there was a time in my tender years when Mother Carmela taught me what a teacher seldom teaches, that when life presents itself to be learned, classroom instructions must enthusiastically make way for life. Her classroom was the world, her teachings may not earn me a living but she taught me in her own unique way how to live life to the fullest. She taught us without lectures, without a classroom and without a blackboard what commitment to service is. I believe that that kind of teaching brought me to the priesthood. So, “What should I do?” This unique faith taught in Assumption must be intensified.
The third and final question is “What may we hope for?” Here no answers will be given in this reflection. What is the result of years and years of Assumption Education? What does it offer to the world and the church and our society? What kind of faith did she hand down to her children? This is something each alumni must now answer and this is what Assumption has to discover in her children.
Back in 1955, the Mother General of Assumption visited this school and she left a little note before going home to France. In this little note she wrote: “You ask for one last counsel. Many come to mind – which shall I choose? . . . Like Mary do not be afraid to surrender yourselves to God’s love; do not be afraid of trying to be better than those around you. Do not justify a life of mediocrity by telling yourselves that everyone cannot be a saint. Do not look upon the duty of being an apostle as something you are free to choose or to reject – something merely accidental in your lives. Do not accept with indifference the sad fact of seeing God so little loved, and so many souls living far from him. But rather be anxious to spend and to be spent in his love and service.” Signed, Mother Marie Denyse du St. Sacrement. January 23 1955. Probably we can measure our reply to the third question with this counsel in mind and use it as a yardstick to measure the kind of faith Assumption nurtured in our hearts.

Comments