remembering my ordination: feast of the sacred heart

This day means that most of the mahogany trees that you will find in the field is nineteen years old.  And so also are the langka trees that you see around.  

Why do I know and why is that so?  It is because when I was ordained nineteen years ago, instead of the usual stampita, I gave those who attended my ordination, seedlings to plant.  The seminarians were there - your Sir Joseph was still a first year high school then and they brought with them to the seminary seedlings which they planted all around here.  I still have with me the small piece of paper I attached to the more or less one thousand seedlings.  It says, gintanum sa kadayawan sang Dios, ang ginagikanan sang tanan nga mga kaayuhan, Hunyo 15, 1993.

I can still remember the day of my ordination.  Fr. Doming was the conductor of the choir, Frs. Iko Tabares, Gabby Esperancilla, Alex Serania, Taba Carreon, Tibo Rudi, Ralph Siendo, were the altar servers, and John Brillantes was the commentator  - they were still seminarians; Msgr. Sale was the MC, and Archbishop Piamonte was the ordaining prelate.  My ordination was in hiligaynon and so was my invitation, printed simply on a small piece of cartolina.  I wanted my ordination to be simple but unique.  It was a practice then for example that seminarians would come at the eve of your ordination to feast -  to drink and eat.  I did not follow that practice.  It was also a practice then that a band would play for the person to be ordained.  Sugaton ka sang banda sa taytay sang Oton and you will be paraded around with flag waving school children lining the street, on to the plaza until one reaches the church.  Again I did not agree to it and so it was stopped.  I didn't want a program where the new priest will be honored with songs, dances, speeches and a number of presentations.  I did not like it, and so there was none.  When people came out of the church, they were given immediately a seedling of a mahogany or a fruit tree and their lunch in a box, and they ate anywhere they wanted, and after that they all went home.  
There were a lot of gifts too, a lot of money when I was ordained because I did not spend for anything except the rent for the public transportation of seminarians.  So I gathered the money and donated half of it for the library of St. Joseph Regional Seminary.  Msgr. Jose Palma, now archbishop of Cebu was the rector then and he passed by the cathedral and I remember giving him a bundle.  You can be rich the very first day you become a priest.  I was very idealistic then and I told myself, “no, I am not going to enrich myself because of my priesthood.”  And so tsung wala na ako kwarta on my first year as a priest.

I am nineteen years old now as a priest.  There are no regrets.  I love my priesthood, I am happy with it, and I cannot imagine a life not being a priest.

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This feast is also memorable because of its relation to my becoming a priest.  I was ordained June 15, 1993, and three days later, June 18, on the feast of the Sacred Heart, I said my first mass in the cathedral, and I assumed my job as assistant parish priest, my first assignment, reporting for duty three days after my ordination.  I was happy then that the first day I reported for work in the cathedral, I said the afternoon mass just after the procession.

That was a long time ago now - 19 years ago.  Already some of the mahogany seedlings I gave during my ordination became trees, big trees, and some became chairs and tables already.  I remember five years after my ordination, somebody I don’t even know went to my mother’s house in Oton and gave her half of the langka fruit coming from the tree he planted during my ordination.  Five years later, the langka bore fruit and he shared the fruit with my mother.

Again I would like to reiterate what I said the other day - devote yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devote yourself to Mary.  They will help you persevere, they will help you in your temptations, and in your trials and difficulties, they will make your heart stronger and more resolved.

It is my prayer that you will become future priests.  Today we renew our devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the love of God revealed in the love of his son.  May we persevere, may our hearts grow more committed, stronger in our resolve to serve the Lord in the priesthood.