To the fullest

LOGARTA

On Wednesday evenings, we have group meditation in the chapel of the structure built for retired priests, especially those with illnesses. It is a clean, quiet place which is very accessible. Clearly concern and affection are behind its setting up.

The aura of serenity helps our moments of silence become fruitful. We know Cardinal Vidal was responsible for this place of refuge. So when we read Simeon Dumdum saying he had been a lovingly compassionate shepherd of priests, we fully agree!

Death really makes people express gratitude more profusely; sometimes we ask why appreciation had not been done earlier. Maybe, we think and feel more deeply when a person leaves. Only now after much reflection do I realize what a significant gesture the cardinal had done in providing Kamatuoran, our anti-narcopolitics group a room at Patria.

That, of course, meant not only support but actually acceptance and a high regard for a structural approach to the drug issue. And he got involved not from the distance. Inday Nita Cortes-Daluz had assertively dealt with the concern in their village. Observing that the sale of prohibited drugs was very rampant in their place, she sought to control its sale by tricyle drivers. She stopped their entry into the village.

So the drivers approached the cardinal. So Inday Nita had an encounter with him. That must have clarified the issue for the ban continued; but the drivers moved the business to another place. Inday Nita then called for all to take part in the drive to stop the sale of illegal drugs. Those things happened years ago.

We were all very happy to have the Visayan saint, the saint for young people. But I do not remember thanking the cardinal for that; he initiated that, and exerted a great deal of effort for it to actually happen.

We are now blessed because all the many gifts Cardinal Vidal has provided us have been revealed. Having failed to thank him, we now thank the Creator for this life lived to the fullest.

I do not remember having thanked LRQ — my mentor — for providing me with very many occasions for learning. In the usual setting of the classroom, she asserted that if learning does not happen among the students, then we have not taught. Her many provocative questions taught us that the questions we raised were a very important part of teaching.

I also learned a lot because she allowed me to be with her research assistant, Sauntri Mangharam, as she observed and interviewed informal settlers. That was such an intense exposure to deprivation. It was actually the beginning of the realization of the limitations of book and classroom learning.

One needs very badly to be immersed in the book of life.

When we honored Madame Quisumbing, many remembered how demanding she had been, how she did not want mediocrity. I actually had many humbling moments with her for there were times when my work did not meet her standards. God knows what kind of person I would have become without those ego-deflating times.

Beyond the personal, LRQ was such a great gift to her family, our nation and even the world. She was the first female secretary of education and had been President of Unesco APNIEVE (Asia Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education).

In her seventies, she wrote her autobiography, “An Instant Is This Life,” “which was followed by several autobiographical and reflective books, including The River Flows On, The Bluebird Sings!, and Destiny, with corresponding music books.” Thank you, dearest Divine Creative Spirit, for this woman who lived and shared her life to the fullest!