There are things that people wanted to cherish and one of these is the memories. Many people wanted to cherish, treasure, and reminisce, the good memories with them. But we cannot deny the fact that not only good things we can treasure as memories, there are a lot of bad events/occasions that happened in our life that we cannot forget. Some memories are not only created by ourselves but it was caused by people around us. People may remember or cherish two things in their life and these are good memories and bad memories that give significance in their life, memories that they will not forget.
Last February 6-10, 2015, I was assigned in the parish of Saint John of Sahagun in Tigbauan, Iloilo who is administered by Rev. Fr. Ronaldo Haguisan and his assistant priest was Rev. Fr. Jose Mauricio Tacadao. The acceptance of the people was good as what I expected because it is in the southern part of Iloilo unlike in the northern part that there is an attitude or mentality of “who cares”. I was able to ask some of the parishioner of the parish about who are the priests that they can still remember which I was shock of their answer. I was shock in the sense that they can remember almost of the priest that was assigned in the parish according to the year that they were able to go in the church or when they are fully aware of their faith which they have a lot of good memories. There are some bad memories from some of the priest but they refer to tell the good memories than the bad ones. Maybe because of the religiosity of the parishioners, they were able to accept the reality that not all the priest has the same attitude. They were able to accept who the priest is and accept them in their community as a priest. I came to the point that I was able to ask a particular question asking, “among the priest assigned in their parish and they were able to encounter, who among them is the one that you really cannot forget.” I am expecting that there is only one priest or there is certain common for them but each one of them has different “favorite” priest.
I was able to realize that every person have different point of view and different taste with the people around them which will depends on their own personality. What is important to them is that, there is a priest who will celebrate the mass with them who can turn the host and wine into body and blood of Christ. I can say that the parishioners was catechized well which they were able to reach that level of answers.
What matters here is the social acceptance of the people to the priest whoever assigned to them which they were able to accept his personality and deal with it. If there are good memories and bad memories, then they will keep it as part of their lives and learn with these memories. The life is a journey and the journey itself is the memories that we must be cherish, together with others the memories might be good or bad still it will mold us who we are.
-Paul John Depra
Philo Notes 