visible rhetoric

Three truths are revealed to us this evening. Three important truths we should not miss for anything. The first truth: It is found in our second reading today. We are strangers and foreigners on the earth and we are seeking a homeland. We are strangers in this world. What you call home is not your home. One day you are going to leave it behind and never come back. What you call your town, your city, your country is only temporarily your town, your city and your country - only temporarily. One day you are going to leave it behind and never come back. We are strangers and foreigners on the earth and we are seeking a homeland - this is the first truth. But it is a truth that may sometimes be hard to accept, a truth we prefer not to discuss.

Today we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When human life ends it is taken down six feet below the ground, however in the case of Mary she was taken up to heaven body and soul. When human life ends the soul goes back to God and the body goes the way of all mortal flesh to rot in the grave and turn back to dust, however in the case of Mary it was not just her soul that found its way back to God, for her flesh, her body was also taken up to heaven with her soul. Her body did not the way of all flesh. It did not undergo corruption. How did it come to this? There are several reasons.

Taking care of the things of the cathedral is one heck of a job. It is by itself a full-time job. But I like this job, probably because it is part of my nature. I am what one would usually call in hiligaynon a “manug-ukay.” You may call it a hobby, a pastime or whatever, but I do enjoy discovering and eventually preserving things. Do you know that because of this “nature” it was I who discovered that the first Diocesan Synod called for in 2001 was actually the third? Well, tucked in a very old baol full of dust and other debris, which caught my fancy in a bodega in the seminary, I came to discover the documents of the Second Diocesan Synod of Jaro written in Spanish and convoked and approved by Bishop James McCloskey. I also came to discover many very old pictures of the Cathedral and the old Iloilo itself which became partly the basis why the cathedral came to be repaired as it appears now.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Commission on the Laity for organizing the tribute to clergy last August 2 to end the Year For Priests in our Archdiocese. I think it would not be against the intentions of the organizers if I call it “A Tribute to Clergy-Lay Partnership in the Mission of the Archdiocese,” for indeed that was the content of the speeches and the personal feelings that was aroused in me that evening. If it was done primarily by the laity “in honor” of the clergy I would not have come to the occasion, for it would have been mere “clanging cymbal” and “lip service” to “honor” us with a tribute we don’t exactly deserve. But since I feel that what was emphasized in that occasion was partnership with the laity, I came out happy and in some instances moved by the occasion. I am blessed with three experiences of working in the parish (3 years in Jaro, 8 months in Pototan, and now I’m on my second year in Jaro . . . again) and in these parishes as priest I n

Nanay Ludz (Lourdes Benedicto Jover) died. If you do not know her then probably you are not from Jaro or you are not that religious. Well she is after all a Benedicto, a Jover, the maternal aunt of the late Archbishop Piamonte, and a religious zealot (in a positive way) - a cerrada catolica, as they usually say, and a devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary especially in her dogged propagation of the Holy Rosary. She was a daily mass goer until she could no longer walk to the cathedral and a daily communicant after that. She was a familiar sight not just in church but even so in the convent, the palacio (archbishop’s residence) and even in the rooms of priests as the only woman, this sensitive people of Jaro would tolerate and even approvingly so, in the rooms of celibate men. For many priests she was lola, mother, even a maid (she would arrange clothes lying around and hang them) and your ecclesial version of “Pinoy Big Brother” (or sister?) to priests. But who was Nanay Ludz for me?

It seems that nobody noticed that Jovic Velez is no longer manning his turf in what we formerly called the 20/11 Office but now the Office for General Repair. Now even that office has to go as the parish personnel, specifically the Accounting Office, begins to assume his functions in the project. It does not mean however, that the project is over. We still have to finish the Shrine, we still have to redo the garden at the facade, we have to take out the mortuary, we have to construct the Columbarium and Ossuary in its stead, and, God willing, we have to repair the other sacristy (if you are facing the altar that’s the big room on your right) to make way for the Bishop’s Chapel, which will, in the future be the repository of the liturgical paraphernalia used for Archdiocesan celebrations. This church is not just a parish church after all, but the cathedral of an Archdiocese.

I went to Sitio Balasbas last month to celebrate mass with them and to witness their Flores de Mayo. Sitio Balasbas is part of Brgy. Simon Ledesma, located at its boundary with Brgy. San Roque. In fact one of the Urna Cells which our team is setting up this week criss-crosses the two barangays. It has a small chapel located at the end of the concrete street just a few meters from the river - the few meters which are filled with houses made of very light materials. The chapel is really small, around 6 meters long and 4 meters wide - located at the exact spot where the street ends. It was probably built as an afterthought after all the spaces available were occupied, but an important afterthought nevertheless since it looks as if it was an afterthought that was insisted upon. And everyday around 6 in the evening, a small group would gather in that chapel topray the Angelus and the rosary. They’re looking for a sound system though, so that their prayers will be carried away to and

Last June 15 I celebrated my 17th year in the priesthood. I am glad that it was an uneventful day, as I preferred it to be, for it gave me time to do the things I seldom do anymore because of the priesthood. One of which was I gave myself a full 2 hour siesta and the other was to remember and relive (at least in memory like an old movie) what happened 17 years ago. This includes getting into those old boxes of memorabilia and holding once more those things which connects me tangibly to my past.