Attention: If there are any SJC alumnae from the 60s and 70s who might recognize this image, please pause for a while to read. Do you remember this? I recall seeing this in the Information desk of the main entrance to the school when we were in grade school. You know, the area which you passed to go up the stairs to the chapel. I think beside this was the telephone which you could ask the receptionist to use to call home. I think there was also a replica in the principal's office.(Of course, back then it didn't have a Pondo ng Pinoy sign.)
I saw this statue recently in the FMM convent in Tagaytay and it brought me back to my elementary days when contributing to the foreign missions was a big thing with me. Every good Catholic was enjoined to pray for our missionaries and to give whatever he or she could to help spread the word of God in the farthest corners of the world. In my young mind, I earnestly believed that the coin I saved up from my allowance would help an African mother and child, much like the one represented by the statue. So most days leading to Mission Sunday (October yon, di ba?), I would make the supreme sacrifice of dropping maybe 5 or 10 centavos into the slot in the statue. (That was a lot in those days considering my allowance as a young grader was no more than 25 centavos.)
A place in heaven as a reward for my "saintly" act was no more than an abstract idea then. What I looked forward to after I dropped a coin was the bowing (actually, nodding of the mother's head) which would follow. I'm not sure why I enjoyed seeing that. Did I see that as a sign of the gratitude from the future recipients of my contribution? Or was I just fascinated by what kind of mechanism was inside the statue which was responsible for causing that movement? Whatever it was, it led to my childhood goal of trying to reach out to the missions through my measly coins!
Oh, to be able to parallel a child's generosity (and curiosity) once again!
Guess what, Jang... my soon-to-be-ex-boss once remarked along these lines, "I would rather give directly, so much can happen when coursed through a 3rd party..." Strange how jaded we have been after all these years. A toast to your thought: " Giving: Pure and Simple."
ReplyDeleteYes, that is so because sometimes people take advantage of a person's generosity. But when I have those thoughts, I tell myself, "I have done my part. If I have been misled into helping those who do not deserve the help, they are answerable to no one but God." And so giving, in whatever form, becomes a little easier!
ReplyDeleteI know, sistah. "Giving until it hurts..." I only pray that I know my reasons for giving and remain to be faithful to that. Did you know that my "thesis" (the one that never was) was on the concept of PAGBIBIGAY? HAPPY EASTER, Jang!
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