Ferdinand’s home

Long before Pope Francis exhorted Christian leaders to go out and get “the smell of the sheep” on themselves, the Vincentian priests of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal National Shrine parish had been sloshing through the depressed areas of Barangay Sucat in Muntinlupa City—celebrating the Holy Eucharist, administering some sacraments, or just plain being there for the poor.

Those “areas” are the zones, puroks, and sitios that lie below the clusters of subdivisions of diminishing degrees of medium-level affluence from the East Service Road of the SLEx.

One priest who was previously assigned in Payatas thought he had already seen real poverty before he came to the parish. Still, he was appalled to see how a few square feet of space could be home for a family in that basic ecclesial community (BEC).

Last Sept. 8, Fr. Jimmy A. Belita, CM, celebrated the Holy Eucharist in the home of Ferdinand in Purok 6, where Ferdinand lay in state. He had been shot dead for supposedly being a drug pusher.

After blessing the deceased in his coffin, Father Jimmy called for family members to join in the sprinkling of holy water. Ferdinand’s four minor children came forward. There was no other relative among the Mass participants squeezed into the narrow walkway outside Ferdinand’s home. Neighbors had been taking turns in feeding the children for the meantime.

Home was a space between two old hollow-block walls. Assorted flimsy materials straddled the walls to serve as roof. One side of the wall seemed to have been carelessly knocked down to serve as entrance and provide ventilation. The donated coffin filled up all the space, and it was difficult to imagine where the living area was.

And yet there was no melodrama in the atmosphere. Concern was evident, but lighthearted. Complete trust in Divine Providence was never more palpable.

Father Jimmy had often commented on how the BEC truly exemplifies love of neighbor.

Ferdinand’s death could also have happened for love of country, but how complicated can the expression of love be? To savor the purity of the soup for the soul, do you remove first the scum that floats on the surface of the broth, or the dregs that sink to the bottom of the pot?

“MCP,” 75, is a parishioner of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal National Shrine.