To simply love

Avocado Road on March 26, 2007 was a hub of activity at 4:30 in the morning. Most of us prepared to leave the house in order to skip the traffic. Our destination was the Shrine of the Divine Word at the Christ the King Seminary. We will attend the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-elect Fr. Leopoldo (Pol) Jaucian, svd. Half-awake, we took the cab towards the site and greeted the sun rising over metro manila.

The Shrine was full of people who had close encounters of him. St. Jude Parish and the Catholic School was in full force. The crowd was a representation of people whom he worked with through the years. There were even guests from outside the country. I could feel the outpouring joy and love by the people for him. There was this lady who clicked hundreds of photos even before the ceremony started. The jubilant response of the people would say it all. The people cheered (even cried) even at the start when Fr. Pol marched down the aisle...


I noticed that the seating arrangement was color coded. We were included into the yellow code that meant 'others'. Still at the very end, our affiliation with Pol cannot be fully identified. I also noticed that it was the unidentified 'others' portion of the shrine that was easily filled up. They were the very people who cheered most and was so excited to catch a glimpse of the new bishop...


The ceremony lasted for a long time. What brought home to all those rituals were the words of Card. Rosales---"the main work of a bishop is to simply love... pray!-- it is in praying that you maintain your intimacy with Jesus... this is the only way that you would remain faithful to your call..." Tough! It made me wake up...

The people listened to the Cardinal on his homily. The order was so tall but the people seem to silently say--he can do it. He did that for a long time! For those who closely know Monsignor Pol, no convincing is needed that indeed he is such a very good person. I CANONIZED HIM! How can I resist from my not doing so? His vocation called for higher things. Now, he will be with his people in Abra. He is there to love.