Eighty Seven is Only A Number

This was the topic of my homily in the Holy Mass which I celebrated on November 01 in the parish church of St. Francis of Assisi in Maa, Davao City.

November 01,1934 is the date of my birthday. So that was 87 years ago. When I said these words I was not belittling my age or human ageing. I just wanted to point out a tragic situation which had been happening in the world during the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

It was a period in human history which was called the Age of the Machine. It was a tragic situation when the machine, inseparably tied with human labor, began to be considered more important than the human laborer.

I also mentioned that in St. John University in New York where I studied English, for reasons only of practicality and confidentiality without any hint of the machine- age mentality, I was referred to as “21 C 10, 06,175”. It meant that in the Graduate School, the 10th Section of the entire population of 06,175, I was Number 21 among the students whose family names begin with letter C.

In my homily, our Church has a counter response, the 5th Beatitude of today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Why, what is the connection between being a peacemaker and being a child of God?

The answer is: in essence peacemaking is be-getting. To beget is to have a child.

The counter response of the Social Teachings of the Church is the 5th Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God”. This should be an essential component of the formation process in the seminaries and Houses of Formation of Religious and Secular Institutes. More importantly and urgently, also in the parish communities and pastoral associations and groups. The bishops and parish priests can be the leading examples. The formative thrust of this Beatitude should find a place in the concept and practice of synodality.