Siddhartha and the Superior

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become."

- Siddhartha Gautama

I bet you know Siddhartha Gautama, aka Buddha. Yes, he is the guy we most often refer to as the statue who brings good luck and others refer to him as a sage who introduced simple wisdom for complicated lives. Whatever the case may be, we cannot deny that Buddha is an influential person.

Way way back in the seminary, one of my superiors fondly tease me as 'the little Buddha' (imagine the Buddha statue you see in shops. Yes, the big fat guy with the pesky little kids crawling over him). I'm nowhere the size of the Chinese Buddha, but since I'm the 'healthy' one (using the word 'fat' makes me conscious and a little irritated) among my peers I was labeled as one. So there you go, I was the 'little Buddha' of the seminary. And the name of the superior who gave me the moniker: Fr. Joseph Fernandez SDB. Fr. Joe, as we fondly call him, is the oldest among our superiors. He and his two brothers, Fr. Alton and Fr. Sonny (†) are Salesians.

I first met Fr. Joe when I had my three day orientation. At first sight he looked like the stereotype old priest: slow, grumpy and would make you doze off during homily. I was very much surprised when I got to know him better when I entered the seminary. Despite being fluent in Latin and being a product of the 'old school' (I think he was ordained a couple of years before the changes of Vatican II were put in effect), he's a pretty cool guy who, much to my surprise, would do 'odd' things if only the two of you are around. One incident I would never forget was when he saw me washing my clothes and at the same time cleaning the common toilet during chores time. I was scrubbing the floor when he saw the basin full with shirts. It was during first year then, and I was a 'black sheep' during those times. I was expecting to hear a 'homily' from him. Unexpectedly he just laughed, folded his pants and started to scrub the floor with me.

Fr. Joe riding his "Joemobile"

So, what's with Siddhartha Gautama? And what's with Fr. Joe? Common thing about the two: they're both wise and inspiring.

It was very uncomfortable during my first months in the seminary. I always felt out of place. I was entirely lost because of the rigid schedule. To make things worse, I needed to wash my own clothes (which I never did when I was outside). And so I was there, a spectator who was suddenly thrown to the boxing ring. I told my self "Itchan, you won't make it through the year...no, you won't make it through six months!"

I never told anyone what was happening, but Fr. Joe sensed that I was troubled and from there the rest is history. His advice and fatherly presence always made me feel at home.

Pau, one of my companions who also left the seminary, lent me a book entitled "Fr. Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul." The book was with me for a month, but I never finished even chapter one. I could only think one reason why I failed to read the book, and that's because Fr. Joe already taught me how to do things the right way. He would always call me 'little Buddha'. Problem is, I'm not an enlightened one. One of Fr. Joe's favorite quotes is the motto of the Dominican Order which is "Contemplata Aliis Tradere" (to give to others the fruit of contemplation). And in Latin (which Fr. Joe taught us for three years), contemplate means to survey or observe.

Now that I'm in the outside world, I think it's time for me to survey and observe the things around me, to see where I am being led, to know where I should go in order to serve and be better.

Maybe that is the challenge. To be enlightened and to give light to others.