Remembering the Transfiguration and Fr. Mon’s ordination

“It is good that we are here!” These words uttered by St. Peter during the Lord’s transfiguration were echoed by Rev. Fr. Roy Rexelle M. Decena as he led the community to reflect on the Feast of the Transfiguration as Rev. Fr. Ramon Jamora, Jr. celebrated his first mass at St. Francis Xavier College Seminary.

Fr. Decena, who was Fr. Jamora’s formator at Holy Apostles Senior Seminary as its former Dean of Seminarians and now Acting Rector was one of the many priests who welcomed the newly ordained in a solemn rite presided by Most Reverend Romulo Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao.

Truly, it was good that many people — priests and deacons, religious sisters, parents, siblings, relatives, friends, loved ones, lay collaborators in seminary formation, the seminarians, among others — were gathered in thanksgiving to God for the priestly ordination of Fr. Mon.

Fr. Decena gave some reminders and challenges to Fr. Mon and the community drawing from the inspiration of the Transfiguration: to remember, to seize the moment, and to pray.

“The Eucharist, where the priesthood is born from, is itself a remembrance,” said Fr. Decena. It is our task to remember especially how God has been good to us, how He has constantly loved us. The experience of being loved is a “mountaintop experience” because we feel an extraordinary closeness to God. Fr. Decena suggested to be “attuned to our memorable experiences of being truly loved, like being with our family, or finishing the seminary formation, or having accomplished something or hurdled an obstacle.”

“Fr. Mon, your most recent mountain-top experience is your Presbyteral Ordination. That is your own transfiguration experience where you must have really felt so close to God!” Fr. Decena said.

He also reminded the importance of seizing the moment. “Be truly present where God sends you, embrace the challenges there and leave your comfort zone,” he said. Further, he reminded to not just seize the moment but to convert that moment into a momentum — a moving power, an impetus to do what is necessary.

He challenged the community as he did Fr. Mon, “Go to your Jerusalem. Do not be afraid! Welcome your Jerusalem, wherever that is.” Fr. Mon’s “Jerusalem”, he said, is “right here (in the seminary)… to be with this team of formators, to be with your seminarians, to embrace the sweet burden and cross of forming disciples of Christ… to open yourselves to the other demands of the priestly ministry.”

But above all, Fr. Decena said, the perpetual task he left the congregation is TO PRAY!

“The Transfiguration is a prayer event,” he said. The mountain, in the Scriptures, is a symbol and locus of this intimate encounter with God. “Our Lord Jesus always went to a lonely place, to a mountain, to pray, to be with the Father.” We should imitate Jesus in his desire for constant communion with the Father. “In the Gospel, we heard that on this mountain, while praying, Jesus’ face changed in appearance,” he added.

As a final note, Fr. Decena exhorted Fr. Mon that in his constant and continuous configuration and transfiguration as he lives out his priestly ordination, his being should point to the presence of Christ. “And if people truly listen, it should not be because of the power that we have acquired or the authority we have gained by virtue of our office or the ordination, but because they could see the Son, the beloved Son of our Father, in us, in our life and ministry,” Fr. Decena said.