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Gosh! The very Batangeneo, very Bridgetine, highly honered GAUDENCIO CARDINAL ROSALES said Mass yesterday evening at the Basilica of the Immaculate Concepcion… Our family went there very early. The Mass was said to start at about 6:15, we went there at past 3:00! We wanted to have seats for ourselves. And boy was I glad we came there early! There were a lot, and I mean a lot, of people who attended the Mass.
Everything was so exhilirating (well, not everything cause not everybody was nice)! I mean, just the thought of a co-Batangueneo (and co-Bridgetine, if I may add) being a CARDINAL is just so amazing! Plus the fact that he’s a friend of my father. Everything went on well, I should say. But there were just a lot of people there. A lot were sitting, and a lot more were standing up. We didn’t mind the heat, we didn’t mind the long wait for the Mass to start. Everybody had our dear old Lolo ‘Dency’ coming to Batangas and sort of thanking the people (and God of course). The people really received him with great honor and joy! When the Mass started, and the priests were all walking towards the altar, the people actually went to Cardinal Rosales to ask for his blessing or just even hold his hand! And when the indtroduction about him was read, everybody applauded with such warmth it gave me goose bumps!
I remember three things from his wonderful homily. The first thing he said was that he’s afraid. He didn’t thought himself worthy of such honor but if God gives it to him, then he submits to His will. He said that gaining such power and honor is a form of temptation — the temptation of holding on to that power and forgetting things that are far more important. Wow! That man is soooo humble! I mean, if I were in his position, I’d probably brag about it!
The next thing I remember is his being a priest — a GOOD PRIEST, as his father requested long ago. He told us of his first income, and his balisong, and how his father told him that to be a priest is no easy job. But although his father wished him to become a doctor and not a priest, he was allowed to enter the seminary on the condition that if he ever made it to priesthood, he should be a GOOD PRIEST. And indeed he is!
Lastly, I remember how proud he is to be a Batangueneo. He even told us that his parents were wedded in that very Basilica, and that he and his siblings were baptized there too, and that he went to school at St. Bridget College (like my Mom and myself… proud to be a Bridgetine!). In his eyes we were certain he really is proud to be from Batangas. He even left us yet another endearing quotation: ‘ANG BATANGUENEONG MABAIT, MAY PUHUNAN SA LANGIT!" So really, to be a GOOD PERSON really pays!
