remembering bishop piamonte: missa requiem december 20, 2011

I was asked by his grace, the Archbishop to give the homily this morning. Specifically I was asked to say something about the man.
Who was Msgr. Piamonte for me, how have I come to know him as a person? Let me start by saying that he was a real human person. He was a human person who gave me all the reasons to act towards him also in a humanly fashion.
He gave me a reason to be proud of him, to be proud of my bishop especially after I read the first five pages of his voluminous dissertation of which I did not understand anything. It was all in Latin.
He gave me a reason to fear him when at one point I was scolded right in front of the congregation who were singing the Gloria. I made the mistake of telling the people to remain standing while singing the Gloria when he wanted them and of course himself, to sit down because of his arthritis. He was really mad at me but in a very controlled way, but I can sense that he was almost shouting. All the while I was there standing in front of him, bending a little, with palms closed on my chest listening to his harangue for what seemed to be eternity. Through all these I maintained my poise and composure.


Msgr. Piamonte gave me a reason to playfully banter with him. One time when I asked him to ordain me to the priesthood he told me quite frankly that he was a bit hesitant. Why, Msgr., I asked. He told me that one time during the mass, on a Holy Thursday he called for me because he wanted to point out that Msgr. Gamboa was using the wrong preface for the mass. I did not come to him. Probably I was also in a panic mode then and have simply forgotten to go to him afterward. But in a confident manner I raised my head a little, looked at him intently and told him, Msgr. if I only knew that you were calling me, I would immediately stop whatever I was doing and immediately report to you. He nodded approvingly and said, Ok when is your ordination.
He also gave me a reason to, you won’t believe me if I tell you this, but he gave me a reason to love him. One time we were alone in the garden of the Palacio talking. While we were talking he was moving all over the garden picking what I later came to know as sinaw-sinaw. Then he went up the kitchen, got a pot, put some water in it, lighted a fire and waited for the water to boil. When the water was already boiling he put the sinaw-sinaw in and told me to pray the hail mary. And so together we prayed, hail mary full of grace, the lord is with you, while he was stirring the sinaw-sinaw. After we finished the hail mary he promptly put out the fire, and told me to let it cool for a while and drink it. He said it was good for my arthritis.
He also gave me a good reason to laugh at others who earned his ire. My way of getting even - salamaha kami ginoo. So anyway Fr. Moise one time when we were assigned together as miter and crozier bearers, we were walking where we should be in a procession, just a step at his back. While the choir was singing Ecce sacerdos magnus, Fr. Moise out of concern for the man, reached out for the lapel of his miter wanting to straighten it out. There and then, as the choir reached crescere, crescere, Msgr. Piamonte turned around gave Fr. Moise a hard look and said, ano ako kabayo. Even now whenever we tell this story we would laugh at ourselves.
He also gave me a reason to be so embarrassed when as a newly ordained priest he made me recite the formula for absolution in front of so many people dining with him in the palacio as if I was some kindergarten reciting my first poem.
He also gave me a reason to fight back, though unknowingly. The night before ordination he scolded me for inviting him for dinner. He told me that the person to be ordained and the one who will ordain should fast, then why am I already feasting. The morning during my ordination I went back to him so that we could go together to Oton for the ordination. He was eating breakfast. When he saw me he immediately invited me to sit down and eat. Out of the blue I told him that I was fasting. Just when I said that I saw his spoon stopping in midair just as he was opening his mouth. Then I remembered what he said the night before, both of us should fast, then why was he eating. I was just too embarrassed to speak but he saved the day when he retorted, I will fast this evening. In my mind I was saying, nice try, but we should be feasting by then.
Finally he gave me a reason to rejoice over him. Do you know that just a month before he died I finally won over him by convincing him to be an actor in a play to be done in the mass? Actually it was Msgr. Joemarie who literally pushed me to ask his permission to make him the main actor of a short play I made to launch the year of God the Father. And he said, well, yes, ok. So just before we prayed the Our Father in the mass, a little boy came up the altar and asked him questions, then he meekly answered like a father, then the boy asked him another question then he answered, then another and he answered. Imagine that, I made him do a drama when through all those years I have never ever convinced him to wear a more decent and more beautiful chasuble and miter.
In the end the last service i made was when I was called to dress him up for his funeral. I dressed up as a server with surplice and dressed him up myself with two assistants from the funeral home. This time he never complained about the chasuble I made him wear.
This is for me the real picture of Msgr. Piamonte. He was a human person, a great human person perhaps because of his office, but human nonetheless, and I for my part have related with him in a humanly fashion, getting mad when he vacillated, getting excited when he was decisive. But he has his reasons for doing so, he has his virtues, he has his weaknesses. But why should I be afraid in telling you all these when the lineage of Jesus himself is not that perfect, when the lineage itself of the God made man is found wanting? Nevertheless Matthew took pains writing them all, even bannering them around, unaffected seemingly by the revelation of so many skeletons in the messianic closet - despots, bad kings, impure race, harlots etc.. For good reason, for why should I be afraid of my humanity, warts and all, when that is the very reason why Jesus came, those are the very reasons why Jesus lived among us in the flesh, and those are the reasons why he died. When I die tell people too of the best in me and also the worst in me, for it is in this broken humanity that we begin to appreciate advent and get excited about Christmas. In the end whether in life or in death, in how we will be appreciated and how we will be remembered, in the end, the focus is the same - Jesus, always Jesus.
Addendum: I had a big problem once when I was first assigned in the seminary. It was a very big mistake and I felt responsible. I took time out and went to the cathedral. Having nothing to do I went to his tomb, knelt down and prayed awhile. He helped me.