Sunday, June 12, 2011

Fr. Dave's words of wisdom

After a few weeks of not officiating mass at the EDSA Shrine, Father Dave was back this week - to the obvious delight of the parishoners. As I told Mark, Father Dave is like a "rock star priest" and he has his share of "groupies."

There was a time when he wasn't the one officiating his usual mass, and the couple beside me said: "Ay, hindi si Father Dave, alis na lang tayo." And in another instance, when the group in front of me found out that he was the one officiating, they broke into silent cheers and claps saying: "Si Father Dave! Si Father Dave ang mag-ma-mass!"
How rock star-ish, huh?

In his homily today, he said something very inspired. On the subject of life's problems, he said:

"Pag may pinagdadaanan kang problema, daanan mo lang. Huwag mong tatambayan, kasi pag tumatambay ka sa problema, hindi talaga mawawala yan."

This resonated well with the people in church, judging by the laughter, nodding heads and the words "oo nga" being heard all around EDSA Shrine.

And yes, his words really are true. I know people who prefer to dwell on their problems rather than solving them and moving on with their lives. It's almost like they wear their problems proudly like a badge instead of solving them. They like talking about their problems continuously instead of finding a way to solve them. And if that's their attitude towards their problems, then it really won't go away. Mainly because it seems like they don't want it to go away.

Really, the best way to solve problems is to NOT dwell on them. As Father Dave said, "Huwag mong tatambayan ang problema." No one wants a tambay, much more so if that tambay is a problem.

As another religious quote says: "Don't tell God about your problems, tell your problems about God."]

It's something that's worth reflecting on this Sunday. Or as Father Dave always says: "Pagnilay-nilayan natin."

(I suddenly missed our weekly reflection papers in Christian Living class back in high school. I was called "Mr. Reflection" because I always got the highest scores on that.)

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