By Fr. Bel R. San Luis, SVD
Do you still remember the song of megastar Sharon Cuneta about graduation?
“High school life, all my high school life, every mem’ry kay ganda. High school days, all my high school days, are exciting kay saya. Bakit kung Graduation Day, luluha kang talaga.”
Looking back, indeed the happiest and most heart-tugging event was my high school life, especially graduation. I remember with nostalgia the innocent pranks, our close-knit class at Holy Infant Academy in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. Until now we come together for reunions, remembering the good old days.
We were so close that some of my classmates got to marry each other after college.
I also had my “crushes” but it was until there only because by some God’s mysterious design, I entered the SVD Christ the King Seminary.
It’s the season of graduations in the country. Graduations are a time to say “goodbye” to one’s Alma Mater, classmates, mentors and tormentors. It’s the time to move forward, commencing (from “commencement”) a life that challenges the graduate to a higher academic level and greater responsibility.
We Filipinos, especially among the poor, have the beautiful custom that when one of the siblings finishes college and lands a job, he or she helps the younger ones to pursue their studies.
Sometimes this is to the detriment of the eldest if she is a girl. She sacrifices so much for the schooling of her siblings, ending up as single for life or PhD — Pang Habang buhay Dalaga.
But while the old saw says, “Charity begins at home,” it should not end there. We should look to the bigger family where there are numerous underprivileged who can hardly meet their basic necessities of food, shelter, and education.
Sometime ago we had as guest in our teleradyo program Salitang Buhay on DZMM the former secretary of health, Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan. Among others, he related that when he graduated from medical school in UP, his ambition – much like that of college graduates – was to work abroad and make lots of money.
That dream never materialized. He found himself working in the poorest of the poor villages of the Philippines. The “conversion” took place when he encountered poor folks in a remote hinterland who had not seen a doctor in decades! That was an eye-opener.
He decided to devote his life, serving those simple poor living in the backwoods. With his limited resources but full of idealism, he felt happy, fulfilled, and blest as never before.
Obviously, we can’t all go to the backwoods and work among our less fortunate brethren like what Dr. Tan did, but we can imbibe the spirit of sharing our time, talent, and treasure for them. That’s what true and genuine education should be in a developing country like ours — an education-of-the-heart-for-sharing instead of an education-of-the-mind-for-profit-making.
For a holistic, well-rounded education, one has to remember, too, a vital dimension, which is the SPIRITUAL. You may graduate as a student, but you will never graduate as a faithful Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim.
Remember, the Lord is there when you are baptized, married, and buried. Or, as someone puts it, when you’re “hatched, matched, and dispatched.”
Whoever you are, wherever you go, do not ever forget God in your life.
CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!
ST. JUDE. Today, join our novena to St. Jude, Saint of the Impossible, at the Divine Word Shrine, Christ the King Seminary, on E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City after the 6 p.m. Mass.
A healing prayer and anointing of the sick will follow.