Father Joeker
By Fr Joseph Panabang SVD
THE END OF THE WORLD
The Sunday first reading was Dan 12:1-3.
It is all about the last judgment at the end of the world. The reader who happened to be among our new recruits stumbled at the end of the reading and instead of saying, ‘This is the Word of the Lord.’ She said, “This is the end of the world.’ And the people unfazed responded, “Thanks be to God.”
SORRY WALA
Fr. Jerry Pinado, svd, in-charge of Communication Office at Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City, had a problem with his computer. ‘What is wrong with my computer? Every time I put it on, ‘SW” appears on the screen and I do not even know what it means,” he complained. Then Fr. Eduardo Guarin, svd who just came in said. ”Aha, I know it. ‘SW’ means sorry wala”’.
LASHING RAIN
Arriving in Ga-ang my home village in Kalinga province, I was appalled by the devastating effect of El Nino. Rice fields wildly, vast lands untitled, trees and grasses drying up worse than Africa, and people seemed resigned already to the imminent hunger that would soon follow. Then came the ordination in Mangali on the 4th of April. I told the other concelebrating priests to pour all our heart in prayer for the rain. In the afternoon, it rained heavily and we were lucky we reached the first village to shelter ourselves. By 5:00 pm we continued but were caught again by the heavy downpour. We only had one umbrella which I gave to the lady catechist. I joined the rest lashed to the bone by the rain. For two days almost died of flu with people muttering, “You prayed for the rain and the rain also took you,”
PRAY FOR THE RAIN
Two weeks after the first rain we prayed for in Mangali, Kalinga, El Nino came back in its worst form. Then in Dancalan, a barrio near Ga-ang, my birthplace, I urged the dispirited and skeptical people to pray hard for the rain promising that if only they really have strong faith, they can pull down the rain anytime. Again, that night, heavy rain. With these incidents of prayers obviously answered, the faith of the people grew stronger, so strong that my sister, Flower by name, unabashedly exclaimed, “If we have problems, we must let father pray because he is next to God.” Her first born son Daniel looked at me with a skeptical smile which melted the halo my sister had given me.
LAYING EGGS
In our walled shelter in Attakora village, I was doing clerical work inside because with its thatch-roof, it is cool and cozy. Every now and then a little girl would come and peep through the door intently at the corner of the shed and then she would go again. So curious I went to see what was in the corner and behold, a hen was laying eggs.
PINOY NA AFRICANO
We returning missionaries go for a check-up. At Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa manila, the nurse was preparing me for my cardiac stress test the time presidential candidates Joe de Venecia and Erap Estrada were challenging each other on a treadmill test. Looking up at me intently after placing all the electrodes on my body, the nurse suddenly asked, “Where are you assigned Father?” “In Africa,” I said proudly. “That’s what I thought, “she said, “Kaya pala mukha kayong Africano.”