“Maging Akin Muli”

The film Maging Akin Muli is basically a story about Junjun (Marvin Agustin), a young deacon, and his
often puzzling, but ultimately meaningful journey towards spiritual enlightenment. He struggles to
confront and find the relevance of his chosen vocation in this day and age. On another note, the movie
tackles a jumble of issues that every Christian faces on a daily basis: morality, sexuality, capital
punishment, abortion, parochial intrigues/scandals, and the culture of gossip and violence.

This is my favorite movie so far. it tells the story of a young man’s journey to priesthood. JunJun (marvin
Agustin), 26 is a newly ordained deacon and he has been appointed to the Santiago apostol parish for
pastoral exposure which he will be prepared for 6 months until Fr. Doy, his “shepherd,” recommends him
for ordination as priest. Maging Akin Muli accompanies JunJun on his journey as he encounters the
complexities of life for his fellow pilgrims at the parish. The experiences he underwent challenges him on
his chosen vocation and the movie shows how he, through his trust in God’s providence, was able to
surpass it all. The film exposes the tension between human freedom and the divine freedom, in which
we discover through the character of JunJun that total freedom comes from total surrender.

Upon watching the movie, I realized how challenging it must be for priests and other members of the
clergy to fulfill their duties and responsibilities without diverting from their chosen vocation. Not only are
they faced with issues and life dilemmas - they are also burdened by the extremely high expectations of
the society. What most people don’t realize is that priests, deacons, brothers, nuns, and the like are,
when it all comes down to it, human beings just like the rest of us. They are susceptible to the effects of
changes in the society and the way we live. What I also realized is the contrast between the traditional,
and (let’s face it), shallow-minded Church, and the modern, or, if not liberal, then at least tolerant Church
of today. The way I see it, Junjun, being a young man that he was, represents the “transition” that
occurred between the traditional and modern Church.

While watching the movie, I literally saw Junjun’s eyes - a mixture of hope, awe and confusion that also
seeps through our own consciousness every now and then. This is primarily the reason why I
understand if deacons like him tend to deviate from their vocation – because they feel like they are not
worth or ready to fully accept God in their lives. I think that there’s nothing wrong about that. In fact, I
believe that it would be so much better if deacons like him stride away for a while, take their time to
reflect on their decisions, and just when they are 100% certain, that’s the time they could show the
genuineness of their decision to pursue the celibate life. That’s when the quality of their service both to
God and to their neighbors increase. That’s the time they could show how devoted they are to their
vocation. After all, the best lessons in life are learned from the mistakes that we commit and the
experiences we share with other people. What’s important is that we learn to “go back” or magbalik-loob
to our passion – our vocation, whether that is to be a priest, to live a married life, or to stay single for
whatever reasons we may have.
Inevitably, in our daily struggle to stay on the right track, we get lost in rhetoric, but “Maging Akin Muli”
shows us that, indeed, the search for true vocation begins with contemplation. We may assume that we
know ourselves intimately; after all we live through ourselves every waking moment of our lives – but
that is not always the case. In fact, I think that much of what we do is done subconsciously. If we stop to
analyze our drives, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, we may be surprised to know that there’s so
much more that we don’t know about ourselves. Junjun took the time to really understand and
contemplate on his mission. He did not rush into things. I think that it’s only right that we must not settle
for something we are not sure of. We may experience hardships along the way, but we must also
acknowledge that maybe there really is no such thing as a perfect vocation, just perfect intentions. And,
sometimes, they’re enough.