We held our first Kumustahan on Nov 9, 2020, as our way of checking on each other, just to see how each one is faring during this challenging time of the pandemic.
Our designated spiritual guide, McAbs, took his role seriously and provided us a theme for this gathering: Call to Relationship.
It was actually the second faith sharing that was conducted. The first one was held during the regular Bursary Committee’s monthly meeting. For that meeting, McAbs assigned the theme: "The journey of life is a journey of faith," with scripture reading taken from Luke: The Road to Emmaus.
The Kumustahan’s theme proved to be appropriate as the group was invited to reflect on how each one heard this call to relationship, which consists of the relationship with God and relationship with our neighbors—relationships that Soc pointed out are two sides of the coin. Ringkoy further reinforced this idea that you cannot separate the two, for one is the expression of the other and vice-versa.
As apparent in the sharing, this call to relationship can take various forms in the lives of each one.
For Erik, it was the strong bond that he has forged, since his grade school years, among the fishermen of Garcia-Hernandez, the bond which only strengthened as the years went by. The sudden emergence of COVID unexpectedly brought another call to relationship to be forged even more deeply, when his children, disenfranchised and rendered jobless by the virus, gathered in their home. Somehow, COVID brought them together as a family.
For Glenn, this call is made manifest in his relationship with his fellow clergy and the parishioners he is serving as he bid time to be fully incardinated into the diocese. This is also manifested in his relationship with Christ as he continues to wonder, as he did when he was still in IHMS, what made a Baboga member special to even merit His attention and to be called to become a priest. A question that may not have an immediate answer for it may well be a life-long question--and one which may eventually become clear from hindsight, well into the future—but the questioning of which can only serve to deepen that relationship with the One who is doing the calling.
For Ringkoy, he heard the call to relationship a long time ago when he and his wife first joined the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP). Decades later, this relationship has grown stronger, which likewise nurtured his faith life, his relationship with Christ, which he is able in turn to share to his own family and the community, into a benevolent cycle—a deepening relationship of one, nurturing the relationship with the other.
For Jecebu, it is not only the guarded relationship that he establishes with his patients in the clinic but the constant, daily struggle to risk his health and his love ones’ health to take care of others, with nothing to rely on but his trust in Him.
For Juntabs, the call to relationship remains strong as he volunteers as a catechist in Oloy’s parish, teaching little kids from the non-sectarian schools the rudiments of our faith. This same call provides the same impetus to examine his business relationships--for the serendipitous engagement with Ringkoy’s brother to make PPEs for the front liners has unexpectedly brought windfall to his business; as more organizations, both private and public, reached out to him, some of which may require hard ethical choices to be made.
For Soc, the pandemic provided more challenges to this call to relationship, which required for him to go out to the frontlines, instead of hunkering down inside the four walls of the convent. He has seen the unexpected renewal of this relationship between man and nature--especially in a community reliant on tourism—as nature is taking this time to heal the scourge brought be human exploitation.
For McAbs, it brought him to a deeper reflection on the meaning of church, which is the family. Since the lockdown, he and his family have been cooped up inside their home, purchasing all their needs online, doing all work from the comfort of their house, and for his kid, doing school online. Time spent together with the family made him rediscover “the domus of the church is the family” and the relationship that they foster between themselves.
The call to relationship may actually have started last year when we started discussing about our Ruby Jubilee. It cascaded into a deluge of Facebook posts and SMS messages that made our reunion a success. It resulted into another call to relationship with each other when we embarked on the Bursary project, which would entail for us to establish even more relationships—with the IHMS, the Faculty, and most especially, the beneficiary. And it brought us to this faith sharing which somehow is strengthening our relationship with each other, and as we may have felt too, after listening to each one—our relationship with Him. (nox arcamo)
