by Rev. Dr. Mariano C. Apilado
Las-ud, Caba, La Union where I have been residing for the past two and a half months semi-retired with wife, Nellie, reminds me very much of Bonifacio Street corner Pelayo where we stayed for six years as pastor of the UCCP, Davao.
Las-ud, Caba is a simple almost forgotten one street barangay from the town proper, a good twenty-to-twenty-five-minute walk to the one bakery that the town has.
In contrast, the parsonage of UCCP Davao is in the midst of a complex of criss-crossing streets one can go through going to Bankerohan market and to several bakeries within ten-to-twenty-minute walk.
At 5:30 in the morning hardly any one is awake in Las-ud, Caba and Diego Silang street is empty; in contrast at about the same time any street from the UCCP Davao, Bonifacio, Pelayo, Camus, General Luna, Duterte, Quirino, Rizal, San Pedro is full of people rushing to go somewhere.
I specially remembered Davao as I walked through Diego Silang street this morning about 6:30 on my way to buy pan de sal.
Since I have been walking the street at least three times a week since June 3, I have come to notice those who wake up early.
This morning, I had the special privilege of greeting some of them. There was Linda, niece of Nellie, who wakes up early to clean their yard.
There was also Patron, now with her hair almost white, but still with a very pleasant smile, sister of Rosal, Nellie’s best friend when she was a carefree little girl.
As I walked along, I saw Socorro, sweeping her side of the street about four houses away from her home. I asked her if she had become employed as street cleaner at her age (she is about 70), and she said that the four rows of houses are her children’s.
Socorro was Nellie’s best duet partner when they were in the elementary and high school. In fact, once in a while in parties, they still sing beautiful duets together.
Nearer the bakery now, I saw Joe, cleaning the canal in front of their house because he said yesterday when it rained very hard, the yard of their house was flooded.
I was near the bakery at that point when I saw Noel, happily chatting with a friend as if there were no cares in the world that could bother them.
What is the point of all these mentioning of names and circumstances of the morning of these people in a remote, almost forgotten place like Las-ud?
The point is that I was reminded this morning that in Las-ud, Caba as it is in Davao City, this world is made up of people with names, individual characteristics, specific cares and circumstances of and that part of my being is social and relating with them in an individual, specific way is important.
The more important reminder is that each person has a spiritual dimension that is capable of giving and receiving attention to other individual persons with names, circumstances, cares and interests.
Each person is capable of giving and receiving love, that all important ingredient which lifts earthly living in this world into the beautiful, memorable and significant divine realm.
Walking home from the bakery, I thought that the reason I counted myself specially blessed this morning as I greeted these individual persons was the inspiring reminder from the psalms, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have put in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalms 8:3)
Whether in UCCP Davao located in a complex city of criss-crossing streets, or in a simple one street barangay like Las-ud, Caba, each person is unique, capable of giving and receiving love because, in the first place, God loves and cares for each person.
