The Rite of Ordination: "Brother, Let Me Be Your Servant..."

"Brother, let me be your servant...Let me be as Christ to you...Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too..."

(The seminarians of the Sacred Heart Seminary 

of the Diocese of Bacolod) 

These lyrics of The Servant Song as sung by the seminarians of the Sacred Heart Seminary rang throughout the walls of the San Sebastian Cathedral as the Most Reverend Patricio Buzon, Bishop of the Diocese of Bacolod, and Diocesan priests welcomed with Christ's embrace the three new Servants of God, Rev. Emiel Pasco Mijares, Rev. Rommel Falc Gomez Palivino, and Rev. Joemar Docto Solano, as they were ordained into the Sacred Order of Presbyters on January 14, 2020.

(Bishop Patricio Buzon, SDB, DD. 

leads the ordination of the three ordinands)

This was the first time I attended an ordination, although during my formative years spent at a Catholic school I was surrounded by priests whose duties, I understood then, included guiding our young lives and molding our characters with strong Christian virtues and values.

That morning, before the ordination, as I watched the three ordinands walked with their parents to the Cathedral’s altar, I realized it was a symbolic procession of a mother and father offering their child to God, much like Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac as his sacrifice.

As The Servant Song ended on the last rite, the Kiss of Peace, before Rev. Emiel, Rev. Rommel, and Rev. Joemar joined Bishop Buzon to celebrate their first Mass as Catholic priests, their dreams of becoming priests were fulfilled amidst the applause of everyone in the Cathedral that also brought a special kind of joy and happiness to their parents and families.

Witnessing a ceremony full of symbolisms and traditions as old as the Church itself, I also realized that it was a fulfillment of one man’s sacrifice to serve Jesus and His Church for the rest of his life.

And as the choir continued to sing the words of The Servant Song’s, “We are pilgrims on a journey…We are brothers on the road…We are here to help each other…Walk the mile and bear the load”, we, as parishioners, should help in their ministry as we are part of the journey of Rev. Miel, Rev. Rommel, and Rev. Joemar.  And while the rite of ordination had been completed, their work as Servants of God has just started.

And with each Holy Mass they celebrate, each holy sacrament they administer, and each blessing they give, we should pray for them till they have seen their journey through.

                                  
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Here's a short clip on the rite of the 'Kiss of Peace' that I took during the ordination.

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This piece was originally published by ADSUM, the official publication of the Diocese of Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines.

In its issue for February 16 - 22, 2020.

A Glimpse of The Creation at the Basilica de Sagrada Familia

(As the rays of the sun pierce through the stained-glass windows, it seems we are peering 

through the Virgin Mary's veil.)

Surrounded by a cavernous space in the basilica’s nave as it is punctuated by the towering columns that look like trees reaching up to the heavens, I was dwarfed by both the idea and the architecture that created this place of worship that, once completed, will be the tallest church in the world.

I am standing inside the huge Basilica de Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, that has been in construction since 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026, a hundred years since the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudi, who was hit by a tram in Barcelona in 1926.

Though the significance and meaning of the architecture and geometry of the Basilica would amaze any tourist or pilgrim, it is the intangible that caught my eye, literally and figuratively.

In churches, stained glass windows usually tell biblical stories by setting them in colored panes that come to life when struck by light.  At the Basilica de Sagrada Familia, an 87-year old Spanish artist, named Joan Vila-Grau, created stained-glass windows that, when pierced by the rays of the sun, seem to peek through Mary’s veil.

The light brought in by the stained-glass windows is just enough because, according to Antoni Gaudi, “not too much light, nor too little for both things blind and the blind cannot see”.

After roaming the nave of the Basilica, I went to sit in front of the altar for a prayer. And as it was late afternoon, the sun from the west started its descent and blanketed the Basilica with illumination, and what I saw was a glimpse, not only of the triumph of art and architecture of Gaudi’s imagination and the prisms of the stained-glass windows, but also of the sun’s declaration of God’s presence inside this place of worship.

The explosion of colors and light was man’s attempt to reenact the first day of The Creation, the day when God created Light.  

As humans, we will never be able to imagine what happened when God declared “Let there be light!”, but inside the Basilica, the colors of fiery red, orange and yellow from one window to the colors of the skies of blue and the sea of green from another that painted the walls and columns were more than just a reminder of His presence in a world where man sometimes questions His existence. 

For me, even if I was witnessing an infinitesimal percentage of what happened on the First Day - even if it were the equivalent of one sand, just one grain of sand from all the beaches in the world - as a pilgrim and a human being, this was more than I could pray for. 

Since my experience at the Basilica de Sagrada Familia, I always appreciate seeing the stained-glass windows in every church I visit. When I see light coming into the church through the prism of the stained-glass windows, I see beyond the figures and the biblical stories they portray. As light floods the church, and the illumination and colors brighten it with the presence of God, we should always celebrate because we are not just part of his Creation; we are at the center of it.

Those stained-glass windows at churches are not mere decorations or windows through which light is let in. It is not just an artwork depicting a scene in the life of Jesus.

It is a glimpse of God’s Creation, a reminder that, even if our sense of sight may limit the light and colors that we see, all we need is our faith to believe He is with us.🙏

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This piece was published by the Adsum, the official publication of the Diocese of Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines. 

(As originally published on the Jan. 19-25, 2020 issue of ADSUM Newsletter)

Travel Spain: La Basilica de La Sagrada Familia on the Feast of the Holy Family

(Basilica de La Sagrada Familia)

I was finally standing on the Plaza de Sagrada Familia after walking for 1.3 kilometers to Carrer de Mallorca from Passeig de Gracia just to make it to the schedule in my ticket reservation to enter the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia.

