CHECKLIST FOR 2007 By Reynold Glenn Jaboneta, acm'88

PART ONE

We welcome 2007 will hearts full of hope and may the year give all of us meaningful journey and significant encounters and deep friendships.

Kris Aquino and James Yap are making the headlines nowadays for the birth of their child this 2007. This will be the lucky year for them according to the experts on stars, yin and yang and all. In the Philippines it is the news.

On the other hand is the debate on the custody of the American soldier Daniel Smith, the May 2007 elections. We can be carried away by all these and miss out the essentials. After all, Exupery is saying what is essential is invisible to the eye.

This is the essential this 2007. This is about the VINCENTIAN VIRTUES PERSONAL CHECKLIST by Rev. Fr. Gregory Gay, C.M. He is currently the Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission. This February he will come to visit De Paul College and all the other Vincentian houses.

The personal checklist will make sense in our journey patterned after St. Vincent de Paul, as we embark into another story about life.

We start with HUMILITY. The Scriptural text is taken from the gospel of St. Luke 18: 9-14. This is the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Two people went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and said: I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, grasping, crooked, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give the tenth of all my income to the Temple.”

In the meantime the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Let us see the movements of these characters. Both of them WENT UP to the temple to PRAY. Maybe it is like the journey from the house of Mang Garas or Mang Tony up to VHS to celebrate the Eucharist on a Sunday. In life we all journey uphill or in whatever terrain and lived a way of life on how to approach God, encounter God.

The Pharisee STOOD BY HIMSELF and SAID…I THANK YOU…I AM NOT like other people…or even like this tax collector. I FAST…I GIVE…the tenth of all MY INCOME.

What about the tax collector? STANDING FAR OFF, NOT EVEN LIFT HIS EYES, BEAT his breast...BE MERCIFUL TO ME, A SINNER.

The Pharisee is full of himself. I thank you, I am not like. I fast. I give.. My income. It was a litany of “I”. On the other hand the tax collector standing far off beat his breast. Be merciful to me, a sinner. This is what humble people do.

We can ask these questions as suggested by Fr. Gay. All the guide questions are taken from the checklist.

1. Do I recognize my dignity as a son/daughter of God, having the humility to see the gifts God has given me and do I use those gifts for His glory or for my own vanity?

2. Am I able to recognize my own limits, my weaknesses, my shortcomings, my failings before others?

3. Am I able to forgive others and ask forgiveness for my offenses?