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Be Still and Know that I am God (Ps.46,10)

Stop, Look, Listen, Go Alone or in Company But Always With Me

Somewhere, Sometime, Somehow,

Forward, Inward, Toward. Beneath, Below, Beyond,

In-between and All Around

Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, Nouns, Positions, Suppositions, Prepositions

Towards A Grammar for a Sustainable Roadmap of Leadership and Vision

FATHER RODERICK C. SALAZAR JR., SVD President, Office International de l’Enseignement Catholique (OIEC)

International Office of Catholic Education Executive Secretary, Office of Education and Faith Formation

Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC-OEFF) Mission Director, SVD Mission Philippines

A SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM ROADMAP: Addressing Sustainability Issues A Seminar by Spring Rain Saturday, July 12, 2014

Marco Polo Plaza, Cebu City, PHILIPPINES

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. When our Spring Rain President

Glenda Antonio first asked me to join our seminar today, while surely interested,

I was not immediately sure of what I could share. Glenda told me the topic.

When I thought I knew what to say, something happened that made me change

my plan. Because of that, what I will present to you today is totally different

from what I had initially prepared. I hope, however, that it will still fit the

seminar’s direction and the interests of everyone.

To be sure that I am still on track, let me articulate my view of our

coming together today and the place of my talk in the overall theme.

Sustainability is the big word we are considering. What is this? It is an

English word that comes from two Latin words: first, sub, which means below or

under, as we find in submerge (to mix below), submit (to send from under),

subject (to throw below), submarine (under water); second, tenere, which

means to hold. Together, these words make up sub-tenere, meaning, to hold

from below, the first version of the imported word being sub-tain, with the

letter B eventually becoming S till we have our words sustain, sustainable,

sustainability, each one having to do with the meaning, what holds something

together from below.

Roadmap is the picture of the direction to different places. It would

normally have names of origin and destination and other places along the way,

often with indications of distances and significant signs and posts.

The word system in ecosystem has to do with an overall plan that

involves ends, means, origins, objectives, strategies, and relationships between

and among people and places. The eco part of the word does not just point to

economics by which we would immediately associate with money, markets,

finances and resources. Eco comes from a Greek word oikos which means

household, but not just a family group or dwelling but the basic economic

unit of the community and it included everyone who lived in or worked at the

house or estate. An oikos included immediate and extended family members,

slaves, hired servants, skilled workers of various sorts, teachers, and tutors.

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The Greek word for stewardship, oikonomia, is a compound of two

words: oikos, household, and nomos, which means law or rule. In ancient

cultures, the words used together meant the administration or management of a

household. The steward was the oikonomos who, though the appointed and

acknowledged ruler of the house yielded authority to the real owner and master.

The word ecosystem in our theme I understand to contain all these notions.

The part assigned to me is Leadership and Vision – in relation to all the

other words and issues.

Vision is what one sees as the direction of one’s life or work, alone or

with others. Mission is what one sets out to do to reach a goal or to realize a

vision. Leadership is the art and skill of inspiring the minds and hearts

of people, influencing them to direct their efforts towards achieving a

goal, accomplishing a mission, making real a dream.

These definitions done, let me now give the setting of my sharing as well

as its desired direction and summary.

I will share with you a song, a poem, two different versions of a Biblical

event, and, interspersed in them bits and pieces of my own life. From them all, I

hope to give, and pray you find some insights on the topic assigned me,

Leadership and Vision: A Sustainable Roadmap.

First, the song. I may have heard it many years ago, in my early youth,

but it was only rather recently that it took a grip on me. This is the song

composed and sung by Neil Diamond titled The Story of My Life.

The story of my life is very plain to read It starts the day you came And ends the day you leave The story of my life begins and ends with you The names are still the same The story’s still the truth.

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Next, a bit of my life. I was born on July 15, 1947 in Legazpi City.

(Yes, three days from now, I hope, by the grace of God, to reach my 67th year.

Do please pray for me). I belong to a family of ten children. We should have

been twelve, an even dozen. But the very first baby of my parents died before it

could see light, and another baby died after only a few months of life. So we

count ten -- seven boys, three girls. I was the third child. With my two elder

brothers having died, I am now what my other siblings call the Patriarch.

I was ordained priest of the Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi

Divini or SVD) on June 21, 1974. We asked for and were allowed to be

ordained on that date because it was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

then, to whom we had consecrated ourselves, which is why our ordination class

was called HEARTFELT ’74.

