PAGTINGIN/OPINION: “For all that has been, thanks. For all that is to come, yes” The Honorary Speech for the 67th Commencement Exercises of St. Anne's Catholic School

   Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations  in the 1950's said, "For all that has been, thanks. For all that is to come, yes." Loosely translated, "Ang di lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay di makararating sa paroroonan."

   Graduation came from the Latin word, "gradus," which means grade or level. Biblically, after God has "graduated" from creation, he said, "It is good" and he rested and continues sustaining it. I wish the graduates could also say, "It is good" and it is time to move on to a higher and better level of life.

   "For all that has been, thanks."

   Part of a graduation is to give thanks for the remembered past. We pause amidst the frenzy of maddening busyness in life. We stop to remember friends, acquaintances and classmates. We rest to think of sunny and dark days of years gone by, to bring back to mind faces of our puppy, platonic and even forbidden love, of bullies and practical jokers, to heal hurts and wounds caused by our reckless and daring youthfulness. During our adulthood, though we developed close friendships, we encountered exclusion, gossips, denial and feeling of inferiority. We recall those years we were full of vitality and entertained impossible dreams.

   Remembering, however, brings pain and joy. Those were good and at times troubled years, years that characterized our young adulthood. Our memories of home and childhood carry tears and laughter. Through remembrance of the past we heal our hurts, heartaches and envision again our unfulfilled dreams. Through remembrance of the past, we realize the present and the future. We realized who we were, how we are, and what we shall be. Our classmates, our teachers and everyone who we encountered in life, unwelcome or not, mold and change us forever in a fascinating, yet mysterious way. "No man is an island." For all that have been memorable, happy, blessed, sad and painful, like Hammarskjöld we should utter, "Thanks."

   "For all that is to come, yes."

   When we graduated from high school and college, we left behind a family, a community to become members of bigger ones. Our smaller groups of friends, classmates and loved ones gave way to larger ones. Our community and intimate relationships are not lost, they were substituted with new ones, sometimes better, at other times, worse than the ones we had. True community, as honest and true friendship, is a shared life. Community, classmates and friends are not relegated to oblivion, to the realm of the mythological Greek god and river, Lethe, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness.

   "Life has its seasons. There is a time to be together, of intimacy, of shared time and celebration... However, there is also, always a time when the demands of life, duty, and the Holy Spirit calls us to move along." This is graduation time. "It is time for farewell, for pained embraces, for tears, and for bitter restlessness that accompanies that. But, it's not like we'd never met. We break up only to become part of something larger... and we regain each other in that..." A mountain looks more beautiful from a distance than from the mountaintop. We are so far from each other, yet we are so near to one another.

   Your four years of high school have helped you to move along to a better and higher stage of life. Your education at SACS prepared you personally, socially and spiritually to face new challenges in life. Of these preparations faith in God is vital. Your religion classes hopefully made your faith in him stronger and more fervent. Joke: bats in the church. It is not the kind of faith that is intertwined with superstitions and magical beliefs. Holy Week is fast approaching, the season where the practice of faith is mixed with our ancestors' beliefs of amulets, magic and diwatas. True faith is not superstitious.

   It is complete trust in God who loves us. Without faith in God, your personal, communal and professional successes in life would not last.

   For all that has been let us say, "Thank you, Lord!" For all that is to come, "Amen, yes, here I am and I come to do your will."

   To all of you thanks and Godspeed!