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Saturday, November 19, 2005
San Juan de la Cruz
By Chic Nery Fortich
IT'S BEEN nine years since I visited the Walled City of Avila, in Spain, with my daughter, Maia.
But, until today, the memory of that visit stays in my mind. It was the city where St. Therese of Avila, the nun whose writings had guided countless priests and nuns--especially those related to the Carmelite Orders, was born. It was for visiting her house and chapel that I had gone there.
But when I was there, I discovered that the tiny city, which you could walk around in half an hour, had three churches inside it. One was in the name of an ancient saint whose name I no longer remember. The second was in St. Therese's. And, when I asked who the other priest was, I was told that it was St. John of the Cross.
The tourist guide further informed me that St. John had been a highly intellectual person who loved the books that St. Therese also loved, and wrote very deeply meaningful poems. I was more than pleasantly surprised.
San Juan de la Cruz, whose name had been used to apply to humorous and no-care Filipinos for ages, had actually been a very intellectual person!
When we went inside the very fragrant room where books and artifacts of the saints were sold, we were told that one of those artifacts were rosary beads made of dried rose petals. That had been the source for the fragrance that dominated the room.
They also sold books in Spanish, and I found one of them was a collection of St. John of the Cross poems, I quickly bought one. When we returned to the Apartamentos Recoletos where we stayed, I picked up my high-powered magnifier and brought the book close to my eyes, and tried to read a few lines.
Browsing through the Spanish lines, I found a line, which kept attracting to me.
Iras ti tres veces, it said. I passed you three times.
I did my best to go down the four lines, and was finally able to get their meaning.
Those meanings no longer are in my memory, but, in my mind, their message stuck.
And I would like to put down here what they had tried to stay.
I passed you three times.
But I never saw you.
Too engrossed was I in my writing,
Too involved in my wording.
I took in a deep breath after reading that.
So that was the depth of his simple poetry. That was the profundity with which he got down into my heart.
And I could only say, wow!
Thinking of today's youth and adults, I sincerely doubt if there are still many who can stop whatever they're doing after they have read something like this, to give themselves time to take it as deep into their hearts as possible.
Do we ever realize that, as many times as possible, we could have passed God, but never really saw Him? Because we were too busy with our daily lives. Even too preoccupied with religious affairs. Or too busy attending to our business.
Too busy. Too preoccupied. Too concerned. That we no longer have the chance to even give God a real, true, straight-from-the-heart glance.
Despite all of these computers and dvd's, and fast-running cars, do you think any of us can still have the time to stop for a while, sit down quietly, and think deeply about what God wants from us?
Many years ago, when I was still writing a regular column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I came out with an article about my private fear for where I knew the children in Cagayan de Oro would go. My hometown was just a nutshell of what I felt the whole world should be worried about.
Because I felt that our children would go more and more into a world of computers and inane things. Things that would give them empty pleasure, and waste their lives.
Today, while there are more and more people who seem to be concerned about God, there are still even more people who focus their attention on the useless use of computers, on negative things and crimes, even sex and violence. And, while most private schools give their good training to children, there are still a lot more public schools who cannot control their children because there are simply too many of them.
It is impossible already to control our children. Especially when we, too, go out of our houses and leave them alone.
In my desperation, the only thing I can think of that could still take effect at this time of crisis is for each individual parent to try to reach into his child's heart, and tell him: "This is the only thing I can tell you from the bottom of my heart. Always remember that GOD, the only God in the whole universe and beyond, is just right in your own heart. If you want to do good, He will guide. But if you want to do bad, He will not stop you. For He has given us our own Will. Just make sure that what you will do, will come from the bottom of your heart. For that is where God lives."
(November 19, 2005 issue)
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