Orphan Deacon Delivers Mary: Pregnant with Marvel and Mercy
AS PUNCTUAL AS they come, Ate Taki and Sis Carrot were also as sure as I was standing in our patio looking out for them. They came from the 6 am Mass, certain that they will miss the other one in Madriñan, and sure our road trip was secure. Soon, we were on our way to fetch the Recollection Master. I saw Sis Becky from a cluster of seminarian-looking chaps she was with; she returned my wave when her eye caught our arrival. She approached us shortly, anxious about the time it was taking Reverend Justine to emerge. I shared her chagrin that it was not Fr. Joel Saballa who was giving the talk. We would agree later that his recommendation was in order, but this is going ahead of this narrative.
Ate Taki is an excellent driver, given that daughter Carrot is also reliable behind the wheel, and she easily coursed through early San Bartolome de Novaliches traffic, with little help from her lovely co-pilot. She even had the generous mind to drive through her favorite McDo to pick up for us separate orders of coffee and companion-chows. Although, at the outset, they served only as garnishings to our sumptuous in-transit chat. My black brew happily confirmed the earlier Pacquiao mug as a liquid hor’s deuvre. Mother-and-daughter was a heady morning marvel!
Sis Becky’s anxiety quickly dissolved when we reassured her that waiting is a crucial part of fetching (as her task of inviting speakers has already established long before this switch happened). I handed it to her commuting skills as a tenacious parcel of her commitment to serve Mary, since she no longer has the drive to Lector-Commentate at Mass. Although she wore those hats at the Eucharistic Celebration after the Talk.
Reverend Justine did emerge from his meeting upstairs and made our foursome rife with his share of stories. I filed away the conversation and was happy to note that it all figured in his talk later, with AT’s (Ate Taki, for brevity) oft-repeated name as a surprisingly proximate travel mate, in the short span of time that we coursed the streets of Quezon City leading to Madriñan. When we finally got there, AT dropped Sis Becky and me off at the driveway to proceed to Jollibee (McDo didnt’t have the pancake the Reverend preferred). A lot of good it did him because, after he was introduced by Sis Becky, I was up front enough to sense his nerves trying to get a hold of his large audience. It was, thanks to Ate Marivic’s effective sales pitch, the largest ever (120 warm bodies!) to fill the MCS chapel, much to the beaming acknowledgment of National Director Fr. Fed Yumang. He was certainly in his element as he prepped the congregation (swelled by the Cabanatuan contingent) after the “Little Crown.” Not that he was ever out of it in his spirited homilies each time he occupies the Ambo. Thus, the “Theological Foundations of Marian Devotion” (all based on Luke’s 1:26-38) eased through our collective senses. Fittingly, Reverend Justine chose a clip of David Haas’ “Magnificat” as his opening prayer. Then, his teacher persona quizzed the ‘children’ on the nine pictures of Mary he projected onscreen; his ‘class’ got all titles (Mother of Christ; Immaculate Heart; Perpetual Help; Lady of Mount Carmel; Lady of the Rosary; Lady of Lourdes; Lady of Fatima; Lady of Miraculous Medal; and Madonna and Child) of the Virgin correctly. Next to this, he played a voice clip of Cardinal Tagle’s ‘The Word Exposed’ episode. And playfully proclaimed “At dyan po nagtatapos ang ating recollection.” To the crowd’s cheerful response. And, to my keen observation, his immense relief. It was wise, his interspersion to his visuals, a clip of Cardinal Tagle extolling Mary’s perpetual virginity, divine motherhood, immaculate conception (in St. Anne’s womb), and assumption. He called her an Advent figure, the mother of how to patiently wait for God and prepare for His coming, the plant that blossomed in the altar, and the dove that descended from heaven, symbolizing the consent of the Holy Spirit. More than enough evidence for the Marian to defend his/her patroness should there be an unsolicited onslaught on the holiest human ever lived.
He gained his second wind, I guessed, when someone from the audience offered to translate ‘wrestled’ as ‘buno.’ Then it was smooth sailing for this dedicated deacon. Proceeding, he cited the parallelism between Eve and Mary as the following: Eve was the mother of the living; her disobedience caused death; making her the mother of death. Mary, on the other hand, was the mother of a new creation; her obedience (fiat) caused our salvation; and made her the mother of eternal life (Jesus).
He had no need for the virtues of Eve to enumerate Mary’s heart’s disposition to, readiness for, and acceptance of God’s plan because, as Pope John Paul II described her, she was ‘Dives in Misercordia’ (rich in mercy). Add to this Pope Francis’ “A church without women is like an apostolic college without Mary; the Madonna is more important than the apostles; the church is feminine because she is the spouse of Christ, and a mother.”
In support of the foregoing, the Cardinal enumerated Mary’s patience: carrying Jesus in her womb for nine months; finding no room at the inn; giving birth to Him in the direst of conditions; the horror of their exile into Egypt; her sorrow at the sight of her Son being mocked, flagellated, and crucified; until His death, where she stayed at the foot of the Cross.
She never complained, kept all in her immaculate heart, the beauty, goodness, and mercy of God intact, accepting His will for her to be the mother of His church.
Where she remains our advocate, companion, and intercessor.
Reverend Justine told us he is a Legionary. Indeed, because, towards the end of his presentation, and before showing Manoling Francisco’s “Face of God,” he dubbed the Virgin Mother as the model of saying ‘Yes’ to God, uttered the word that best describes Mary – ponder – and teased his audience “baka magsisi kayo na inimbitahan nyo ako, laluna yung mga galing Cabanatuan. While the crowd murmured a disapproving laughter, he continued to say he is also a formator of BEC, one of three orphaned children, and enjoined everybody to be God’s instrument, and let our prayer transform us to the face of God. And Mary.
Amen.
