ARVISU HOUSE - MARCH 31, 2007
by Frank Savadera, SJ
MAGANDANG UMAGA SA LAHAT!
I begin with a little story. For a very brief moment in my life, I lived in a boat. It was a huge ship … complete with a swimming pool, talking elevators, a huge theater, a ballroom and all the works and amenities. I was seeing places I haven’t even seen in my life. I was 21 years old then, fresh from college and yes and truly … still very FRESH. I was talking and interacting with people completely different from myself. For the first time, I was looking up, beholding the golden pagodas of Bangkok … and telling myself … WOW! What is this about? Do I deserve all these? What a GRAND experience indeed.
When the boat anchors on a port of call, the passengers of the ship, myself included were treated to a tour of the city. Afterwards a local family adopts us for a week. I consider myself very lucky because I lived with families who were very cordial and hospitable. They were very caring … not to mention loving … and all too generous in sharing with me their time and resources. I felt truly loved by them. And I really mean that. I’ve realized how people can simply accept others into their homes and treat them as family … yes, even for a week. Yet after a week, off we went back to the ship. We toured our adopted parents on board until we hear the old time favorite Auld Lang Syne piped in music. We usher our families back to the pier and we rush up back ON DECK to throw those colorful TICKER TAPES down below where our adopted families can hold on to one end.
There were almost four hundred of us on deck and you can imagine what a colorful site to behold those colorful ticker tapes swinging with the wind as we were also throwing confettis in the air.
But then, the huge BELL of the ship begins to toll … KLANG … KLANG … KLANG. Everybody heaves sighs of despair knowing how in a few seconds, the ship begins moving away from the pier. Everybody stays on deck holding onto his or her ticker tapes. As the ship moves farther and even father from the pier … we extend our tapes … and as the ship moves farther and farther … we feel the tapes being stretched … and overstretched … until such a time … and FINALLY … they SNAP … and BREAK … and with the BREAKING … we hear our hearts throbbing NOT so much BECAUSE OF ANXIETY … but because the IMAGE of those people disappearing in the horizon … as our ship moves away … reminds us of how we have allowed ourselves … for a short period in our lives … to be loved sincerely … and to love sincerely in return.
Why this story? Wala lang!
The past few days, the silent and quiter bell of Arvisu has been clanging! Have you been hearing it? We have thrown our ticker tapes and the ship begins moving away from the pier. Last night, during the despedida (when Joven was singing, when Bonel and Saniler were dancing and when Ladi was already too drunk to sing or dance), invisible confetti were being thrown in the air. But then, the reality is … the ship begins moving away from the pier. In a few hours, our tapes will break … and with the breaking … can we hear our hearts throbbing as well … hopefully NOT BECAUSE OF ANXIETY … but because we have allowed ourselves to be LOVED and have given LOVE in return.
Friends, I INVITE YOU … can we give a face to this LOVE and say that the LOVE we have received the past months is GOD himself. Thus, I ask: Isn’t it love … isn’t it God, the reason why Ed, for instance left GMA for TY jobs with JESCOM? Isn’t it love … isn’t God the reason why Dexter stopped pushing Polynerv … in favor of the more difficult tasks of pushing all of us to sing and sing with the right notes; Isn’t it love … isn’t it God, the reason why Jay and Jason tight rope everyday between de more and schedules in the office?
Isn’t it love … isn’t it God the reason why Bryan and Tootsie exchanged the possibility of finding better paying jobs for teaching deaf-mutes to sign language; Isn’t love … isn’t it God the reason why Job exchanged collecting urine samples for counting the minute- hand of the clock and ringing the bell 5 minutes before time.
Isn’t it love … isn’t God the reason why Benja left the shiomai business in favor of bote, dyaryo and garapa; Isn’t it love … isn’t it God the reason why Jereme left PhilHealth for a Jesus-doesn’t-remember-me infirmarian task in the house;
Isn’t it love … isn’t it God the reason why Ladi after delivering the valedictory address during his medical school graduation now contends with making us smile by his KALDERO ng Diyos and SYIEMPRE DEOGRACIAS spiels. Isn’t it love … isn’t it God, the reason, why Saniler and Phil exchanged Manang Roma’s braso de mercedez for Ate Linda’s perennial Kamote Q? Isn’t it love … isn’t it God the reason why Arvin forces himself to listen to boring lectures when he knows he can almost PERFECT the teacher’s exams? Isn’t is love … isn’t God the reason for Rod to exchange the possibility of talking Chinese to 2billion REAL Chinese than settling here with one non-chinky eyed Chinese? And lastly, isn’t it love … isn’t it God the reason why Joven chooses to simply mimic Ate Guy or Jacklyn Jose instead of flaring up because of our liturgical slips.
Friends, remember our experiences of Love and anticipate the coming of our next few life events. From Ezekiel, we learned how the God of love will continue to gather us and make us whole … will continue to deliver us from our sinfulness and compulsions … will continue to make with us a covenant of peace and dwell in our hearts … that will continue to assure us that He remains our faithful God and we, his people.
Remember, as well the first few lines of the Gospel: “Many of those who had come and seen what Jesus had done … began to believe in Him.” The past months, we have seen what Jesus has done. And so with LOVE, we believe in Him. We welcome the KLANGING of the bells, the breaking of our ticker tapes, the throbbing of our hearts with the HOPE that the LOVE we have received … will be the LOVE that we hope … as well … to share with others. Wherever that maybe … after today.
