Celebrate life: It's a fiesta!

I was going through my blogs in numerous sites like digg and friendster (or even multiply) so that I can somehow read and reflect (char...) as the stress is eating me inside out. So, I followed the advice of the Dalai Lama in his yellow book: "Knowing Yourself for Who You Really Are" that is for me to read and reflect on my past works for me to deplete stress... I don't paint stuff, neither do I carve, I don't make sheet music either so I ended up with searching my blogs for something I can call a "work". I found a blog that I did at digg.com and was "dugg" by at least 1.2k people at the site. It turns out, it was my blog about Fr. Chambers SJ and my thoughts about his death (As I discovered that he died after 2 years had passed na... tsk..) So here's my unedited blog a year or two ago

Every mass, if there's a bald, Caucasian priest presiding, I would always look at the altar. To check if that person was Fr. Chambers SJ. To this day, even if I already know that he has gone on to the afterlife, I still find myself yearning to see, make "mano po" and greet Fr. Chambers as I had always done in my Grade School years.

Just so you get the picture, Fr. John Chambers SJ is an American priest who was formerly a varsity basketball player in New York and had gone over to the Phils to do Missionary work. I remember he was putting his right hand onto his left chest as the Lupang Hinirang was sung so it means he is a Naturalized Filipino. He loves the Philippines. He was also in a good way, weird as he has a piece of rectangular cloth worn over his left shoulder. The implication of it according to him was:"I wear this because I'm part of a fiesta. I'm celebrating. Celebrating life".

Indeed, every mass, every recollection, every sighting was, for us, a fiesta. If there was a contest as to which priest had the most people in attendance every noon mass, he would win every single time (except of course if Fr. Sanz came back). I, together with my friends would place ourselves on the front row every time we get the opportunity to hear him say mass. Then, during his homily, we all laugh at his jokes, listen to his teachings (which our teacher quizzes about in the afternoon) then during recollection, we cry ourselves out because when he tries to talk about God and our relationship with God, he does so effectively. He talks to your heart.

Even in the silliest of stories (such as the soldier who got shot limb-by-limb, got bombed, but still was able to snatch the gun away from the japanese warlord and then died then afterwards his wife got a gold medal of honor for heroism) where we are already laughing nonstop to the point that our tears come out, we see the story behind his stories. A story so human, so down-to-earth that students who just had religious lessons every day like me can relate, imagine, reflect and learn.

The lessons behind his part stand up comedy, part sermon always boil down to one thing: our struggle through life with God. He also struggled through his Stage 4 cancer, in the end, he succumbed to the will of God. Let's learn from his example and together, let's celebrate life. It's a fiesta!