"Pads"

Seminarians of the Diocese of Tagbilaran with Bishop Leonardo Y. Medroso, DD, JCD and the Vocation Director, Rev. Fr. Vengie Laguros

Something rather curious happened to me a few days ago. I must tell you, this is not the first time that it has happened.

I was waiting at the intersection of Sikatuna St. and B. Inting when a vacant tricycle stopped as I hailed it. I told the driver where I wanted to go, namely at the St. Joseph Cathedral. After making the Sign of the Cross and a short prayer before travelling, my mind wandered as I thought about a lot of things (in a reverie mode once more). While I was deeply immersed in my hodgepodge of thoughts, the driver woke me up from my reverie when he asked me, “Pads*, as aka hunong? Sa atbang or sa kumbento?” (Father, where do you want to stop [or drop off]? In front [of the cathedral] or at the convent [rectory]?)

I had barely heard the word “pads” and I thought that he was just simply talking to me in a respectful way and not that he was really thinking that I was a priest. So I just replied, “Diha lang ko sa atbang.” (Just in front [of the cathedral]).

I was surprised that instead of just dropping me off at the passenger loading and unloading lane, he really entered the cathedral parking lot and dropped me off at the entrance of the church. I handed to him my fare. He refused, saying “Ayaw nalang, Pads”. (Never mind, Father.) He was very respectful and was even reverential towards me.

I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t a priest yet, that I was still a seminarian. But because I became somewhat flustered, I only managed to say, “Ayaw uy! Maikog ta.” (No, I’d be indebted.) And I dropped my fare on the coin receptacle, said thank you and got out of the tricycle before he could even return the coins to me.

This is not an uncommon experience for me. Because I almost always wear a miraculous medal and a ten-bead rosary bracelet and to top on that, my general comportment and my seemingly silent and serious demeanor – it’s not surprising that I would be mistaken for a priest. Also, I regularly serve at Masses at my parish and at the cathedral. So churchgoers would become familiar of me. I see a lot of faces at church most especially when I assist the priest at distributing communion but I don’t and I can’t really remember all of them.

It’s not because that I felt rather honored that I have been mistaken for a priest again for the ‘nth’ time, but it’s because I’ve come to realize that there are still people in world today who still respect priests and what they stand for. Yet this is also something that worries me in some way because more often than not, priests and even we seminarians, may not always be living witnesses of Christ. Many people have high expectations of us, that we should be men of great holiness. But we are broken people, too. Before we were even formed in the seminary, we already had our basic formation within our respective families and communities. Not all of us have saintly backgrounds. Some of us come from ideally religious and loving families. Some of us come from broken and destructive ones. Some of us come from wealthy households, middle class homes and even more from poor families. Some started out as altar boys who eventually entered the seminaries. Some even knew nothing about God or the Church until they met a priest or seminarian who encouraged them to enter the seminary. Our environments have shaped us even before we have entered the seminary. We have been shaped by our experiences be they good or bad. Each of us has individual and varied crosses to carry.

Where our differences lay, there our similarities begin. Where we once were and where we are at, God found a way to come to us and call us to Himself. For reasons that are beyond our comprehension, we have been called to the priesthood. We were given a choice. Some chose to be deaf while we have answered. Try as we may, with the grace of God, we do our best to follow His will, to witness to Christ by trying to live godly lives and preach not only with words but with our own actions. But at the end of the day, we remain humans, frail and weak. Take out the title ‘Pads’, ‘Frater’ or ‘Bro’, we become just like ordinary persons. We do things—good, bad or amoral. We are normal people.

Whether we like it or not, a responsibility bears upon us to live up to the dignity that is accorded to us as priests and priests-to-be. It is not an easy task because what little mistake we make redounds to others within the priestly fraternity. More often than not, what happens is that the mistakes of a few priests or seminarians are compounded and brought down upon those who silently and diligently work in the vineyard of the Lord. It is indeed a challenge and a grace for each one of us to live up to this dignified title and be worthy of being called as alter Christus (other Christ). While we remain alive and breathe, we remain imperfect human beings striving with the grace of God to be formed and molded to our Master, Jesus Himself. We acknowledge our imperfections but we do our best to magnify God through our little and good works.

I am about to take the second half of my priestly formation, which is my theological studies. Even after all the years I have prepared for this – my religious formation with the Franciscans, my philosophical studies and diocesan priestly formation at IHMS – I suddenly felt a surge of fear that I would already be a few years away from becoming a priest. With prayer and a good dose of spiritual direction, I’ve let it slide down the gutter and I move forward hoping that God will give me the grace to courageously trudge on this path less taken. When that time finally comes, God-willing, I will finally be able to righteously claim the moniker of “Pads.”

*Pads – a colloquial nickname for priests derived from “Padre”

SADIOSTA - Seminaristang Aktibo sa Diyosesis sa Tagbilaran