At some point in my life, I saw what I considered a certain significance in

the numbers in my life: born in 1947, ordained in 1974. 4774 then became part

of one of my other email names: roderick4774.

I entered the seminary after graduation from high school in 1963 when I

was 16 years old. In 2010 after 34 years of working in Cebu at the University of

San Carlos, I was given a sabbatical and I went to where I first entered the

Society of the Divine Word – Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City. I

was now 63 years old, and I was 36 years in the priesthood. So, to my

numbers 4774, I then added other vital statistics: 63-36-63. Entered seminary

in 1963, return to seminary at 36 years in the priesthood and at age 63.

Coincidence? Providence? Call it what you will. I call it Providence.

I see it as something I must consider to find what God is saying to me in my life.

The story of my life is very plain to read It starts the day you came And ends the day your leave The story of my life Begins and ends with you The names are still the same The story’s still the truth

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Now the poem. It is called THE DASH, by Linda Ellis.

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth And spoke the following date with tears. But he said what mattered most of all Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time

That he spent on earth And now only who loved him know

What that little time is worth.

For it matters not how much we own The cars, the house, the cash

What matters is how we live and love And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.

Are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough To consider what’s true and real

And always try to understand The way other people feel And be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more And love the people in our lives Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

And more often wear a smile Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read With your life’s actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say About how you spent your dash?

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Maybe it’s just eight or ten years since I came across this thought-

provoking poem, but it came to me very strongly and personally just last month.

Remember my story that I was born in 1947 and ordained in 1974? Well,

since our ordination in 1974, it is now 40 years, and my classmates and I

thought that we should celebrate our Ruby anniversary. There were twenty of

us young men who were ordained priests in 1974. Three have died since, three

have followed other vocations, one has transferred to the diocesan clergy in the

United States. So this year there were thirteen of us surviving. Of this number,

three are in the foreign missions in Taiwan, Japan, and Germany. So I thought

that it would be great if the ten of us of the original HEARTFELT ’74 could come

together and say Thanks for our Ruby year.

I organized certain things. Was I the class leader? In a certain way, Yes.

Not in all things, but I was what others call a leader. Nobody else was making

plans, after all, so I thought I should, and I did. I arranged for us to come

together at the Pink Sisters Convent in Manila on the last day of their novena

masses leading to Corpus Christi Sunday. And that ninth day fell on the very

date of our ordination: June 21. Perfect. I found a generous sponsor who was

willing to fund new chasubles for each of us, with our original HEARTFELT ’74

logo. I arranged that our Class Consecration Prayer be printed in stampitas with

our names and history behind it, each of us to receive as gift at least 100 of such

little cards. I called and texted each of my classmates and made sure we would

come together at a certain place and a certain time. Organization perfect, system

established. Except that I was not perfect. I was not healthy.

As I was planning all these, I felt my body deteriorating. I was not

breathing well and healthily. I postponed having myself medically examined until

after our anniversary. Until, my family and my friends and confreres saw that I

could not and should not go on without checking myself into a hospital.

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I finally yielded so that a week before our ordination anniversary, I was at

Cardinal Santos Medical Center for an angiogram and eventually an angioplasty,

a procedure, which some of you might know requires a widening of blocked

arteries to allow my blood to and from my heart to flow freely, and enable me to

breathe normally.

As our anniversary date approached, I was under different hospital

procedures. I was still hoping I would be healthy when June 21 came but in the

end, the doctors cautioned against my leaving the hospital even for just a few

hours, until after the angioplasty itself. I texted and called my classmates and

suggested and assigned who would do what in my absence. So, in the end,

though my classmates and I came together in my hospital room, in the very

celebration that I had dreamed of and for which I had dutifully arranged and

organized, I was not there. I sighed in resignation and prayed. Thank You, Lord,

for leading us into our Fortieth Ordination Anniversary. But in my absence from

our common celebration, what are You saying to Me?

It was then that two passages from the Prior Testament of the Holy Bible

came to me.

Some if not all of us will perhaps have a memory of an incident in the

desert when Moses was leading the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised

Land. They had run out of water, and the people were complaining to Moses

and Moses was relaying the complaint to God. Here is how the event reads:

From the Book of Exodus, Chapter 17, 1-7: “From the desert of Sin, the whole Israelite community journeyed by stages, as

the Lord directed, and encamped at Rephidim. Here, there was no water for the people to drink. They quarreled, therefore, with

Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to a

test?” Here, then, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying,

“Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?”

