MARGARET Lizares Lacson, a cousin of mine whom we fondly call “Beging,” and one of the 17 children of Tita Herman and Tita Celiang, celebrated her silver anniversary as a Maryknoll nun last August 15.
It was held at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, more commonly known in Japan as the Yukinoshita Catholic Church, in Kamakura. This is the Parish where the Maryknoll Sisters in Kamakura live.
This joyous occasion was shared by two other nuns, who together with Beging, entered the order in Maryknoll in Ossining, New York.
Sister Delia Marie “Dee” Smith is from England, now missioned in Guatemala. Sister Euphrasia “Efu” Nyaki is from Tanzania, now missioned in Brazil. Beging, from the Philippines, is missioned in Japan.
For the three celebrators, all of them are still in the mission country that they were first sent to, have remained faithful to their calling. After 25 years, they are brought together to celebrate this very special occasion.
Asking Beging why she entered religious life, this is her reply: “I think everyone of us is searching for God or the Divine Spirit. Certainly, I was seeking for closer intimacy with God and I felt that religious life would bring me closer to this search. I recognize that other people’s journeys or search for God can be realized in other lifestyles, but for me the religious life was what called me.”
Having studied her whole life with the Benedictine Sisters at St. Scholastica’s Academy in Bacolod for grade school and high school, and at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila for her Bachelor of Music, the next question is, “Why Maryknoll?” She answered, “I joined the Maryknoll Sisters in 1990, after working for five years with Maryknoll Sister Virginia Fabella in Manila. My work with her involved writing to theologians in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”
Beging added: “My first assignment was to Japan in 1993 and I am still here. I was the first Filipina Maryknoll Sister to be sent to Japan. There I saw the ugly face of domestic violence. I volunteered at this center for five years.”
She continues: “From 1999 up to the present, I work with Filipino migrants. One part of our work with Filipinos here were the women victims of domestic violence. Many of our Filipino women married Japanese men under varied circumstances and there would be those who would experience domestic violence. Again, I saw the same bruises and battering and loss of human dignity, etc. What is added to the Filipino woman’s suffering is the racial discrimination. They were looked down as Filipinos, as poor, as stupid, cannot do anything right. They could not cook their own Filipino food, could not speak their own language to their children, could not see their Filipino friends.”
And finally, asking about her spirituality she ventures to say: “My life in Japan would not be complete if I did not speak of my Zen practice. My 22 years here has attuned my spirit to the rich and deep spirituality of this land, its people and the culture. I have to say that my spirituality has been influenced and enriched by all these three.”
It is so inspiring to share the story of Sister Margaret “Beging”.
To be in a far off place with traditions and cultures so unlike ours and yet being able to be of service and to give faith and hope and most especially love to those need it most—to think that most of them are our very fellow Filipinos.
God’s plan is always the best for us! God bless you more Beging!