The sermon that is Apu Ceto
Zona Libre/Bong Z. Lacson
THERE IS something about the Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, archbishop of San Fernando, that is indiscernible to the naked eye.
Of slight – very slight – built, his physique exudes fragility. The very antithesis of the stereotypical ideal of masculinity. Handsome – in the movie sense – he’ll be the first to laughingly dismiss that. Orator – in the televangelist’s fire-and-brimstone mold – he would not even think of it.
Apu Ceto is a priest in every bit not extraordinary. So what draws people of all ages, of all walks of life to him?
Being with him is always an experience in faith, an epiphany even. As that time in 2003 during his ten-day pastoral visit to California which was one spiritual journey, indeed a pilgrimage of renewal, of rekindling the fires of one’s faith.
Live the faith. Love the family.
His is a message so sincere in its simplicity. His is a message that indelibly touched those who reached out to him and those he reached out to. Hundreds of Kapampangans, scores of other Filipinos, and a sprinkling of Latinos, whites, blacks and other Asians in San Francisco, Antioch, Los Angeles and San Diego.
“The two priceless treasures of our people, coveted by other peoples…undiminished in value even through our worst economic dislocation,” Apu Ceto says of faith and family as the defining character of the Filipino.
“Modernism and materialism, especially in wealthy America, besiege increasingly the very foundation of the Filipino-American family. Against this onslaught, we need to return to our core values and be steadfast in our Christian faith to prevail.”
Apu Ceto has always made that call for the propagation of the Filipino core values of respect for human life, love for the elders, the bayanihan culture of sharing and malasakit, and family prayer, especially to those already born in America.
He denounced abortion and euthanasia as “pillars of the culture of death…high crimes against the family and against God.”
“The baby and the elderly are integral elements in the nucleus of the Filipino family. Take them out, fission ensues, and the nucleus suffers a total breakdown.”
In a clear jab at the pro-choice lobby in the US: “The baby in the womb is not a simple choice. It is a human being created in God’s own image and likeness and therefore should come into the world to fulfill God’s plan for him. Man has no business playing God, usurping His power over life and death.”
Of love and respect of the elderly: “Filipino culture puts premium in the wisdom of age. Thus, we take good care of our elders, never treating them like overused rags fit only to be shut in some retirement home, left to die alone, and as fast forgotten.”
And the attendant promise of a blessed long life for those who subscribe to the Fourth Commandment – “Honor thy father and thy mother” – “so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land.” So the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. So it was written in Exodus 20:12. So it has become Apu Ceto’s mission too.
Live the faith. Love the family.
Apu Ceto is his own message. Messenger and message fused into one. It is from that oneness that emanates Apu Ceto’s charisma – in its true essence of grace endowed upon a person owing to his privileged position with the Divine, to paraphrase the sociologist Max Webber.
Apu Ceto is a sermon we see, we feel, and – prayerfully – we live.
(First published in March 10, 2009 and reprinted on the occasion of Apu Ceto’s 75th birthday – March 9, 2012)
THERE IS something about the Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, archbishop of San Fernando, that is indiscernible to the naked eye.
Of slight – very slight – built, his physique exudes fragility. The very antithesis of the stereotypical ideal of masculinity. Handsome – in the movie sense – he’ll be the first to laughingly dismiss that. Orator – in the televangelist’s fire-and-brimstone mold – he would not even think of it.
Apu Ceto is a priest in every bit not extraordinary. So what draws people of all ages, of all walks of life to him?
Being with him is always an experience in faith, an epiphany even. As that time in 2003 during his ten-day pastoral visit to California which was one spiritual journey, indeed a pilgrimage of renewal, of rekindling the fires of one’s faith.
Live the faith. Love the family.
His is a message so sincere in its simplicity. His is a message that indelibly touched those who reached out to him and those he reached out to. Hundreds of Kapampangans, scores of other Filipinos, and a sprinkling of Latinos, whites, blacks and other Asians in San Francisco, Antioch, Los Angeles and San Diego.
“The two priceless treasures of our people, coveted by other peoples…undiminished in value even through our worst economic dislocation,” Apu Ceto says of faith and family as the defining character of the Filipino.
“Modernism and materialism, especially in wealthy America, besiege increasingly the very foundation of the Filipino-American family. Against this onslaught, we need to return to our core values and be steadfast in our Christian faith to prevail.”
Apu Ceto has always made that call for the propagation of the Filipino core values of respect for human life, love for the elders, the bayanihan culture of sharing and malasakit, and family prayer, especially to those already born in America.
He denounced abortion and euthanasia as “pillars of the culture of death…high crimes against the family and against God.”
“The baby and the elderly are integral elements in the nucleus of the Filipino family. Take them out, fission ensues, and the nucleus suffers a total breakdown.”
In a clear jab at the pro-choice lobby in the US: “The baby in the womb is not a simple choice. It is a human being created in God’s own image and likeness and therefore should come into the world to fulfill God’s plan for him. Man has no business playing God, usurping His power over life and death.”
Of love and respect of the elderly: “Filipino culture puts premium in the wisdom of age. Thus, we take good care of our elders, never treating them like overused rags fit only to be shut in some retirement home, left to die alone, and as fast forgotten.”
And the attendant promise of a blessed long life for those who subscribe to the Fourth Commandment – “Honor thy father and thy mother” – “so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land.” So the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. So it was written in Exodus 20:12. So it has become Apu Ceto’s mission too.
Live the faith. Love the family.
Apu Ceto is his own message. Messenger and message fused into one. It is from that oneness that emanates Apu Ceto’s charisma – in its true essence of grace endowed upon a person owing to his privileged position with the Divine, to paraphrase the sociologist Max Webber.
Apu Ceto is a sermon we see, we feel, and – prayerfully – we live.
(First published in March 10, 2009 and reprinted on the occasion of Apu Ceto’s 75th birthday – March 9, 2012)
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 10:52 PM
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