So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people. A little more and they will stone me!”

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The Lord answered Moses, “Go over there n front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water w ill flow from it for the people to drink.”

This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled there

and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” Many of us will probably know if not the whole story at least a bit of it. It

tells of how God continued to love and take care of His chosen people even in

the midst of their grumbling.

But I suppose few would know that there is a second version of that story

with a little variation. I will read this and invite you to listen carefully and ask

whether you can sense the difference.

From the Book of Numbers, Chapter 20, 1-13: “The whole Israelite community arrived in the desert of Zin in the first month,

and the people settled at Kadesh. It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried.

As the community had no water, they held a council against Moses and Aaron. The people contended with Moses, exclaiming, “Would that we too had perished with our kinsmen in the Lord’s presence! Why have you brought the Lord’s community into this desert where we and our livestock are dying? Why did you lead us out of Egypt only to bring usto this wretched place which has neither grain nor figs nor vines nor water to drink!

But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the meeting tent, where they fell prostrate. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and in their presence order the rock to yield forth water for the community and their livestock to drink.”

So Moses took the staff from its place before the Lord , as he was ordered. He and Aaron assembled the community in front of the rock, where he said to them,”Listen to me, you rebels! Are we to bring forth water for you out of this rock?”

Then, raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you were not faithful to me in show ing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I w ill give them”.

These are the waters of Meribah where the Israelites contend against the Lord, and where He revealed His sanctity among them.”

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Did you sense a difference between the two versions? If you did, you

would have found a very important detail in leadership and discipleship in

relation to God. If not, I will share with you the lesson in a while. But first, a

reminder of how God Himself noted what Moses did and did not do.

From the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 32, 48-52: On that very day the Lord said to Moses, “Go up on Mount Nebo, here in the

Abarim Mountains (it is in the land of Moab facing Jericho), and view the land of Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites as their possession.

Then you shall die on the mountain you have climbed, and shall be taken to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and there was taken to his people; because both of you broke faith w ith me, among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the desert of Zin, by failing to manifest my sanctity among the Israelites.

You may indeed view the land at a distance, but you shall not enter that land which I am giving to the Israelites.”

What did Moses do in the first instance and what did he do in the second?

Why was God angry with Moses? What did God mean by saying, You did not

manifest my sanctity among the Israelites. Did not Moses show God’s

power by enabling the water to flow from the dry desert rock?

This incident is about an essential element of leadership: LISTENING.

Moses acted but not out of what he heard but what he thought he heard, and

wanted to personally do.

In the second instance of the story, God did not tell Moses to strike the

rock, but to say to the rock – bring forth water. Had Moses listened well and

obeyed, the holiness of God would have been manifested. Just as in the

story of creation, all God had to do was to SAY – let there be and there was.

Moses could just have said what he was anyway commanded to do, “Let water

flow from this rock”. When the water flowed, the holiness and power of God

would have been manifest --- not the power of Moses, not the power of his staff.

But Moses, great leader as he otherwise was, failed in this instance.

Applied to my story about our ordination. Maybe I was not thinking it, but

maybe I was acting it. In organizing the anniversary of our class ordination, was

I not perhaps acting as though I was in command, and not God?

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So God reminded me, thanks to Him, HE is in command, not me. He

brought our class to our 40th ordination anniversary, but I myself was to see the

celebration only from afar, from my hospital bed.

This was my lesson. Thanks be to God, thanks be to my congregation,

my classmates, my family, my friends. Now, I am here. Now I can breathe

easier. Now I am alive. And now I am sharing with you a lived experience of

Leadership and Vision. I am a leader. I have a vision. But God is God. I

am not Messiah, I am not God. Leadership and Vision we can sustain

ourselves only up to a point. It is God who sustains us.

Here then is the title and summary of my sharing on the topic given me

on A Sustainable Roadmap of Leadership and Vision:

Be Still and Know that I am God (Ps.46,10)

Stop, Look, Listen, Go Alone or in Company But Always With Me

Somewhere, Sometime, Somehow, Forward, Inward, Toward. Beneath, Below, Beyond,

In-between and All Around

Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, Nouns, Positions, Suppositions, Prepositions

Towards A Grammar for a Sustainable Roadmap of Leadership and Vision