it's what it made you into - the seminary lit-mus contest

          The Literary Musical Contests which we do yearly in the seminary is a means to an end.  If these are ends in themselves we would have contented ourselves with forming better musicians, better orators, better dancers and better artists.  But no, they are means to an end.  These means to an end are done in the context of a contest because many times competitions bring out the best in people, competitions make people work harder, competitions can motivate people to give their best if not their all.  But again who comes first and who comes second is beside the point.

           In the context of human and priestly formation it is what these means to an end create in the interior life of our seminarians which are important.   It is what these activities hone and inculcate in them which are important.  When Jim Villaruel challenged and dared himself to speak on stage, in a pulpit, before a crowd in the homily contest, bravely enduring shaking legs and cold hands, it is what happened in him, what this experience created in him that is important.  Winning this contest is just an icing which does not make the cake.  Dionie Boy Salanatin and JJ Meneses may be natural actors on stage but it is their stepping out of what was expected from them, exploring new emotions, creating new truths about themselves that made this experience worthwhile for them.   When Enrico Ayson stood there struggling to make himself heard in a failing voice made hoarse by practice but  nevertheless with an unyielding spirit, the box where he stood became superfluous for he was already standing tall.

The winners, thus, for these past two days are people who dared themselves to walk where they have not trod, to pursue when there was only hesitancy, to engage when there was only timidity, to never give up when there was nothing else but discouragement.  In the end it is not what we spectators have discovered in you.  It is not what the judges say you are.  Rather it is what you discovered for yourself, and what you will allow to be transformed in you because of what you saw.  The applause adds nothing.  Like all things superficial this too will fade away.  But the lessons have been learned.