sr. julia, r.a.; sr. inocencia, r.a.: requiem mass offered by the iloilo alumni

How do we speak of death when the dead are members of the so called Religious Life? I am asking this question because by its nature and purpose the religious are living out or are beginning to live out the values of the kingdom of God in its fulfilment.  Do you know this?  Supposedly they pre-figure, they already give us a glimpse of how life should be and what life would be when the kingdom of God find its fulfilment in the final days. (Last I heard, this fulfilment would be on Dec. 21 - 2 days from now.) That is why the religious live the evangelical vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty.  These are values of the kingdom, these values make us look forward, it make us strain for the fulfilment of the Kingdom. 

The Religious do not marry for in the fulfilment of God’s kingdom people no longer marry or are given in marriage.  We are going to live like angels, Jesus said.  How is that?  I don’t now.  I have never been there yet.  Probably if somebody from the Philippines dies today, he goes to heaven and tells everyone "Hey they approved the RH Bill in the Philippines", and everybody stares back at him and asks, "what is that?"  Point is, the RH Bill is already a non-issue I suppose, in the kingdom of heaven.  Thus starting in this life religious sisters lived the vows of celibacy and chastity to pre-figure in their own lives, our lives in the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom. 

And they die owning nothing for they have also the vow of poverty.  Yes they live in a big house but they can never claim it as their own.  You can just imagine how many supposedly “owners of Assumption” died in this piece of land since its foundation?  One time we were counting how many people already died in the rooms of priests in the seminary, in our rooms.  We got tired counting.  A seminarian once asked, "are you not afraid that somebody died in your room."  "Toto," I replied, "if they are still there in my room we will be too crowded."  That is their vows of poverty.  That is why I think you should have your children enrolled in Assumption.  Why?  Because a little less than half of the staff (the sisters, I mean) who run the place believe that they should not get paid for their work.  Now there must be a deeper reason why they do what they do, for if money is not the issue then, they must be doing, what they are doing, so well. 

And finally religious sisters have the vow of obedience.  They are sent.  Well we, as religious, we can argue, we can fret, we can emote all we want, but at the end of the day if that’s where they think you should go, there you go.  That is why there is no religious sister who cannot claim a talent or two.  Why?  Because obedience makes you discover talents and things you never thought you had.  For by obeying your superiors you are forced to do what you never thought you can do.  And there you go, you did it.  That’s obedience for us, for in the kingdom of God we become dead to our own will and allow God to work in and through us.  They die to self so that they can live for God.

So there you go, how shall we, the living, talk now of religious sisters who are dead when in life they have been doing exactly, or at least, starting to do exactly what you, lay persons, are required to start doing only when you die.  In other words barring the many clauses which confuse further my sentence, my question is this: why should we talk about dead religious sisters when they were already dead or have begun dying the moment they took the vows?

For a lay person perhaps, in death, life is changed not ended.  But for a religious sister, in death, life is fulfilled and completed, not changed.  For a religious sister, death is the fulfilment of everything she had worked for starting on the day she uttered her final vows.

Last November 28, Sr. Julia died.  After 49 years she completed what she had started.   Last December 9, Sr. Inocencia died.  After 62 years she completed what she started.  

This is the beauty of religious life and the beauty of their death.  As there is no drastic transition between washing clothes and scrubbing floors and holding faculty meetings and writing checks to pay this and that - life to death was simply a smooth shift and an unnoticeable changeover in Sr. Inocencia’s life.  It was simply part of routine.  

As there was no drastic transition from strict to gentle, from scary to caring - life to death was simply a smooth shift and an unnoticeable changeover in Sr. Julia’s life.

In honoring these two religious women one might get the idea that all these achievements were theirs.  In our life, in the life of the religious God’s takes the center-stage and the limelight.  Religious life should not allow us to speak of our achievements.  After years of prayer those certificate of achievements are becoming more and more embarrassing.  If Zechariah was made mute in the gospel today it is for good purpose.  If he came out speaking, surely he would be talking about himself and how the angel appeared to him and granted him this one thing he wanted, a child.  But since he came out mute and silent everybody understood that this was God’s work.  In religious life our silence has a purpose. Everything in our life should point to God.

So, we let it be.  Let their achievements speak of the wonders of God in the life of every person embracing the religious life, in the life and values of every alumni their lives and work have touched.  All we can do is to just simply say our gratitude:   thank you Sr. Julia, thank you Sr. Inocencia.