February is Family

“Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  (Mark 6:1-6)

           The month of February is special to me.  Almost fifty seven years ago, on February 24, 1955 my mother Natividad gave birth to a heavy and healthy eight pound baby and named him Robert Raymond Paguia Reyes.  For anyone, her or his birth month becomes family month.  A person does not only celebrate her or his arrival into the world by focusing on self.  An infant is unique but is not an independent component of the cosmos.  While the beginnings of the earth continues to baffle scientist who have in the past decades created theories of how the earth began from the “Big Bang” to “Evolution” I am quite comfortable with Creation.  God created all of us and not only that, God created all of us out of love.

            God’s creation makes us members of several families.  First, we are members of the family of nature that is why St. Francis calls everyone and everything sister or brother.  Second, we are members of our family of origin, our father, mother, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.  Our families are members of the Nation we belong to.  Nations belong to the grand family of nations sharing this one beautiful and life-giving world.

            Tomorrow February 2 is Candlemas Day.  Candles are brought to Church to be blessed.  Candles are symbols of the light of Christ, “Lumen Christi.” I remember a good friend Sr.  Lumen Dungca OSB who celebrates the gift of her religious vocation on February 2.  I say a special prayer for her as she begins her new life as the newly elected prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in the Philippines.  Sr. Lumen belongs to this special family of religious sisters who follow St.  Benedict’s and St. Scholastica’s rule.

            Two weeks from now will be Valentines Day.  This is traditionally a day when lovers find creative ways to say and show what they have been saying all the time to each other.  This day celebrates an important family, the family of young lovers as well as couples who are slowly but surely growing into the mystery and grace of love.

            Twenty six years ago, I was a student in Rome when EDSA took place.  It was February 24, 1986 in Rome but already February 25, 1986 in the Philippines.  I was with priest friends.  We had a bottle of champagne in front of us.  We were listening to BBC.  We had promised not to celebrate my birthday until we hear the good news.  And so we did.  “The dictator has fled,” the reporter happily announced.  We popped the champagne cork and poured sparkling champagne into our glasses.  My friends sang happy birthday and what a birthday it was.  It was my birthday but more, another birthday of Philippine Democracy.

            A few weeks ago, I said goodbye to a wonderful family who have taken me in as one of their own.  On January 15, 2012, a Sunday,  I celebrated, better we celebrated family at Barangay Pavia in Project 4.  The Pavias are just one of the many families that have adopted me.  The first Filipino rector of San Jose Seminary was Fr.  Antonio Leetai, the brother of the Pavia Matriarch, Lola Dahl.  Lola Dahl died last year.  Months earlier her eldest son Joe died.  I journeyed with both Lola Dahl and Joe.  I will miss Lola Dahl’s vacuum cleaner like kiss coupled by her grateful declarations, “Salamat, Salamat at dinalaw ako ng anak kong pari!” I will miss Joe’s incisive analysis of Philippine politics.  But I am consoled, I will not miss Baranggay Pavia, which will always be there as family to this askal like paskal (pari sa kalye)…who appears homeless but not really….Thanks to February.  Thanks to Family.