visible rhetoric

If compensation can be used as a measure for how beautiful a sermon is, then my most beautiful homily happened when I blessed a beauty parlor years back. Surrounded by beauticians, I said something like this: “After God created man and woman on the sixth day, and ‘God looked at everything that he had made and found it very good,’ but what you will be doing in this place is to make things better still. God made everything beautiful to look at, but you here will make them more beautiful still.” They were so delighted with what they heard, they never realized until then how honorable work in the parlor was. A doctor can only restore health and life, but a parlorlista can improve and even remake your hair and face including the confidence brought about by a more beautiful you! For what they thought were such godly and enriching thoughts, aside from the usual offering, I was offered a free haircut and a facial spa to boot!

I went to Ars alone! If you are not familiar with the name of the place then you are not alone. The ticket lady at the train station in Paris told me she never heard of such a place in France, and true enough it was not even listed in their computerized ticketing counter. And so I told her that it was the parish of St. John Marie Vianney. She gave me a grave look and asked, “who’s he?” And so I bought a ticket to Lisieux instead to the Basilica of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Lisieux has a train station and it was easier to locate. I rode the train early in the morning from Paris but when I arrived at the station I did not know where to go. So I asked a lady walking down the street, “where is the basilica?” It took her around three minutes to instruct me how to get there – in French of course, and all I did was to answer oui . . . oui . . .oui which was the only French word I knew.

We have heard often in the gospels about life’s great paradoxes exemplified by the life, and not only the life, but also by the teachings of Jesus himself. In the world, the poor are called the less fortunate. In the gospel they are called blessed. In the world, you have to be an adult to do what you want. In the gospel you have to be a little child in order to enter the kingdom. In the world you have to slap back if he slaps you first. In the gospel you have to turn the other cheek. In the world the queen is queen because she gives the order, she speaks and all listen, she commands and all obey. In the gospel the queen is queen because instead of giving orders she followed faithfully, instead of speaking she listened intently, instead of commanding, she obeyed diligently. In the gospel the seed must die in order to bear fruit; to love life is to lose it, to hate life is to preserve it; whoever serves as a servant shall be the greatest and the most honored.

If you are facing the main altar, you can see the antique side altar (technically we call it the retablo) at your left, the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Train your eyes way up the altar just below the big eyes with the rays (that is the symbol of God the Father) and you will see a small statue of St. Rock (San Roque). The saint may not be so popular today but he was in the past. Proof of which are as follows: Barangay San Roque has for its patron its namesake. Tabuc Suba Proper is under the patronage of San Roque too. And so is Benedicto and San Vicente. People in these barangays still go in procession around their barangays during this month of August singing the gozos of San Roque, Labing Bulahan, complete with a caller who would shout the next line of the gozo so that people can join the singing. (In those days there was no photocopy machine and besides only a few knew how to read – the reason why the caller shouted the next line so that people can follow the song wh...

What for me is the meaning of the coming of Jesus? What does it mean to me? Only one thing - all these things that we see, hear, feel and do will come to pass. Everything is interim. That is the meaning of the coming of Jesus. Everything is interim. The church is temporary, and so is the liturgy and so is the diocese, the parish and come to think of it even our temptations. These are temporary. Everything will come to an end. That for me is the meaning of the second coming of Jesus. Everything that we do, we do temporarily; we do for the meantime that we are waiting for him.

I officiated the marriage of Manuel and Liezl of Barangay Benedicto last Tuesday. It was a normal wedding complete with a well-dressed couple, the bride in white wedding gown and the groom in an over-sized barong, and they have flower girls too who carried ceramic baskets. As I said it was normal except for the place where the wedding was held and the groom. It was a garage wedding with a makeshift altar covered in white and a makeshift kneeler in front with throw pillows placed on top of what looked like a doormat. I had them removed because in this almost normal wedding the groom cannot kneel. He had a major stroke a year ago and he cannot even walk unaided. With the support of the community and a tireless wife they got what they wanted – to be married in church, or more factually, in the garage before a priest.

Another discovery was made while repairing the cathedral. In the uppermost niche of the side altars we have correctly guessed that one contains the image of St. Rock. This statue is as old as the church itself and it has never been repaired so it is still in its original color. This is one of those that will not be repainted so that we can still retain proof that will indicate the age of the cathedral. The other statue on the left retablo was a bit elusive. Is this St. Augustine? Well, we all thought it was. After all this parish was founded by the Agustinians and it was only natural for them to put in one of the niches of the retablo, this time at the uppermost part of it, an image of their patron. But as the carpenters were taking it down (so that the retablo can be repaired) they found a statue of a pig beside it. Now that’s quite disconcerting - St. Augustine with a pig?! St. Augustine is usually portrayed as a bishop holding a church, or a staff, or a book and none of th...

I want to reveal some of the things I did for Candlelight . . . some of the things that happened which I wanted to write about but for one reason or the other I never did. And so here are some of them. I think I am the only priest in Iloilo who stood on a mountain of garbage, alone and with arthritis, right there in Brgy. Calahunan as I did an article on the garbage problems of Iloilo. I climbed my way to the top, struggling, with all the “what have you” beneath my feet, with flies darting to and fro like World War II flying Aces and buzzing Zeros, all the while undecided whether to breathe or not to breathe because of too much muscle and joint exertion and the terrible, unimaginable smell. But after awhile I got used to these and managed to take a few photographs for the issue along the way. When I reached the top I wanted to shout, “I made it, I made it” and plant the Vatican flag right where I was standing. And to think that the climbers of Mt. Everest thought they deserve bet...

In the book of Tobit, it is said that Tobiah came one day to his father while the latter was about to eat and told him that he saw one of their people murdered and left unburied in the market. Tobit sprang to his feet leaving his dinner untouched, went to the market and carried the body of the dead man to his house and placed it in one of the rooms. Then he ate his food in sorrow. At sundown he carried again the body, dug a grave and buried it. This was the second time Tobit had the audacity to bury the dead, therefore, suffering the taunt of his neighbors. The first time he did something similar earned him the displeasure of the king of Niniveh (who had the man killed). He was driven out of the city and had his property confiscated. But that did not prevent Tobit from repeating the same act of kindness, without delay or any hesitation on his part, when the report of Tobiah, his son, reached his ears.

Human beings by nature desire greatness. It is something human and therefore basic. We need to desire for greatness if we are to make something out of our existence. We need to desire greatness if we are to live by our Christian principles. We need to desire for greatness if we have to live the call to holiness. We need to desire greatness because its opposite is not humility, nor contentment but mediocrity. And mediocrity is the devil’s own son. It might be good to note then at the start of this reflection that Jesus never said anything bad about the desire of his apostles to be great – not here in the gospel according to Matthew, nor in Luke’s and neither in Mark’s. It can even be surmised that Jesus even encouraged his disciples to desire for greatness by the interest that he showed in what his disciples were discussing along the way and by acceding to answer their query as in the gospel today. Thus Jesus did not condemn the desire for greatness. Instead Jesus redefined gr...