Br Ceci M Hojilla FSC
USLS Homecoming Mass Homily
December 28, 2007 Main Chapel

Thank God we are still alive and at least for a day can be together again to celebrate not only our past in thanksgiving but also our future in the Hope that He who brought us together in our younger days, will remain our comfort and guide as we get a little older in the years still to come. Looking at the list of names on your homecoming program reminds me of a chance meeting and conversation with an older DLSU alumnus. He was nearing ninety when I got to talk with him. He said: When you are young, twenty-five years seems to be such a long, long time. But when you are much older, twenty-five years is really nothing more than a mere blink of an eye. How true, I said, and for some twenty-five years or even less is all the time they got to live among us. Take a look at the list and see how many of your classmates could never attend this homecoming or any other homecoming even if they wanted to. We can only remember and pray for them.

Last month, during our Foundation Week Celebration in De La Salle Zobel, I had a very strange but instructive and inspiring conversation with a thirteen-year-old grade seven student. When he was in grade six, it was discovered that he had a brain tumor. One day he just totally collapsed and had to stop going to school. He had at least two major brain operations and several months of chemotherapy. One operation took more than eleven long hours. He claims he is cured but he still has a metal plate under his skull and a tube in his body to facilitate treatment, if necessary, in the future. His parents, both doctors, prayed as they’ve never prayed before and did everything to save him. His twin brother now helps him catch up with his studies in school. He went through very difficult times he readily admits. But what he remembers best about his near-death experience is captured most vividly when he said, with a quiet, simple smile on his face, “My friends and family never gave up on me. I am loved”.

Are we not all loved? And because we are loved, we prosper. Is it not also true, because we love, others live and grow. If we do not love and care for one another, we suffer, we die. If we sincerely love and care for one another, we shall live, and together live forever in the presence of the Original Lover, God. The homecoming message I invite you to remember and celebrate is nothing more than the simple but powerful Christmas message. If we love, we live. If we don’t love, we die. This is true of individuals; this is also true of institutions and society. If we love our school it will prosper and grow; if we love our people and country, we will not only survive. We will also succeed in making our dreams of Peace and Prosperity for all Filipinos come true.

Love is indeed the answer. But we have to be very careful here. The love we speak of is not the cheap love we often see or hear in the mass media. Neither is it the romantic type of love we fantasized about in our adolescent years. The love we refer to here is the kind of love that gave us Christmas. “God so loved the world, He sent his only begotten Son to live among us.” God offers us Jesus to show us how to love. But more importantly, God gave us Jesus to empower us to love and live like Jesus. It is the kind of mature love described by St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. It is a love that willingly disciplines and sacrifices the self so that “the lost, the last, and the least” among us may also live. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of John Baptist de La Salle. This is the Lasallian way… the way we strive to love and live up to this day

Let me end my short sharing with a beautiful and unforgettable story that happened about three years ago. A few days before Christmas, the father of two of our students in De La Salle Zobel suffered a heart attack. He died right in front of his helpless family while they were having lunch. I was informed that the father had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than seven years just to save enough money to send all his four children to La Salle, which is not cheap. He invested and lost his money in the CAP (College Assurance Plan) that collapsed earlier that year. That same year, it was discovered that his wife had cancer and was given only a few months to live. This obviously added to the physical, financial and emotional burden of the father that triggered an asthma attack, which in turn caused his heart to fail.

Six months later his wife, the mother of our two students also died. This was when I got to meet the children. It seems a few days before she died, the mother asked the children to write a letter to God. In that letter she told them to put down all their feelings of frustration and thoughts of pain, their doubts and hurts, their hopes and fears since their father passed away. A few minutes before she herself died, she had her children read to her their letters addressed to God. Then she asked for the letters and said to her children: “Nothing to worry about now. I will hand-carry these letters to God myself.” And those were her last words.

I could not help but feel the sorrow of the two children as they related to me the events of the last six months. But I could not also help notice the glow on their faces as they told me their story in the last few minutes since they entered my office actually smiling. So I asked. “I can just imagine the unbearable pain and hurt you must have experienced since the death of both your parents. But the two of you look so happy being back in school. How’s that?” The older girl answered: “The pain will always remain but we are happy to be back in La Salle. When we are here we forget all the sufferings both our parents went through for our sake. All we remember is how much they loved us and sacrificed for us. And sending us to De La Salle is the greatest proof of that love.” When I heard her say those words, with her younger brother nodding in agreement, I was so proud and happy, I felt it was Christmas Day in July.

My dear fellow-Lasallians, may your re-union and return to your Alma Mater even just for a few hours bring back memories of love. The love you have received as well as the love you have generously given. Not only during those years of growing up but even now in your grown up years. La Salle Bacolod is proof that God truly loves you. And you, you are living proof that God obviously still loves La Salle Bacolod… very, very much.

Saint John Baptist de La Salle. Pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts. Forever.

DISCOVER

Br Ceci Hojilla
De La Salle, Dasmariñas