Friends burning for friends

Every year, the clergy of Laoag go on what we call Lakbay-Aral. Before I was ordained in 2003, the priests had already toured Northern Luzon, Bicol, Bohol-Cebu, and, Zambales-Bataan-Corregidor. On my first lakbay-aral in 2004, we enjoyed the sun and sand of Boracay before our pleasant intrusion of the Panay provinces (except Antique), and Guimaras. In 2005, we flew to Davao. Our destination the following year was CalaBaRZon. Then with our new bishop, we spent four days in Palawan last year. This February, we had a great vacation in Thailand, our first trip abroad as a clergy. Aside from the satisfaction of our need to relax and unwind, this annual trip aims at strengthening our brotherhood. The following was a brief reflection I wrote in a rush when I was compelled to give a homily in one of our masses during our Panay sojourn in 2004. There's some good in keeping old planners (smiles).

The years have taught me that God wants me to treat and approach him as my friend. One day, while on retreat, I was praying God to be always with me. It was a rather cloudy morning, but gradually, I began to see my shadow, myself, before me. The sun had finally victoriously wrestled itself out of the dark clouds. And then I felt tears welling in my eyes and then falling. I realized God will always be with me. I may not see him, but I know that He would continue to shine at my back even without my acknowledging him. When He shines thus, I see myself. As a friend, God will always - even eternally - burn for me.

But God wants to - in fact, does - burn for each one of you as well. It seems that this is how He wants to be identified: I am your friend. "I no longer call you slaves but friends because I have told you everything that I have learned from my Father."

We have been called to a special kind of friendship called the priesthood. As God's friend, I have been gifted with this special relation with him. And I behave as a friend as I fulfill my priestly responsibilities and obligations.

Since the priesthood is a gift we have received from one and the same Friend, we must also treat one another as friends. Don't friends love one another? "You are my friends if you do what I command you. Love one another as I have loved you." How did Jesus love us? He kept himself burning unto death for us.

Do we count every brother priest our friend?

Frederick Faust once said: "There's a giant asleep in every man. When that awakens, miracles happen." I'd like to think as one among this company of friends that that giant is the friend in us.

I have read of a man who got lost in the woods. He met a stranger and asked him, "Can you show me the way to the highway?" "No, I can't," said the stranger. "But if we walk together, we might just find it."

Wouldn't it be a big miracle if we walked the priestly stretch together without becoming a babel of voices against a brother priest or anyone? I believe we would become more credible as friends to the people we serve if they see us priests behaving as friends to one another.

If they ask us, "Who do you say that Jesus is?" and we tell them, "He is my friend, our friend," we would make sense.

May this get-together make us grow in our friendship.