visible rhetoric

I would like to share with you my reflection this evening in connection with the year for priests and the feast of the presentation of Christ in the temple using this vespers’ reading from the letter to the Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of two priesthood, the Old Testament priesthood headed by the high priest, and the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Though both are called priests they are not one and the same. The Old Testament priesthood is different from the priesthood of Jesus Christ or should I say the priesthood of Jesus is different from the priesthood of the order of Levites. This distinction is very important if we are to appraise our own priesthood, and the priesthood these young men are so eagerly desiring to become one day. This distinction between the two lie not on its object of reconciling men and women to God but in the differences of method in which this reconciliation is to take place. When men or women deviate from the ways of God they commit sin. Sin...

On Wednesday February 17 we are going to start the Season of Lent. The Season of Lent is the first part of that long liturgical cycle we call the Easter Cycle. It is composed of the Season of Lent (40 days), the Paschal Triduum (3 days) and the Season of Easter (50 days). As you can see the Paschal Triduum is central to this cycle. In fact it is such a great feast that it would take us 40 days to prepare (Lent), 3 days to commemorate (Paschal Triduum) and 50 days to celebrate (Easter). It is important that we don’t take the seasons singly less we separate each of these from their context which is the Paschal Triduum, the 3 day commemoration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

While making my usual rounds of the Cathedral compound I saw a young man in red overalls sweeping and mopping the shrine. Not recognizing him as one of our workers, I approached him and asked who he was. And he told me his story. When he was in college, he narrated, he was brought by his benefactor to accompany him every now and then to clean the shrine. They would clean the shrine at night – throwing away withered flowers, scrubbing the floor free of melted candles, and sweeping and mopping the place clean. That was his weekly routine then.

These days (it started last January 20) the barangays are making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Candles, the Mother of all Jareños. In the past it was our Mother who visited the barangays. Now we’re turning the table around – now it is the barangays who are visiting her in her home, the cathedral of Jaro. What is so special about this visit? It is special because it is not just any visit but a pilgrimage. What is a pilgrimage? The English word pilgrimage comes from the Latin word peregrinatio (the same word is still used in Spanish and French). It is composed of two words: per which means through or across and ager/agri which means fields, country or land. A pilgrimage is a movement, a journey, a “passing through,” and since one is just “passing through” it connotes that that movement is something temporary or a state of being abroad.

Some people don’t get it. And yet the answer follows the same logic we use almost everyday. Some people may have asked you, why pay so much to have the images repainted? Why bring it to Pampanga when we could have them repainted here just as they did in the past (I have heard that these were repainted in the early 60’s by a group of people from the leprosarium.)? Well, as I have said, the same logic we use almost everyday applies. I can put make up on your face in no time. Anybody (and that includes your husband) can put an eyeliner, your lipstick, your eyebrows. Anybody can concoct a meal with the best ingredients you can possibly provide (I say concoct, I’m not saying edible!). But why go to a parlor and choose a reputable one at that? Why get a good cook? And why spend more money if there is a free alternative? It’s because you are looking for talent and are willing to pay for it. Yes I can dress you up if you are going to a Halloween party and cook you a meal if you wa...

By the time you read this diary you would have already put in the laundry your polka dotted dress and your red shirt, your thirteen round fruits would have been eaten or are rotting away in the basket and you would have already exhausted yourself talking and raging about somebody else’s child who lost a finger or two from firecrackers. It’s New Year, the earth is a year older and so are we.

Last week, support for the Kabalaka Project came in trickles, though they are very encouraging trickles nevertheless. We did our best to explain the program during the Aguinaldo Masses and the Misa sa Gab-i or the Mass of Waiting and some people did come forward and showed a lively excitement for the program. A birthday celebrant called her friends inviting them for a party and told them that in lieu of gifts she would accept donations for the Kabalaka Project. A young lady with a kid came, who wanted to remain anonymous even to me, brought with her 3 big alkansiyas full of coins for the project. The young people of our parish made pastries and sold them to mass goers in the Cathedral and in the barangay chapels of San Vicente and Bakhaw and people bought them (in most days, they ran out of stock) knowing that the proceeds will go to the Kabalaka Project. Young boys would go around after mass bringing with them plastic bottles with the Kabalaka Logo on them and people would drop w...

The Kabalaka Project has been launched. There is no turning back anymore. It would have been easier for us to retain the usual dole-outs that we did in the past, the usual limos. Now we have to go through the difficulties of running livelihood programs where we need to tap and develop the skills and potentials of people; we have to go through the intricacies of micro-finance and the usual problems that goes with it; we have to form in people the values needed to sustain the program and we have to worry about other people’s lives down to their minute details. It would have been easier to just simply dispense one kilo of rice and a few canned goods every now and then when the need arises and when we have the funds to do so. This time it’s going to be harder. Nevertheless we believe that this is the right thing to do and the right thing has to be done despite and in spite its difficulties.

On Wednesday (December 16) we will start the traditional Misa de Aguinaldo or the Misa de Gallo or what the Tagalogs call Simbang Gabi and what the Capiznons call Misa Dulom. Nobody really knows exactly how this Mass started. Most probably it started in Spain near the French border as a devotion to the Birhen de la O – the pregnant soon-to-give-birth Virgin (the “O” coming from the so called “O Antiphons”, antiphons which start with “O” 7 days before Christmas.; You will hear these antiphons said during the Alleluia). It found its way to the Philippines via Mexico. It is a privilege votive mass granted as an exemption by Rome (with a so called indult) because of a pastoral need (people flock to churches in large numbers). It was granted the exemption not because of the time for the mass but because of what is done during the mass. The vestments of the priests are white (contrary to the rule of violet), the Gloria is sung (contrary to the rule suppressing the Gloria for the seas...

Now I understand what Jesus meant when he said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains but a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit.” I wrote here in this column the many things that Nay Coroy left me to take care of – novenas galore and candles to be lighted at certain days of the year. As of this writing there have been many offers from our parishioners to lead the various novenas said in the parish and as of last count, at least four people offered to sponsor the 14 candles to be lighted on the altar of the Sacred Heart. Now that altar will not only have 14 lighted candles on a First Friday. It will have 42! I have also informed Nani (she has been substituting Nay Coroy in the novenas even when she was still alive) that I intend to distribute these to different people. That way the parish wouldn’t find it too difficult when such unavoidable transitions, such as death, occur in the future. I am in the process of filling up the list...