Opening remarks by Fr. Jett Villarin SJ at the 2015 Special Academic Convocation

Dr Patricia B Licuanan, Chair of the Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines;

Members of the Ateneo de Manila Board of Trustees;

University administrators, faculty and staff; our dear students;

Honored awardees past and present, distinguished guests and friends of the Ateneo de Manila; Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

 

In January this year, a group of 40 Jesuits went to meet Pope Francis. That was when he remarked that the 40 elephants of Sri Lanka had better costumes. Actually our singing was no better. Anyhow, one of the most moving moments in that gathering was when we all gathered around him to pray for him (he is always asking people to pray for him). And so we prayed by singing “in omnibus amare et servire” for him (despite our dissonant voices). In everything, love and serve the Lord. 

 

To love and to serve. Two verbs, two actions that can very well stand separately and alone. There can be love, sentimental and tender, but without service. And there can be service as well, efficient and competent, but without love. Service without heart, wanting in affection. Love without deeds, bereft of execution.

 

The legacy of Loyola, the spirit of the man, the very spirit that animates this place and the people of and beyond this University, was to bring these two movements together, love and service, love with service, service with love. 

 

The four people we honor today show this wonderful interweave between love and service in their lives. Through them we discover the fullness of love and how this happens when we bear love not just in our heart but on our shoulders as well. Through them, we learn again that service need not be burdensome if we carry each other in love.

 

Our first awardee did his utmost in trying to stabilize the Philippine financial system during the challenging post-Marcos years. His efforts to stabilize prices and hold inflation benefitted the entire country and helped ease the burden borne by those at the peripheries of society.

 

Our second awardee has devoted her life to ensuring the well-being of Filipino families and children, especially the traumatized and those in difficult circumstances. These include street children, OFW families, victims of family violence, and people scarred by natural disasters.

 

Our third awardee is one of Ateneo’s own, who used to teach with us back in the 80s and 90s. As a global public servant, he has dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace, human rights and social justice in the Philippines and in various parts of the world.

 

Our fourth awardee has brought his art to bear on Philippine social reality,  helping us confront and reshape that reality and ourselves. Through his gifts in theatre, literature and music, we see art reclaiming its power to articulate the truth and bring about social change and conversion.

 

All four have enriched the tradition of Ateneo awardees whose service is animated by love, and whose love finds fullness in service. It is a tradition that dates back to our very first awardee in 1937, Dr Augusto J D Cortes, the founder and head physician of the Patronatos, the free medical clinics that served the poor of Manila. He was given the Ozanam Award for, and I quote, “distinctive labors and devotion in the field of social service.” Labor and devotion. Service and love.

 

To our awardees, thank you for revealing to us once more this wonderful interweave of love and service. Thank you for affirming our identity and mission, for deepening our sense of who we are and what our lives are ultimately all about. To our guests and members of our University community, thank you for heeding the call to gather and share your presence in this joyful occasion. 

 

Let this interweave of love and service be enough for us. May it be strong enough to bind us to our true selves and to those who must matter to us and to our God. In omnibus amare et servire Domino. May we always, in all things, love and serve the Lord. May we always, in everything, love and serve his people. 

 

Again, thank you and welcome to the Traditional University Awards of the Ateneo de Manila.