Towering above Barcelona at 566 feet, the Basilica de  La Sagrada Familia is one of the most visited sites in all of Europe, drawing both tourists and pilgrims. That day, I was both.

Designed by a Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, also known as “God’s architect” because of his vision and work on this magnificent place of worship, the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Gaudi died in 1926 after being hit by a tram in the streets of Barcelona.

While admiring Gaudi’s work from the ground up, one reflects the passages of the Bible as they are depicted by one man’s work that started in 1894 and was a hundred years from being completed when he died.

As the architecture and design of the Basilica are based on the Bible and the Life of Jesus, the three monumental faćades of the Basilica, namely, the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory faćades, are being completed to educate a tourist and evangelize a pilgrim.

The Nativity faćade shows the sculptures of the birth of Jesus in a scene that is most familiar to Catholics, the Nativity scene. I realized the ‘belen’ is the most popular Bible story we bring to life:  Saint Joseph and the Virgin celebrating the birth of the Son of God surrounded by shepherds and the Wise Men. This is the Holy Family, the Sagrada Familia.

(The sculpture of an angel guiding the donkey 

that carries Mary and the Baby Jesus with 

Joseph walking after them as they are 

fleeing to Egypt)

And in our celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family, not only do we honor and celebrate our mother and father, but we also should honor our grandparents.

According to Pope Francis, grandparents “are a treasure” and that their wisdom “is something we must welcome as an inheritance because a society or community that does not value, respect and care for its elderly members doesn’t have a future because it has no memory; it has lost its memory.”  After all, when we Filipinos say ‘family’, it includes everyone – from grandparents to grandchildren.

And remembering the meaning of the Basilica’s Nativity faćade that symbolically faces east as the rising sun gives birth to life – life that should revolve around the Christian values of faith, hope, and charity.

On the Feast of the Holy Family and in these times, we should pray for families that are being torn apart, are incomplete, and are facing challenges. We should look up to the Holy Family, the Sagrada Familia, as an inspiration of hope, harmony, and understanding among the family members.💖

As a tourist, it was easy for me to see this Basilica of Sagrada Familia as a monument of man’s devotion to his Creator. But as a pilgrim, it is a reminder of my role – our roles in my own families to look up to the Holy Family as a model Christian family that loves, respects and honors one another.🙏

The Vatican and The Treasures of the Church

It has been two hours since I entered the Vatican Museums, tracing the suggested path of discovering the priceless works of art collected over the centuries by the popes since the earliest years of the Catholic Church.  

Earlier during the day, after two bus rides from the home of Maurizio and Margarita, my hosts, in the Monte Sacro area in Rome, I was at the entrance of the Vatican Museums with my prepaid ticket and fresh legs, ready to discover the ‘treasures’ of the Vatican.  

And with my camera and the Museum’s brochure, I stepped into a different world, one that showcased the Church’s acquisitions that were gathered in one place and have been on display since 1506.

(Priceless marble statues from the antiquities 

on display at the Vatican Museums)

One by one, these bigger-than-life marble sculptures showcased in different galleries fascinated me knowing that each was one-of-a-kind and must have been created by the hands of Renaissance masters I only read about in history books, and that each painting and fresco hanging on the wall or decorating a ceiling was a priceless masterpiece created by the brush strokes of the world’s greatest painters from images and colors of centuries past.

But other than these statues of Roman and Greek gods like the Apollo of the Belvedere, believed to be 1,800 years old and sculpted from one solid marble;  the bejeweled candelabras, ancient maps and priceless tapestries; or the Egyptian monuments and artifacts that outlived the dynasties that created them, there are more artifacts, manuscripts, letters, and books that are kept away and hidden from public view. 

Of all the 70,000 items in the Vatican collection, only 20,000 are on display and I think one could not even digest the enormity and importance of each masterpiece.

Being one of the biggest museums in the world, the collections of the Vatican Museums are in itself an exhibition of humanity; a display of man’s creations over the past millennia.

But after walking more than seven kilometers through the corridors of time, art and intellect, I realized I overlooked the lesson I should learn from this visit. The works of art owned by the Vatican were all physical creations, things that were created by man as an expression of his humanity. They are ‘treasures of a museum’. 

     (The Bramante spiral staircase at the Vatican)

But as I continued to ponder while walking down the famous ‘Bramante’, a spiral staircase designed in 1932, at the end of my visit to the Vatican Museums, a question came to mind. And with both my train of thought and path going in circles, literally and figuratively, I asked myself this: what are the real treasures of the Church?

And I had to turn to a pope for an answer.

I found it, of all places, in a movie.

In the classic 1983 film, The Scarlet and The Black, which was based on a true story and voted as one of the best Catholic films ever made, Pope Pius XII tells Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty that “The real treasures of the church, what makes it imperishable is that every once in a while, someone comes to it … like you.” The Pope was referring to the monsignor’s heroic deeds during World War II.

But that line, though, was from a movie and its setting was a century ago.

Nevertheless, taking a hint from the Pope, I think the real treasures of the church are not the cold, white marbles sculpted into human forms by Renaissance artists. They are not the ones hidden in guarded museums, kept in cold halls and are lifeless.

The treasures of the Vatican are spread all over the world and you don’t even have to travel to Rome to discover them. They are right there in your own parish and you only need to look beyond what you actually see.

It is us.

We, who uplift the souls and lives of our parishioners; we, who help spread the Word as modern-day evangelists; and we, as useful part of Christ’s body, who preserve and practice Catholic values and traditions as they have been kept during past millennia - are the real treasures of the Church.

(The apostles guarding the Saint Peter's 

Basilica in Rome)

So, someday, after you visit the Vatican Museums, you can ask yourself the same question, and I hope you'll arrive at the same answer. 🙏

(December 15, 2019 ADSUM Newsletter edition)