By Joanne Rae Ramirez
No matter your age, listen to your teachers. Listen.
My Assumption High School batch, long after graduation, still does.
Spearheaded by president Arlina Arrozal de Jesus and Pia Benitez Yupangco, our batch has reached out to our former Religion teachers and asked them to give some guideposts, as they used to do every day, as we navigate a world redefined by the coronavirus.
Seeing our former class adviser Ana Maria Casas on Zoom, with the same reassuring voice and unlined (despite her 81 years), serene face, was calming enough. She still called us “girls,” confessing she couldn’t bring herself to call us, “ladies.”
Her voice was firm and steady as she counseled us on how to settle our fears and anxieties in this new turmoil we find the world in, and her voice broke only when she expressed sadness at the loss of two of her former students (from different batches) to COVID-19, and how heartbroken she was that they died alone. (It is amazing how teachers like Mrs. Casas remember almost every one who sat before them in the classroom.)
“We are not alone,” she counsels comfortingly. “We have a Savior who suffers with us, and weeps with us.”
“If people can be moved to tears by the suffering of others, how much more our God, who follows each one of us with so much love? “ Mrs. Casas, quoting St. Marie Eugenie, founder of the Assumption, says. “Whatever is God’s plan, our resurrection will surely come.”
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Our batch also reached out to another Religion teacher Cory Villafania or Mrs. V, who still conducts retreats for us to this day.
Mrs. V says that she used to plan her days meticulously, till COVID-19 caught her, “off guard.”
“I am just at home for a long, indefinite pause,” she shares. Just like most of us.
This pause reminded her of a book, The Power of Pause: Becoming More by Doing Less by Terry Hershey, who, according to the book’s blurb on Amazon.com, “knows from personal experience that there is always a price to pay if we don’t regularly take time simply to pause — to cease activity, to treasure quiet time, and to discern the deep meaning of life’s little moments.”
The book shares over the course of 52 brief chapters, “how to take back the life God always intended for us to have by letting go of the things that keep getting in our way.”
Mrs. V reflects, “Before COVID-19, all of us were everywhere, in incessant motion. What seemed to be the philosophy behind our endless activity? In my reflection, it seemed to be this: To be is to do.”
In this season of lockdown when our movements and choices are limited, we — with the frontliners as major, major exceptions — may feel like we have not accomplished anything significant.
In other words, adds Mrs. V, “We have equated our worth to what we could accomplish, with what could bring us a little more money, a little more fame, a little more power or control over things.” This former teacher describes the past few weeks under quarantine as, “the great, indefinite pause.”
“All of a sudden, planners and calendars have become useless.”
She lauds those who have gone out of their comfort zones to help those in need at this time.
Could it be, she suggests, that God is asking us to accomplish something that isn’t profitable, but will reap dividends for us sooner than later? Mrs. V says it is the call to “Be still and know that I am God.”
“Being still might yet yield the answers to our feelings of helplessness, depression, doubt and fear, uncertainty and insecurity that COVID-19 has brought to us and our families,” counsels Mrs. V.
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These past “empty” days and the “empty” days still to come, could actually be brimming with benefits already realized. We have had more time to reflect, to get to know our loved ones, and most importantly, ourselves. We have learned to relinquish total control of our lives to a Higher Being, knowing the best laid plans of mice and men (from a line in To a Mouse by Robert Burns) could be flipped like a tablecloth in the blink of an eye.
In the stillness of our days, we find answers that never found airtime in our minds during the cacophony that marked our lives before COVID-19.
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Last Sunday, I heard Mass streamed live on television. It was celebrated by Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD, whose homilies, whenever I am privileged to hear them, are profound, yet relatable. Father Orbos celebrated Mass during Ed’s and my 25th wedding anniversary, and he also said Mass for us during our time of grief, after my father Frank Mayor’s death in 2010. Because of his wise insights, he, to me, is like a teacher, too.
During the homily last Sunday, Father Orbos urged all of us not just to wear a “face mask” but also a “faith mask.”
Both keep us from harm, and keep us from being of harm to others. “Think positive,” he said, “The person near you may be COVID positive — or you may be positive. So, protect each other from harm.” In these times when tomorrow is but a promise, let’s pause and listen to our teachers. Listen.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was first published in The Philippine STAR.
