"getting old" girls and boys - Memorial Mass of the Assumption

We have to admit and we should not be ashamed to admit that every time we gather as old girls and old boys of assumption at every memorial mass, at every feast of the Assumption and every two years for the grand reunion, we are in fact living up to the adjective that distinguishes us from the other boys and girls of Assumption.  We are getting “old.”  Some of us, as we can see around us, are better in hiding this reality than others.  Some are just so good in fact that only a twenty percent discount can reveal the truth.  Others like me are not so good.  One time when I was about to pay the bill in a restaurant a waiter casually asked me for my senior citizen’s ID.  If this is injury to my ego, what followed was further insult when coming down from the car at the emergency room of a hospital to anoint a sick person the security guard ran towards me with a wheel chair.  Sometimes, though this does not speak well of religious simplicity, a daub of Oil of Olay in the morning can help boost self-esteem.

But that does not change the fact that every time we gather we are not just old boys and old girls – we are getting old boys and getting old girls.

I believe speaking about this reality at the start of this reflection is necessary in order for us to face the truth which this memorial mass for our dead alumni is presenting to us today.  It was not a long time ago that Eva Serra was with us every time we come to gather. As far as I know and I have joined you since 2006, she was a permanent fixture of gatherings like this.  My eyes would sweep through the chapel to look for the grand old lady, the real old girl.  And now she is no more.  Nothing is permanent in this world.  One day like all of them whom we remember in this mass today, we too will fade away from this world and even from the memories of those we love.

I would like to reflect with you two points on our first reading today from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

First, Christ is the first fruits, the risen Christ is the first fruits, the resurrection of Christ is the first fruits.  What do we mean when we say first fruits?  The first fruits recall the practice of the Jews to give back to God the first fruits of their farms and fields or the first fruits of their labor, the first fruits of their income.  It is not easy to give back to God your first fruits – your first income, your first produce.  The natural tendency is to hold on to these fruits, to hold tight to these fruits as guarantee, for these give us a sense of security.  To give up the first fruits for God is therefore is to act contrary to our nature to hoard and to give up that which should have guaranteed your good and security.  Giving that up is an act of trust, an act of faith that more fruits will follow, more produce will come, more blessings will ensue, and something better is imminent. 

This is what the resurrection of Jesus as first fruits is assuring us.  We too will rise again, we too will live forever, we too will conquer death, that the death of Tita Eva, the death of our alumni is not final but a prelude to something more marvellous – we just have to trust because something better will come.  And what is this something better?

This is our second point.  This something better St. Paul says is when we reached that reality in our lives when God will be all in all.  For sure all of us when asked, would want to live forever.  We are afraid of death.  Death and separation saddens us.  We are naturally afraid of being forgotten.  At the retirement home for priests in the seminary where I live, we have two old priests there who are still very strong.  Fr. Sumbong is 93 and Msgr. Casa is 96.  Sometimes they would laugh at their age and say- nalimtan na kami sang Dios.

We want to live forever but this is not the kind of life we want to live life forever with.  St. Bernard rightly observed saying, “to say nothing of our feeble bodies . . . our reason is so often deceived in its judgments, and the will weakened, and our memory is clouded over by forgetfulness – why is this so – because God is not yet all in all.  Only when God is all in all will my reason know no error, my will no grief, and my memory no fear; and we will come to enjoy that wondrous calm, that perfect sweetness, that eternal security which we hope for only in God.”

Only when we die with Christ, only when we rise with Christ can God become all in all in us.

Today as we gather to remember our alumni let us be enlivened with the hope that we who are getting old girls and getting old boys will come to a better old girls and old boys day in the grander and better reunion that is to come when God will become all in all.