A part of Dagupan St. road was closed to give way for a very special man coming to our Parish Church, Sta. Monica - a relatively small Church. One way to prove it is the fact that once you get out our Church, the road would gladly welcome you. It's unlike the other Churches that have large facade and parking lots in front - we do not have it. Its size is only about half (or even smaller) of a normal Church, let's say Quiapo Church. That's why the barangay officials closed a part of the road and instructed the coming cars to change direction.
Today we had an extraordinary mass. It's special not only because it's the installation of our new Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Juanito Arroco Jr., and it's the 21st celebration of our Parish, Sta. Monica, but also because the homily was delivered by his Eminence Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales. It's really amusing to see our small Church being crowded by people - some standing were almost reaching the front. Luckily we were able to sit at third row since we came 30 minutes earlier. The number of priests also overwhelmed me - around 20 priests were present (input name here, I only know some).
Cardinal Rosales, often referred as "tatay", is a big man compared to his other companion priests. He looks like a foreigner. I don't really know how to react when I saw him but one thing's for sure, I had goosebumps to see a holy man standing near me. Although I assume that the other priests are also holy, but his holiness is different and exceedingly elevated than them.
The Gospel was about a man who was born blind. He was healed by Jesus, but was criticized by Pharisees, saying that "This man (Jesus) is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." Cardinal Rosales, in his homily, said that a blind man would only want one thing. If you ask him to choose between money and sight, he would undoubtly choose sight because that's the thing he never had in his entire life - to be able to see again and see the truth. On the other hand, a person who can see would want so many other things, which already depends and differ from person to person, since having a sight is already normal. Just like the pharisees who since then had a normal vision but have never seen the truth. On the other hand, the blind who was only able to see a few moments ago has already seen the truth immediately.
Just like in life, many of us can see normally and yet we are too distracted by the demands of the earth. We try to seek but we never succeed because we are looking at the wrong way. Cardinal Rosales said that it is better to be blind physically than be blind in our hearts.
Towards the end of his homily, he said that it is not the task of a priest to give us the light (it's God's) but to bring us near the light; to guide us. A parish priest should do everything he is capable of to guide us towards that light that will lead to eternal happiness. In return, we also have our tasks, which are to obey, support, help and pray for our parish priest.
I actually like our new Parish Priest, Fr. Juanito Arroco Jr. He replaced Rev. Fr. Paschal Ma. Gorgonia who served us for 10 years. Fr. Paschal is a jolly priest - a natural born comedianne - but has a very long homily. He is also frank and surely elaborates his homily, which makes his mass lasts for 2 hours or more. But I loved him; I cannot refuse that I've learned a lot from him. However, as I said, I'm liking our new Parish Priest (more? I don't know haha!). Fr. Arroco also cracks jokes that keeps the spirits of the people alive. More importantly, his mass is not too long, but does not sacrifice the quality of his homily. Hehe. :)
He's most probably 35 years old now. I've got some information about him from http://www.rcam.org/news/2004/ordain_7.htm. Its reflective to his personality that he came from a very humble family. He's from Tabaco City, Albay (Bicol region and still part of Luzon). His father is a farmer and tailor while his mother is a housekeeper. He studied Philosophy and Theology at UST.
When delivered his speech as the new installed Parish Priest of Sta. Monica, Cardinal Rosales can't help to smile (that is so cute!) because of the funny sensible things he was saying, like being assigned by "tatay" (Cardinal Rosales) as the spiritual coordinator of Pieta that is composed of widows. He also said that he is starstrucked everytime he sees "tatay" - like he is some kind of a celebrity. Moreover, he sarcastically reacted about the problems that he shall face after seeing our not yet well-constructed Church (stressful, yay!). After that, the mass had finally ended and a small feast was celebrated outside the Church - they served lugaw.
As much as I want to bless and hold the hands of Cardinal Rosales, I can't because of the many people crowding him that I do not want to include myself or else there will really be a chaos. I will have my time. I know it.
As for our new Parish Priest, I shall watch out on how he will steer the Church for the next years of his term. I think that's more important than observing on how he will improve the church (the building itself) because it is faith of the people that shall make our Church well-constructed. Today is another leap of faith for all of us.
====================================== Side comment:
My brother and I were confused on the terms cardinal, archbishop, and other titles of the priests.
So I researched about it in Google (that you can obviously search also):
Priest - has the authority to give sacraments of the Church (baptism, marriage, etc.)
Bishop - govern a diocese (local regions)
Archbishop - a bishop of a higher rank; presides an archdiocese
Cardinal - a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop; collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which a body elects as a new pope.
So, in short, it's a rank - priest as lowest and cardinal as highest (for this part only). According to http://www.cbcponline.net/bishops/index.html, there are over 60 bishops while 14 archbishops (including Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan who was interviewed last Wednesday by Winnie Monsod at Bawal ang Pasaway episode about homosexuality).
I don't know how they decide on the jurisdiction but basically it is based on the size of the area. I also noticed that that in places that is lead by an Archdiocese, for example Fernando Capalla as Archbishop of Davao, there is an auxillary (helping) bishop, like George Rimando as auxillary bishop of Davao. Therefore, this place is huge to govern that is why such titles are needed.
Cardinal Rosales is the Archbishop of Manila and Cardinal of the Philippines.
=====================================Another side comment:
I am disappointed.... to see only and a lot of men in front of us.
Why isn't there any woman? Oh yes, there is one - just the lector.
Let's go back to history. Before Spaniards came, our ancestors were govern by babaylans (even higher than a datu) who is a woman. Therefore our society that time is very much matriarchal, But the Spaniards came and introduced us one God and a patriarchal kind of society. Actually, they were very shocked to know that women are considered very important. The rest happens, and then we came here in our current situation.
It's funny to share but I actually like to be a priest before but that's crazy. Holy women are only called to be nuns, and that's it. I envy priests. And why Jesus should be a man, not woman? I can't either answer this question. That's the way things are.
However, I will just grip on the fact that one does not need to be a priest to be holy. Anyway, Jesus said that gender, food, societal status, etc. does not matter in Heaven.
Also, I can't imagine a woman doing the passion of Christ. It's awful. I think God made that decision for good. Our biases just get in the way.
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