WITH bags packed and tickets ready, I flew to Tagaytay from Cebu the other day for my annual 3-week seminar. This has been a routine for me for almost 40 years now, part of a continuing formation that I submit myself to.
Tagaytay in summer is, I think, the perfect place to be. It certainly will make you forget about global warming. It’s like a lucky halfway house, right at the middle between urban and rural life. It’s got flowers, fruits, views, nice people, serenity and isolation.
The activity is actually many things to me. First, it affords me a wonderful time to rest, a most welcome break from my usual work load. I get to wake up later than usual, I have time to do sports and exercises, and to go to excursions where I don’t worry about getting lost in the mountain, for example.
This is still a mystery to me but I can’t deny the fact that I yearn for this change of regimen. Part of me pines for an occasion to rough it up with others, doing physical, even strenuous things, away from my usual intellectual work. It soothes nerves, relieves stress, dissipates tension.
This type of activity has a peculiar and effective way of being united with others. I am getting convinced that this direct physical contact with people and with things gives one a different kind of communion that can’t be attained through ideas, words and arguments. I can’t explain this yet.
I get a certain kind of satisfaction when I can let go of the usual amenities and savor again the hand-to-mouth way of life. One time when I gave a seminar to young altar boys, I realized I enjoyed dipping my fingers together with theirs in a common bowl of food.
I also get the chance to indulge in my hobbies—reading, singing, and just allowing my thoughts free-range movement. I feel like a child who suddenly gets scot-free to play under the rain, or a prisoner who manages to escape.
And it’s amazing what thoughts and insights one can get out of this situation! Truly, many mysteries of life get revealed in these occasions. A certain lavishness bursts out amid the Spartan conditions.
Of course, the yearly activity provides me with precious moments to go deeper in my spiritual life. I seem to discern more clearly the enigmatic ways of Providence and to feel more keenly the inexplicable stirrings in the heart and soul. These will always remain intimate and personal.
But there’s also a serious part of this affair. I get assigned to teach something. This year, the class I give is on ecclesiology, a discussion about the nature of the Church. This is always a very fascinating subject to me.
The students are all professional men who already know a lot of things. What they need to have is to get an organized over-all understanding of the subject. The usual problem is that their knowledge is often one-sided, and not very systematically theological. It’s more anecdotal.
But they are quite aware of the problems and the issues in current Church life, and some are conversant of the historical background. Thus, the classes end up in very animated exchanges of thoughts. I just have to worry a bit about seeing to it the bare essentials of the subject are well taken up.
Another blessing of this activity is the chance to mingle with more people and to know new ones. At this stage, I am becoming more conscious of the inter-generational, inter-regional and even inter-racial wealth the activity provides.
It warms the heart that in spite of the variety and differences of temperaments, backgrounds, characters, professions, etc., one can still notice a certain unity of spirit and continuity of the same vocation.
The joy this gives me is indescribable, and it can only lead me to an outburst of thanksgiving, and a more ardent resolution to be ever faithful, eager to find ways, big and small, to be such.
I think this is the real beauty, importance and relevance of our need to rest. We get to act out God’s rest after the creation of man and the world. We get to realize more deeply that true rest is when one is with Christ, who said:
“Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11,28) Once rested, one is raring to return to ordinary work.
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