Tomorrow, November 23, the Catholic Church will be celebrating the feast of Christ the King. Aside from being the highest among the religious feasts, it marks the end of the church calendar. Coming after it is the advent/Christmas season.
In the Parish of St. Francis of Assisi in Meycauayan, Christ the King celebrations are organized and prepared by the so-called Sub-Parish Pastoral Councils. And this year, the sponsor is Banga SPPC.
And I came from Banga.
To be very honest, I never intended to take part in the preparation. I know how things work in this part of Meycauayan and I don't want to deal with the headaches that will come from the people I'm going to work with. Plus, no one's asking for my help. I don't want to come up rude (they'll take it like that) and boastful to offer my help. I'm just a child to their eyes and to them, I can do nothing.
Yet, the Commission on Liturgy in the parish decided that I should help. And so readily, I agreed.
As expected, it wasn't easy.
Working on this event for the past three weeks wasn't a walk in the park. I was exposed to the saddening fact that there are still people who don't know what they're here for and what they're doing despite being in this field of service for almost 20 years. It's very disgusting how politics still play an immense role among people who are supposed to come together as one for this event. And at one point, I really hated it that I thought of quitting.
But a friend made me realize that perhaps, this is like a starting point for the place I grew up in. Maybe, God made use of this event to tell the world about what's wrong, and propose solutions at the same time. Personally, this event allowed me to build up the courage I should have possessed when I was still actively serving in this place. It gave me enough strength to stand up for the rights of the youth, and (I must admit) to tell them that we can do it.
As I look back in the past three weeks, I try to evaluate myself. And then I realized that I have come a long way through this opportunity to meddle with the decisions here. I have established an authority (don't take it wrongly!), established connections with a lot of important people, and gave myself the satisfaction of doing something big for Banga.
However, the greatest accomplishment (I hope it is!) would be the fact that I have managed to instill in the mind of the adults here that their youth has something to offer. There's not a meeting of ours that gone by that I don't encourage them to trust them. After all, BCY Banga is one of the most trusted and efficient sub-commissions in the parish. And I'm proud of them, really.
When I think about it, I'm doing this for BCY Banga. I want them to be recognized as an important part of the SPPC because they are! And personally, I think it's a way of making up with what I failed to do when I became their chairperson... and I hope that wherever Milton is right now, he sees my intention and become proud as well. :)
