visible rhetoric

This Tuesday (April 13) some lay men and women will be given the prestigious pontifical award, pro ecclesia et pontifice, the highest award which the Church can give to a lay person. That ten persons were accorded such award by Pope Benedict XVI is an honor not just for the persons who were chosen but for the whole diocese – a recognition that our Archdiocese has contributed something worthwhile for the whole Church. Two things are brought to mind with this awarding ceremony. First, whatever good we do for the church whether local (by generously contributing one’s expertise, profession and resources to the work of the diocese) or very local (by working as a catechist in a humble parish), or especially local (by working diligently in the seminary kitchen) affects the whole church of Jesus Christ. We are building the church, the universal church of Christ (and not just a little enclave of our own making), and each one contributes to that building bringing his own brick that would ri

Going through the activities of the Holy Week one can find a lively Filipino trait, a trait that is vividly contrasted to the liturgical celebrations as these are placed side by side with our very own Filipino popular devotions. At the outset it might be good to note that the liturgical activities of lent, the paschal triduum and easter, that is, the celebration found in the liturgical books, are essentially anamnetic . Anamnetic means “to make the events present in the Christian assembly.” In doing so we become participants (not mere spectators) in the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord thus permitting ourselves to be moved and therefore transformed by the events we recall. Permit me to elucidate by way of revealing the reactions to the washing of the feet done on Holy Thursday in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. If the reaction to this ritual goes like this, “wow our Judas this year really looks like Judas with his beard and traitor-like appearance and Oh the good Monsig

Last Friday (March 19) we went to Barangay Simon Ledesma, one of the biggest barangays of our Parish, for the Pamalandong sa Kwaresma, again to share a little insight on Lent which is meant to prepare us for Easter, to hold a holy hour and for the priests to make themselves available for confessions. Barangay Democracia also joined in. Simon Ledesma is one of the three barangays which were identified as pilot areas for our Basic Ecclesial Community program. It has a makeshift chapel standing on the lot owned by the Hallares Family together with the Day Care Center. It is the biggest place in that community, what with so many houses crowding and competing for space. I remember three years ago while preparing for the fiesta with the Pagdu-aw sang Candelaria sa mga Barangay, we have to carry the image of our Lady through the narrow pathways doing every conceivable manoeuvrings and positioning so that we can pass through. As I said, the chapel and the Day Care Center occupy the bi

Beginning last Tuesday we started our yearly Pamalandong sa Barangay consisting of a one hour reflection, this year on sin, followed by a holy hour while the priests hear confessions. We started with Barangay Cuartero with its adjoining barangays namely, Taytay Zone II and Calubihan. We have to join these barangays together because Taytay Zone II does not have a chapel and Calubihan has a very small one only ten people can fit inside. The next day, Wednesday, we were in Lourdes. Barangay Lourdes was originally marked for “extinction” with the on-going construction of the flood control project. The people living in that narrow strip of land adjacent to the creek will be converted into a service road and all including the chapel have to be vacated. Luckily, elections are near and the relocation was postponed at least for those who live beyond the three-meter mark from the banks of the creek. When we got there last Wednesday the barangay was slowly turning into a ghost town – fewe

The season for political campaign is in full swing and it gets noisier by the minute. In this issue I would like to articulate a kind of wish list, a prayer actually, for this season which usually gets nasty and out of hand as we get nearer to election day. I am writing this as a priest, one who is interested as to the outcome (since it will spell a lot of difference to the people’s lives) but one who remains quiet and mum in deference to and with high regard for the choices of my parishioners. I say “with high regard” for your choice, because I believe that most Jareños, and Ilonggos at that, are people who deliberate well the choices they make. After all we are blessed with a high degree of education (something which we so value as Ilonggos) that has given us the intellectual freedom that is so wanting among many Filipinos in other parts of the country. The last time I heard there are still people in our country who vote the way their political lords do and even their landlords.

The General Luna Street of my yesteryears was a fine sight. I should know, I went to a school along that stretch (in two schools actually). I think I have traversed that road for who knows, probably thousands of times, and it was always refreshing – pine trees at the center and fire trees on the sidewalks. In the past, when my usual route from Oton passes through that stretch, the tree-filled avenue created in me different emotions – the thrill of finally reaching the city, the excitement of meeting friends and classmates or the dread of facing exams in school (I was still cramming in the car), including the tension that every kid felt when one was almost there just in time for the flag ceremony until you hit a snag caused by an early morning traffic along that stretch – the tension of being so near yet so far.

Of all the images of the Blessed Virgin Mary (and there are countless with titles only God can count), the Candelaria is nearest my heart and my mind. Permit me to tell you my reasons: First, she carries with her the Child Jesus. She directs our attention to Jesus and not to herself. She presents Jesus to us. The image is one that takes seriously the saying, to Jesus through Mary, of which others pay mere lip service. She is after all the Theotokos, the God Bearer, that is, she is the Mother of Christ and the Mother of God, the first title she received from the ancient church. Second, with her holding the candle she depicts exactly what the ancients have called her, “one who shows the way.” The image in a way encapsulates what is always being said of her - the exemplar of the church, the first disciple, our pattern of holiness and the promise of our perfection. The emphasis here is not only on her particular position in the history of salvation as the one who gave birth to C

It was murder at the cathedral! And what I thought happens only in the movies or elsewhere, happened here – a stone’s throw away from where the convent is, and from where I was. It may have been done outside the cathedral (at the fence just at the exit gate), but the fact that it was done within its vicinity, at a time when any person who had just come from mass might have felt most secure (who would ever think that criminals would want to kill someone who had just come from mass. Probably some of you might want to kill the priest who just gave a lousy homily! Hahahaha! But that’s another topic.), but would be at his most vulnerable position (because one feels more secure, one can be less alert) - that act defiled the house of God, desecrated the shrine of Our Lady of Candles, contradicted the age old belief that here is the sanctuary of peace and reconciliation. Not only did the murderers (those who did the act and those ordered it) defile sacred space, they also defiled sacred