Language is not a barrier for the Lord

“I am good and I’m happy!” This is the response I got when I asked one of our Brothers during his GKK apostolate. He is Yohanes Antonius Suban Koten nicknamed “Anthony”. He is in his final year of Theology in Redemptorist Formation Community in Davao. He started his exposure to our GKK last July 2018 and ending by November 2018. Having finished his GKK exposure, he will continue his apostolate in one of the hospitals in Davao.

While staying in our GKK (Sta. Cruz-NHA) he volunteered to read the first reading in Bisaya though he claims that he has a difficulty of understanding the language. He shared that he wished to have a Brother or a Pangulo sa Liturhiya (PSL) to explain the readings in English but unluckily no one was assigned. Actually, there are times that there was not one word spoken in English but he managed to join us. He also knows how to play the guitar and would love to take the chance on our behalf when I am absent or the other guitarist who is a stroke survivor is on bed rest even though he doesn’t know our songs yet! But anyway, we agreed if he’s already familiar I might as well give him the chance to accompany us in one of our Kasaulogan sa Pulong (KSP).

I asked him, what did you learn from us? What do we need to learn from him? Is there any recommendation for improvement? He replied the value of proceeding with our KSP despite the few attendance, no guitarist, heavy rains, and brownouts amazes him and he appreciated our efforts. He further said that we continue with our current format because it is good unlike in Indonesia (in his home town) where the people gathered only to recite the Rosary. I told him our format is similar to the Holy Mass what is missing is the liturgy of the Eucharist. One of his suggestions is to teach people what he learnt from Theology about Mary etc. However, we need to discuss that with our Pangulo sa Katilingban (PSK). There were times we found Anthony got confused with the way we speak. He forced a smile that time. Since we knew that, we take our time to translate whatever we said in Bisaya to English.

We ended our conversation by wishing him good luck to his ordination. If God wills it he said he will be the first Redemptorist priest of their parish. His mother and his father (already in heaven), his two (2) brothers and four (4) sisters would be very proud of their youngest whose vocation was influenced by the religiosity of the family. May God bless Bro. Anthony’s future in order to work for his vineyard with good health. (Marieta Comighud | OMPH SoCCom)