best coin ever spent - assumption alumini 2014

That short film is entitled in some video links as “Best coin ever spent.”  It was a coin dropped by a little child that started the base to play initially a seemingly unrecognizable tune.  It was the same coin that invited the whole orchestra, instrument by instrument, and kept them coming as they play note after note.  And it was the same coin that rolled in the grand choir sparking a state of euphoria only an Ode to Joy can rouse in people, even in children.  And yet it all started with one single coin.

Today I would like you to remember, and in remembering to recognize, the best coin ever spent in our lives.  I am not in any way referring to what our parents paid when they chose to have us educated in Assumption, because obviously, as it was then and now, it was not a drop of coin in a hat – more of a check at bursars. 

The coin that I mean are the investments of people in us, of teachers and mentors, both loved or feared, of sisters, lay faculty and personnel, of investments consciously or unconsciously given, freely or grudgingly.  The investments cannot be found in the lesson plans, they were often unrehearsed and unplanned, they were seldom recognized and seldom appreciated with citations and plaques, but they are the ones recalled in pearl anniversaries, in ruby, silver or diamond, of people who have reached that age when the lessons that mattered were those they never wrote in notebooks, but were written indelibly in the memories of their minds and hearts.  All they remember was that one day somebody dropped a coin not knowing and never even intending that this will bring out the instruments, and then a tune, and then the choir and then a song, and in the end the grand applause.

In the gospel today ten were healed, ten were graced, ten were benefited by the goodness of Jesus.  And yet only one came back to thank.  It is not as if the nine were wrong and only one was right.  It is not as if the nine were not healed and blessed and only one was healed and blessed.  They were all healed, they were all graced, they all blessed by the goodness of Jesus.  But thankfulness is rightly called the second blessing because thankfulness can only be roused when we recognize, when we acknowledge, when we can pinpoint and name the first blessing.  In the gospel the nine received a blessing but only the Samaritan received a double blessing because as he was going with the rest to present themselves to the priests he alone recognized that he was healed.  He alone recognized, he alone saw the good, he acknowledged the good and thus he was thankful.  He received not just the blessing of healing but also blessing of gratitude – the second blessing. 

This is what we do every two years.  A pearl anniversary is not just a reminder that we are getting old even if we can still run 10 kilometers at every fun run.  It is also a reminder that we are getting wiser because now we can look back, now we can look again and savor and see with gratitude what we went through.  We come here to recognize, to acknowledge, to be grateful, and thus to receive the other blessing.  Who drop the coin that brought out the orchestra, who dropped the coin that started the tune, who dropped the coin that created the music in our life?

(1^st  slide)

Permit me to present mine.

Miss Jurilla.  I was here when they buried her.  I made a homily which I never had a chance to deliver.  She was my Filipino teacher and I hated that subject.  I always thought that tagalog aka Filipino was an imposition of imperial Manila.  We met several times when I was still a seminarian, studying for the priesthood,d and despite the low grade she was always proud of me always recalling to everyone around that I was her student.  And so did Miss Campos our science teacher and Mrs. Adrias our English teacher.  Mr. Sorongon was the teacher who taught me that I look good in my locally made Edwardson.  I believe him because he himself was a fahionista in our days – look at the bell bottom and tucked-in long sleeves.  We had Miss Patingo the epitome of what is prim and proper.  Miss Cabrera once called me the only gentleman in the classroom because I stood up to erase the blackboard.  We had Lina Divinagracia who instilled discipline not just with her looks but also with her gait and superstructure then (at least in the eyes of a little boy).  Miss Montinola was also there and because of her I went to the stage every year and because of her I learned to love music, played a little piano later and had my first and last dance with a girl on stage.  Then we had Mother Carmela and Mother Blanca who provided the stronger influence with their bigger coins instilling in me love for God, the church and service. 

And finally Mr. Crucero whose looks I idolized for some time with his long hair and very nice moustache. 

(2^nd slide)

Obviously at that age I can only imitate the long hair.

(3^rd  slide)

And then we had Mr. Eclar and Mr. Emboltorio – I remember them for they taught us to work diligently and as men.

There are still other people whose goodness and lessons need to be recognized and thank.  This is just my own.  You have yours.  We were blessed by their presence in our lives and we are doubly blessed now that we recognize the good that they brought out in us.

(4th slide…….  and last slide)

All of these coins started something in us, that brought out the best in us in the good that we do especially now.  And may we never forget the little coin that started it all. 

 (picture of St. Marie Eugenie.)