Harry Potter has his sorcerer’s stone. Father Ted has his agimat - amulets that transform situations, vanquish evil and bring on the good. But Harry Potter is a storybook character and Fr. Teodulo ‘Ted’ Gonzales is a Jesuit as real as the Ateneo campus. There’s something very intense about Gonzales the Jesuit, but he’s no brooding artist. Priest and pastoral counselor, he’s the Program Director at the Ateneo’s Center for Family Ministries (Cefam) - a caregiver for the soul. In these congruent roles, he counsels, teaches and facilitates group discussions for personal growth as well as family and community wellness.
Fr. Ted recalls getting attracted to the priesthood early in his childhood, when he used to attend dawn masses with his parents in a small chapel called Apu in Pampanga. His father was a cursillista while his mother had a devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Compassion and conservation Growing up with eight other siblings, the young Ted helped out his mother, who sold fruits and vegetables in the market, by hawking ice candy, sweet tamarind and ginger. The early deprivations would teach him compassion and the conservation of resources. “Our parents sent us to good schools and for this I am grateful,” he says. From the provincial high school, he entered the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary in 1974. He later pursued his master’s at the Ateneo’s Loyola School of Theology and his doctorate in Pastoral Counseling at the Loyola School in Maryland. “The path to priesthood was not easy,” says Fr. Ted. “I had to learn to face the demands of learning and the path of integrity. I had to learn to face doubts and strong emotions of love. I am a very intense and passionate person. My love had to be purified to fit the kind of life I am asked to live. To love with discipline and compassion is a great challenge.” An avid reader, Fr. Ted grabbed anything in print he could get hold of “from books on interior design to stories on well known personages in finance, business, management and history, to citations in various awards, to 100 Filipino Women, Famous Chinoys, Adarna books for children, and Inquirer articles.” All these led him to conclude, “Contrary to the notion that we are a damaged culture, we are a culture in search of its soul, identity and spirituality. We have experienced much abuse, which continues on in politics and government, but instead of learning from our past, we repeat its dysfunction. The victims might become the tyrants of tomorrow.” What we need, says Fr. Ted, is an agimat, a talisman, an amulet to lead us out of that cycle. Talk of amulets provokes images of babaylans and shamans of yore, well-respected figures banished by the friars when they Christianized the islands. There’s talk among Filipino occultists that the friars also took away a black book that contained the old rituals and spells of these revered priests and priestesses. That book is rumored to be in the possession of the Jesuits. What Fr. Ted is espousing is somewhat more prosaic however. Best examples The agimat he refers to is “the value systems which carry our strength as a people and a country. Instead of focusing on weaknesses and divisiveness, why not focus on the best examples of Filipino strength and solidarity—the Apos or elders?” he suggests. “We call on Apos from different fields to share their success stories with our young leaders. In this way, they transmit the power or the agimat to the next generation, inspiring them and affirming their good values,” adds Fr. Ted. The sharing can be done in a weekend workshop called “Agimat ni Apo,” which brings together a multi-sectoral audience and feeds the Apo concept into the mainstream. This workshop “takes its participants back to when we knew we were a people of great value, a time when we were proud to be Filipino. The agimat is the Filipino symbol for power. It is an archetype, a search for pride and esteem through our local culture.” He continues: “The climax of our legends is when the hero wields his agimat and vanquishes the enemy, and though we hardly hear those stories anymore, we have new heroes, we have new myths and legends. We only have to listen to stories of how Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Jovito Salonga, Ninoy Aquino, Miguel Malvar, Chino Roces, Cecilia Muñoz Palma, Haydee Yorac, Randolf David and so many nameless others overcame obstacles and lived their values. These stories are the magical tools we all have access to so that we may transform our lives.” Simplicity and servanthood The workshop consists of five parts—the first focuses on confidence in times of crisis and draws out the major challenges and stresses undergone. In storytelling, these would be symbolized by the kapre, the tikbalang and the multo—emphasis is given on what builds confidence. The second part is reflection and honest assessment—“how we have lost our sense of giftedness,” a look at our strengths and weaknesses. Responsibility, stewardship, simplicity and servanthood are the values focused on in the third part. “We have to stop passing blame. People live in shame,” notes Fr. Ted. Idea, inspiration and imagination make up the fourth module—“Action without vision is purposeless, we have to be able to integrate all that is happening in our lives and align our imagination to the big why. Integrating all these is the fifth module which focuses on solidarity or bayanihan. Our dreams will come true because we work with others to realize a common vision.” Sr. Soria Aireen Tabada, Provincial Superior of the Holy Family Sisters and a recent workshop participant, says, “In the weekend get together, the participants are drawn towards an appreciation of our own gems, and the gems of others make us realize that the God who created us is indeed good and is shown in each of us. The problem starts when we are not able to get hold of our gems as a people.” Choncho Sanchez, another participant and former philosophy professor at St. Scholastica’s College, agrees: “What Agimat ni Apo points to is not an amulet of magic or an anting-anting of a particular obscure cult, but a living opportunity to be better and not bitter. One is given the clear choice to take the higher road to self-acceptance, confident that one is not alone in the lonely moments of life. “Here is where faith, hope and love intermingle in one’s heart. The result is that a certain defining moment of inner peace is reached by one whose life has been marred by chaos and confusion. A certain calmness hovers and covers one’s heart. At this juncture, self-discovery starts. Crisis becomes catharsis!” “We have overlooked the fact that greatness runs through our veins,” adds Fr. Ted. “My favorite song is ‘Noypi’ (by Bamboo), particularly the lines that go, ‘may agimat ang dugo ko (there’s an amulet in my blood).’ We have forgotten this. We have been sidetracked by our own gloomy point of view of ourselves, perhaps inherited from the colonizers. We also have to see where we excel, where we do things well. Our mentors lead the way, reminding us of our agimat to greatness.” A culture of heroes He continues, “I wish to support the idea of building a culture of heroes, through the search for common patterns or best practices of the people we admire. Fr. Horacio de la Costa, another Jesuit, said that Filipinos have two jewels: Faith and Music. I guess faith and music drive our spirit to dream and to imagine what we can become.” There is a need for a strong body of literature to support this, Fr. Ted admits. It is important to build a base of affirmative and inspiring stories that can somehow be disseminated to a mass audience, he says, suggesting the mobilization and encouragement of a love of reading in young Filipinos. “Basa” is a library outreach project, a first baby step to integrate collected stories of heroes in a book called simply, “Agimat.” (The final version of the book is Agimat ni Apo - Frannie) Fr. Ted is optimistic. “Through these and other stories, we hope to begin to sow seeds into a new stream of consciousness.” The base for all these changes, he adds, is the family through such programs that Cefam has started: “San Jose,” with its focus on Filipino maleness, “Life’s Directions” for young adults on the brink of professional and personal maturity,” and “On Fire,” a workshop on sexuality. “It is families that will eventually shape culture,” says Fr. Ted. Discipline, both personal and group, is as important as the shift of consciousness through stories and imagination, which is a prime factor in building a nation.” “Hindi malas ang Pinoy, hindi pa lang siya nagkakamalay (Filipino aren’t cursed; they just lack consciousness as yet),” he concludes. (To inquire about Agimat workshop schedules, call Cefam at 02-426-4289 and look for Fr. Ted Gonzales.)
1 comment:
No matter what others say, I think it is still interesting and useful maybe necessary to improve some minor things
Post a Comment