Fr. Ed's Response at the ADDU Naming Ceremony

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Last Updated on Monday, 04 April 2011 14:09 Written by Salve Borlagdan Sunday, 13 March 2011 23:07

Following is the full transcript of Fr. Ed's response to the remarks of Fr. Samson, S.J., president of Ateneo de Davao University, and Fr. Nebres, S.J., president of Ateneo de Manila University at the ceremony naming the ADDU's Sports Complex in his honor last March 11, 2011, in simple but solemn rites at the Matina Campus, Davao City.

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NAMING CEREMONY OF THE MATINA SPORTS COMPLEX

In honor of

FR. EDMUNDO M. MARTINEZ

Ateneo de Davao University

March 11, 2011

RESPONSE OF

FR. EDMUNDO M. MARTINEZ

Fr. Antonio Samson, President; Our Special Guest, Fr. Bienvenido Nebres; Members of the Board of Trustees, Administrators,Fr. Mike Pineda, Ms. Suzette Alino; Faculty, Staff and Students of the Ateneo de Davao University; Special Guests—co-workers and friends from the past; Other Guests and Friends; Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I make this response. For really, it is only with gratitude that one can possibly respond to the magnanimity of heart that is manifested by this gesture of naming this sports complex in my honor. And so, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Paul Dominguez, the members of the Board of Trustees, the Jesuit community of Davao, the Ateneo community and, above all, Fr. Antonio Samson, the President, for this distinct honor. It is truly satisfying that the ideals of youth that Fr. Samson and I shared when we were both young high school and college students at the Ateneo de Manila should be reaffirmed more than fifty years later in this meaningful way. Your mom, Ting, and my mom would be particularly pleased.

You all honor me as a way of thanking me for the contributions I made to the Ateneo de Davao University during my years as President, and it would not be true to say they were not significant contributions. But it would be a short-sighted and superficial person that would claim those achievements as his own. In the book. The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos, there is a favorite quote of Fr. Ben Nebres, a short and simple but pregnant sentence that reads: “All is grace.” My achievements that occasion this naming ceremony are just that—grace, something underserved, something totally gratuitous. One can take the most visible aspect of those achievements: the concrete buildings. Well, I can give you the names of those who actually built these buildings: Arch Rolly Mercado, Engr. Henry Omolida, Ma'm Odette, the late Mr. Ayi Barlis, Linda Arreola and Tita Jaca, Venus and Nits, Steve Fundador, to name only the more obvious ones. Then there were the administrators and faculty and staff, both in this Matina campus and in Jacinto, not to mention the lay people, alumni and friends, both members and non-members of the Board. If I mentioned all their names and what they contributed, it would take quite some time.

I do not mean to suggest that I just had a small role in all of this. After all, I was the Chief Operating Officer. But if you were to credit me with management skills, then I can tell you that I owe quite a bit of that to a Fr . Wally Campbell who mentored me when I was editor of the college yearbook, to a Fr. Jim Donelan who was President of the Ateneo de Manila when I was a scholastic regent, to a Fr. Joe Cruz who took me in as school administrator, to my superiors, to my peers and fellow-Jesuits, (some of whom are present here this morning), to alumni and friends, (some of whom, again, are present here this morning), as we interacted and dealt with the concerns of life and the various Ateneos. And if you were to credit me with some capacity for critical thinking, sound judgment, and effective communication, the list of persons to thank gets even bigger, for it now involves the whole range of training and resources of the Society of Jesus—not only in the Ateneo or the Loyola School of Studies, but also in Oxford, Innsbruck, Toronto, and Cambridge. There are names and faces associated with all these places and phases of my life. Some of them are now dead, but every single one of them was an individual and quite real. Finally, like a backdrop against which all my life and achievements become visible and possible, there is the presence, often not adverted to but always there, of the silent abiding love of my family and friends. They just let me be, and, so to speak, watched and cheered from the sidelines. It would indeed be foolish if I were to claim the achievements for which you honor me today as my own. All is grace, and the grace is the love and care I have received so constantly and so generously from others. And this morning’s event is yet another, though more dramatic, expression of that care and love.

I am likely to be accused of painting too rosy picture in all this, for in fact, human relationships are not always smooth; at times they are stormy. But just as success cannot be taken in isolation from the total reality of which it is a part, so also conflicts and failures are not isolated events, but part of a bigger picture. Limited human beings that we are, there is the tendency to see things in the limited—even selfish--perspective of our own likes and dislikes, our own personal concerns and interests. And within this limited perspective focused on one’s self, one can be lifted up in pride by success, or drowned in despair by failures; be complacent in good times, and stressed and high blood in bad times. But if one can see the bigger picture, not only success and smooth sailing, but also setbacks and rough sailings become like shadows and textures that are part of the total picture. Just as seeing the total picture prevents one from the pride of claiming success as one’s own, so also the bigger picture allows one to see setbacks and rough times as part of a wise and provident unfolding of life.

To see the bigger picture is to try to see things not from one’s limited, even selfish, perspective, but to see them from the perspective of God. God is the creator of heaven and earth, the Lord of history. It was not by chance or without purpose that Fr. Domingo Bove, the leader of the first Jesuits, came to Davao in 1868 and began his missionary work. It was not by chance or without purpose that the Jesuits were invited in 1948, and Fr. Theodore Daigler took over the parochial school that became the Ateneo de Davao. It was not by chance or without purpose that I was assigned to Davao in 1993 and now celebrate this event with you. Everything that transpired in Davao transpired in exactly the way they did for a purpose in God’s providence. And if we can accept that purpose in the obedience of faith, we can bless the Lord in good times and in bad.

Scripture compares man’s life to the flower of grass, that is here today and gone tomorrow.  But the amazing thing—the amazing grace—is that brief and passing as our work and lives may be, we have been given the privilege to play a real role in the bigger task that will surely succeed and that will surely last. The task, in the words of scripture, is “the creation of a new heaven and a new earth”, the establishment of “the kingdom of God,” “the building up of the Body of Christ, that is the Church.” We can only dimly see these realities in faith, just as Fr. Bove in the 19th century could only see dimly, if at all, what the Jesuit presence in Davao might be like in his future. Now we see his future more clearly, although that future of Fr. Bove is still unfolding. But what we do see and celebrate today would never have been, were it not for Fr. Bove’s work and that of his original three Jesuit companions.

We all move on, and in time we become forgotten.  We do our work which others may continue or still others may undo. But that passing life that we lived and that passing work that we did is a sharing in the work of Christ and, in Christ, they have lasting significance. To share in the work of Christ, as we care for the students of our school-- that is the meaning of our work, that is our achievement that continues beyond our lifetimes, and that is our honor that no one can take away.

And that God, working through your lives and mine, should have put me in a position to share in the work of Jesus Christ in the Ateneo de Davao University, that is pure grace---a pure gift.

Once again, I thank you    .

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