Mal-i mo, basi pa man lang, the recklessness of God - 15th Sun A 2014

I am the rector of the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary for the past four years now.  And I can tell you on your face that by far the seminary is one of the worst investments the archdiocese has made and continues to make.  Tam-an ka diutay sang balik kon ini i-komparar sa ginagasto indi lang sa kwarta kundi bisan pa sa human resources.  Last year we have to look for 1.4 million to cover up the deficit kag pila ang amon gin-recommend nga ma-theology agod magpari?  Duha gid - ang isa bag-o nga graduate kag ang isa nag-graduate 4 years ago pa.  Kon pamangkuton mo ang siyam ka pari nga na-assign subong sa seminaryo kon luyag man nila nga dira sila na-assign, kon hatagan abi sila tsansa nga magpili assignment, siguro isa lang ukon duha ang magapili nga magpabilin sa seminaryo, most will choose to be assigned elsewhere and that includes the rector.  Many times people will ask me, then why continue, why spend so much, why waste so much, why put your efforts on something that will have minimal returns, kahakug kag kakapoy but why, why continue?  Often times I would answer these questions by simply saying, mal-i mo, basi pa man lang.  Mal-i  mo, basi pa man lang.  And this is the theme which I would like to propose for our reflection today on the seventh day of our novena.  Mal-i mo, basi pa man lang.

I do not actually know what to call this kind of reply and what to make of it.  Is this optimism or just plain stupidity?  Is this a lifting up to faith or is this just a resignation to fate?  Is this firmness of resolve or is this just its opposite - palagpat kag patupa?  I don’t know?  What I know is there is one other person who did the same thing, and we have just read it in the gospel – he is the sower in the gospel.

One can sense in the sower in our gospel a kind of recklessness, a carelessness that borders to wastefulness - kahakug. Sige lang sab-og nga sab-og bisan diin lang nagatulupa ang binhi.   Some fell on the path, some fell on rocky ground, some fell on thorns, and some fell on good soil.   Why did he not make all of the seeds fall on good soil?  Not just some, or at least most.  Ano ni sia man, indi ni sia kabalo magpa-shoot?  Ano ni patupa na lang ni?  Ano ini palagpat?  If this was a good farmer, he would have saved on the money he spent on seeds if he did it meticulously, planting it line by line by line, making sure that these fall on good soil, and not just throw it around. 

But you see the sower is God, the farmer is God, the seeds that he was sowing is the word.  In this story you get the feeling nga ang Dios daw may batasan man nga, mal-i mo, basi pa man lang.

Of course you don’t go to your exams with this mindset.  But there is in this attitude that optimism and that gut feeling of hopefulness which drives us to do what we do, to believe that something good will come out of this.  There are things in life that we can never really be sure of.  There are things in our lives which we just have to learn to entrust and let go after working hard on it, after putting all our heart in it.  To see in this seeming wastefulness of the sower, in this wastefulness of God,  a generous spirit, a trusting spirit, of someone filled with hopefulness, an optimist who believes that something good will eventually come out of this.  Mal-i mo, basi pa man lang.

Last year I presented a parish program to a meeting and I started the presentation by telling this.  Kon magpatawag meeting ang parokya, kamo tubang ko.  Kon magpatawag seminar ang parokya, kamo gihapon tubang ko.  Kon ma meet ako sa CWL, DMI, Ladies of Charity, Knights of Columbus, kamo gihapon tubang ko.  Kon ma meet ako sa lectors, Eucharistic ministers, ushers, kamo gihapon tubang ko?  Hay diin na ang iban?  Daw kita-kita man sini sa gihapon, nagala-in-lain lang uniform ta.  Why can’t we reach out to others, especially to those who are far from the church, who have the church and God as the least of their priorities?  Why can’t we invite them?  Our helpers and maids, our employees, our co-employees, a classmate perhaps.  Ngaa indi ta abi pag-isab-og ang binhi, to broadcast these far and wide, isab-og lang bisan diin – mal-i mo basi pa man lang.  Otherwise kita-kita man sa gihapon.

Look, so many things in our lives are actually unplanned.  My priesthood was unplanned at least at the beginning.  Look at your spouse, how did you meet?  What we are now, many times was a result not of logic, not of meticulous planning, but many of these happened because of a wrong turn, an unplanned stop, an accident, a coincidence, some mere inkling we followed, a hunch, a guess, and even a gut feeling.  Natab-uan lang.  It’s not always logical, but there you are.  Mal-i mo basi pa man lang.

Look at the list of novena.  I am not supposed to be here today.  Fr. Dan cannot make it because of something important which was unplanned.  Mal-i mo basi pa man lang, something good will come out for him.  I am here today and it is unplanned – mal-i mo something good might come out of this, for me, for you.  You just have to trust God in a lot of things.  And be generous too.