vocation 101

This week we start our immediate and direct preparation for one of those important events in the life of a parish – the ordination to the priesthood. More specifically, starting this week, we are preparing for the ordination to the priesthood of the Reverend Deacons Michael Alquisada of Barangay Tabuc Suba Ilaya and Peter John Guarin of Barangay San Roque. This is one of the important events celebrated in the parish not just because of the rarity of such an event these days but because we feel particularly blessed on such an occasion. The priesthood as I always say, is the fruit of our faith-life as a parish. It is the fruit of our prayers, as individuals and as a community, the fruit of our constant visits to our Lord in the Adoration Chapel, it is the fruit of our Holy Hours. Remember what Jesus said in the gospel, “the harvest is great but the laborers are few . . . pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers to his harvest.” Our prayers, our struggle for holiness as a parish is rewarded with a vocation to the priesthood. And this year, in the Year for Priests, we are rewarded not just with one but two!


The priesthood, though the fruit of a collective endeavor, starts with the family. The family is the seedbed of vocations. I remember very well my lola who inculcated early in me a love for God and for the church, and a high regard for priesthood. Actually my lola wanted my older brother to be a priest. (Imagine how it would have ended up! My elder brother would have been a priest and I would have been a caterer! But frankly, I don’t know how to cook, though definitely I love eating good food.) Anyway, my lola one day talked to me about getting to heaven and it was such a nice story that immediately all I wanted to do that day was to go to heaven (though it did not occur to me then that I have to die first before entering heaven because if she told me that I would have lost interest, at least at that moment.) And so I asked a question I will never forget: Lola, will being a priest make it easier for me to go to heaven? And she said, “no, just being a priest will not make it easier but it will if you become a good one.” That was all she told me. Now my lola as far as I can remember never talked to me directly about the priesthood. She never even told me to enter the seminary. (She died before I entered the seminary though she would have loved me so much for doing so, and then I would have had more allowances in the seminary if she were alive!) She simply told me to aim for heaven, to go to mass, to pray always, to avoid quarrels, to love God and to love the church. You see nurturing the vocation to the priesthood is not telling your 12 year old boy to enter the seminary. You just have to tell him to aim for heaven, to go to mass, to pray always, to avoid quarrels, to love God and to love the church. When she convinced me of these, I don’t have to be told to go to the seminary to try to take the entrance exam. I simply went there on my own! And on my own I did, and this is where the trouble began.
I was not accepted in the seminary because (of all things) the examiners found out that I have no vocation to the priesthood (I was only then aiming for heaven, you know!). Well, nobody told me about the seminary and no one told me about the priesthood. I simply came there with my love for God and the church. And so I flunked. But that did not make me give up. On my own I went to Msgr. Calvo, our parish priest of Oton and asked for his help. Imagine a 12 year old boy, talking to a monsignor, with shaking hands and legs matching my shaking voice. The old monsignor said yes he will help me. And he did, and Msgr. Gamboa, the rector of the seminary then told me that he is saying yes only because of the intercession of Msgr. Calvo and he is allowing me to enter the seminary on probation for one year. If I did good, then I can continue. And so to make the long story short I entered the seminary with 35 other young boys. In three months time three went out. Only 12 of us graduated from High School. Only 4 entered the college department. And after 4 years only two entered the Theology Department. And after 5 years only one remained to become a priest whose first assignment was with . . . guess who? . . . . Msgr. Gamboa!
The point I would like to say is this: Don’t tell your kids to enter the seminary – at least not directly. They are entering the age of individuation wherein they rebel at your every word, and chances are during that age they will do the exact opposite of what you say. Just inculcate in them early, through words and deeds, the love of heaven, the love for God, the love for the church.
Do you know that Ron Michael was a cute tipple serving in the children’s choir in our parish many years ago? And do you know that Peter was cuter still (imagine how small he was then when today he still is) when he was serving our parish as an altar boy?
This is what I mean when I said that you inculcate in them early, through words and deeds, the love of heaven, the love for God, the love for the church. That’s where the vocation to the priesthood starts.