“Give them some food yourselves”

I remember the day when I was about to start teaching catechism in my assigned area in

Motrico (this place is under San Isidro Pastoral Station in Lapaz, Tarlac City under the priest-in-

charge, Rev. Fr. Medel Malonzo). Anyway, that was my first day then in that place. I was expecting

more than forty children for the summer catechetical program. Siempre, excited to meet new

friends.

Share ko lang, people there were keep on saying that Sacred Heart of Jesus Chapel is

miraculous even the time of Monsignor Vidal Cruz.

So, I arrived there earlier than the children, I think that was 7:30 am. As time goes by, five

children arrived and after some minutes another ten children arrived and suddenly after some

minutes I called the volunteer catechist assigned there with me and I was shocked, yes, I checked

out the name list and OMG because they were 80 participants. I was pressured and so nervous, it

seems I don’t know how to start.

When I started talking and talking and while I was giving brief introduction of the cover

of the topics, still, there were many children who were still arriving. Like the same phenomenon

in the classroom setting, may sobrang aga dumadating at may late din. The number of children

increased up to one hundred. While staring the big number of participants, seemed I was on the

top of the mountain looking at the crowd, seemed I was Moses and they were Israelites. Kidding

aside, I tried to imagine how to control different kind of attitudes that they have. Imagine, in a

class setting, there were attention seeker, talkative, bully, playful and first day there were crying

and etc… so I examined myself because that was my first time to stand in front of hundred children

different from my previous apostolate and different feeling in giving recollection in high school.
 I asked myself, “can I really handle them well? What food I have to share with them? Do

I really have food to share? or yes, I have food but not ready to give?”

Let’s interpret food as our knowledge and learnings we gained here in the seminary.

Because, Maimonides said, don’t interpret words in the bible literary but figuratively. So, think

about it. We as seminarian, do we have this food to share in our future assignment, such as

Apostolate area, parish, giving talks and etc. as Bro. Essel Macalino shared to me “Apostolate,

teaching catechism to the children and living with the people is an application of what we have

learned in the seminary.” So, I made myself available in distributing loaves and fishes to the

children because I believe in saying “Give what you have and learn to know what you don’t know

have yet.”

Jesus in the Gospel is reminding us to share the learnings, when we say learnings, kasama

na ang attitudes, personality, holiness and being the face for Christ for others.in my situation, it

was hard but I kept holding-on in the inspirational words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “If you

cannot feed one hundred souls just feed one.” But, siempre, little by little, step by step, the one

will become two and three and up until it grow up in a big number. There is always a process. So

that whenever we go to our respective apostolate areas we can able to give food to them, feed them

and let the embrace you because they Jesus is with you.

My dear brothers, remember this words, we need to feed ourselves and souls in this

seminary so that, we can share it to other whom we meet in the future.