Delivered during the Silliman Founders Day Sunday worship on Aug. 27 at Silliman Church.
Happy 116th Founder’s Day to Silliman University, its administration, faculty and staff, students, alumni and friends! For its faithful alumni, especially those who come from abroad, Founders Day is an event which they look forward to and plan for months or perhaps year or so in advance.
I arrived yesterday noon and went to several parties. It was delightful to watch Sillimanians shrieking, screaming and hugging friends, old and new. People went party-hopping and dancing last night.
Now it is the morning after the night before. It is now time to settle down, count our blessings, and reflect on God’s faithfulness to our country, our dear old Silliman and to our individual selves.
The scripture readings on Lamentations 3:22-23 and Romans 8:38-39 are among the most loved and popular verses. The book of Lamentations is attributed to the prophet Jeremiah although scholars now question this assumption. It was written 587 BC as a poetic lament on the horrific suffering that the Jewish people underwent when they were conquered by Babylon. I reread all the five chapters of Lamentations to have a better appreciation of the two verses in our scripture reading.
Nothing that we suffered before and are suffering now as Silliman, as individuals and as a country can match the unspeakable horrors that the Jews underwent during the Babylonian captivity. Twice, mention was made of mothers killing their own children, cooking and eating them. And yet, the prophet extols God’s faithfulness to his people and continues to hope and wait. He talks about God’s great love, His unfailing compassion, which are new every morning. He exclaims, “Great is your faithfulness!”
You may be wondering, “Why are we discussing suffering and lamentation during a time of great joy and thanksgiving which is the Silliman Founder’s Day?” I believe is to remind us that even as we party, dance, sing and celebrate, earlier we had to undergo much suffering and lamentation.
Lamentations of our country and Silliman
The suffering of Silliman mirrors then the suffering of our country. Our young people may not believe it but there was a time in the life of Silliman when it underwent terrible hardship and tribulation this was during the Second World War and the Japanese invasion of our country. Many Filipinos fled to the hills and to far-flung areas to escape the horrors of war. The word bakwit means “evacuate”.
During the war and even after its horrors, I grew up listening to stories of Filipinos who were tortured before being brutally killed, children tossed up in the air and skewered with swords, women ruthlessly raped, and pregnant eviscerated. Young men who were ROTC trainees of Silliman died defending our province and our country.
Silliman remained faithful to its commitment of bringing education Filipino children. Thus, the “Jungle University” was born, with teachers continuing to teach. This time, the students were the mountain folk.
In our hometown in Guihulngan, my mother would gather the children and teach us to write with sticks on banana leaves. So we learned how to read and write and when we went to school after the war, I was accelerated twice.
Silliman and Sillimanians continually suffered each time the country suffered-whether from economic and social catastrophes or other causes.
Cycles of economic catastrophes brought difficult on Sillimanians. There were times when Silliman nearly collapsed from financial difficulties and accumulated deficits.
The vicissitudes of Martial law impacted on Silliman as students and alumni resisted the curtailment of their democratic freedom.
Yes, even as we joyfully celebrate today, we also underwent periods of deep lamentation.
What is striking about our scriptures is that we are told that God’s people thanked God and celebrated his faithfulness even as they suffered.
Jehovah’s faithfulness
Paul wrote what is considered as his greatest treatise, the Letter to the Romans in 60 A. D. under totally different circumstances. While Jeremiah was lamenting the suffering of the Jewish people under Babylon, Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome 647 years later. Paul wrote not only about Jehovah’s faithfulness; he extolled the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. He exults in the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the God’s love.
The message of these interrelated scripture passages which span 2,604 years still resonate among us Sillimanians and Filipinos even as we celebrate our Founders Day today.
Yes, we have undergone much suffering as a country, as a university, and us individuals. But all these cannot separate us from God’s love.
Potential lamentations
At present, our country is facing tremendous political, social and economic challenges. The recent decision to abolish the Negros Island Region is changing a lot of activities and opportunities for Negros. Through the NIR, we had been able to hold big events, such as the Brigada Eskwela and the National Secondary Schools Press Conference. If we lose these activities, the Province suffers in terms of lost income. If the Province suffers, Silliman suffers.
We are threatened with rebellions which might divide our country and people. We have the war in Marawi that has led to the evacuation of so many Maranaos across the country. We have 28,000 Marawi children scattered all over the country. We have accepted them in our public schools and we welcome them with our without documentation.
But it’s not that easy because we also need teachers who can speak the Maranao dialect. Luckily in Dumaguete, we have a teacher among the bakwits who has a Ph.D., and we have tapped her to teach the Marawi children in Dumaguete.
Silliman is facing potential threats like the implications of the recently passed law granted free tuition in state colleges and universities. We still have to see the impact of the addition of two more years in high school as our first batch of senior high school students’ move on to college studies or enter the world of work.
Today, we celebrate 116 years of God’s faithfulness to our country, to Silliman and to us individually. We face potential lamentations and suffering with the knowledge that nothing, but nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Happy Founders Day to each and every one of us!
