November 8

“Walang sino man ang nabubuhay para sa sarili lamang… Walang sino man ang namamatay para sa sarili lamang.” Thus says the priest in a mass I attended an hour ago. What brings me to Church?

Well, I have decided to serve as an altar boy. I wore a long, white garment with a little bell on the side. I genuflect as I cross the altar, palms clasped at each other on my chest, sometimes panning an electric fan wherever the priest would go. That was me in sixth grade at my home town in Iloilo. But that was long time ago.

What really brought me to church today is THIS DAY. Yes, today is my birthday, and it has been my family’s tradition that a birthday celebrator should go to Church and hear mass. Way back then, when church bells were still louder and carried an awe at every “basal”, my mother would wake me up at 4:30am so I could hear the 5:00am mass. But that is not the case today. Away from home for so long, work up to my neck, my only window would be the 6:00pm mass. So I went to a church not far away, actually a church that’s just across my window for I live beside a church.

St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Palanan, Makati, is also where I would always see Atty. Rene Saguisag, who met a tragic accident early this morning with his wife, Dulci, dead. Always, because he seem to be attending the 6:00pm mass every day, and that’s the only hour of the day I see him each time I arrive home early evenings. Today, he is never in his usual place. Often, he would just stand at the door side, holding a rosary. I never saw him get inside but I presume he had. With his busy schedule I guess, he will only drop off, pray, get along with the mass and get back to his waiting car parked near the main entrance of the Church facing Dian Street. Parishioners today certainly can feel the queer emptiness at his favorite spot of the church, missing the familiar smile and “hello sir” greet that I also do when our paths cross. The priest has only good words to say about him. Most people in the parish say he is kind, humble and religious. I agree, and add that he is so ordinary-- though I base my judgment on what I merely see. I have heard of his accomplishments as a human rights lawyer, but I come to know him more as Rene Saguisag who would always stand by the church's door holding a Rosary at 6:00pm mass daily just across my parking space.

This day, I went to church not so much to thank God for the life He gave me 38 years ago. I prayed for the life of Atty. Rene Saguisag, a remarkable human rights activist and churchmate, and for the soul of his beloved wife, Dulce.