At the Crossroads 15

How can I thank you, dear people of God, who made the October 17th celebration in honor of us priests, occasioned by my 30th sacerdotal anniversary, possible? I would have gladly passed that day in silence, celebrating the great gift of God in the quiet of my heart. But some people in the Filipino Ministry-Diocese of San Bernardino must have loved their priests so much that they keep track of their sacerdotal anniversaries, birthdays and other milestones in their lives.

Of course, at first I gave a big NO to the celebration! I am not used to celebrating the significant milestones of my life publicly. In our family, we were taught to contribute to the celebration of the good things that happen to others but to humbly and quietly celebrate those that happen to ourselves. It was a good ethic to make one’s personal celebration an opportunity to help others; this means that one saves for others, especially those most in need. Later, I would spend my significant day with the poor and with those who served them in their struggle for a better life. But when I was introduced to the way of life of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, I learned a fundamental value enshrined in our religious congregation’s Constitution: to love to be unknown and to be counted as nothing!

My biblical scholarship, my own personal experiences with people, my family training and seminary formation and my solidarity with the people’s quest for a better life and fuller humanity taught me the finality of celebration as gratitude to God and to the people and to all of creation. And the true value of humility lies in being less, so that others may be and become more!

But I finally agreed to celebrate when the organizers said, it was not just for me, but for all of us, priests: the people would want to celebrate that with us, with me. And more, the celebration would be for a cause: for the school of the indigenous children, for the house of the elderly MSC and for vocation promotion and priestly formation in our Diocese.

With that conviction, I chose the readings of the mass: Is 61,1-6a.10-11; 1 Cor 11, 23-26 and the gospel of John 15,12-20. I asked that the classical hymn to our Lady which every Catholic should know, be sung: the SALVE, REGINA! And of course, our MSC Hymn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The collection at the mass and at the door of the reception be for the flood victims in the Philippines. So, now we could dance the night away.

For your generosity and solidarity, for the joy shared in the Priesthood of Jesus, may I thank you with all my heart, in the words of St. Paul: “I thank my God, each time I think of you and I pray for you with joy because of our partnership in the Gospel!” (Phil 1,3-6). Father Ben Alforque, MSC