My Brother-in-law & Other Stories
By Johnny Novera

The walkout

We heard mass last Sunday at the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Barangay   San Antonio , Makati , and the church was filled with children.  It is a regular children's mass at 4:00 p.m. and the few adults occupying the benches reserved for them at the back portion of the church were led by children during the mass with  the latter  doing the prayers and readings, choreographed with songs and dance numbers.

In contrast to the ambience of the church which has beatifully tiled flooring and fully air-conditioned, the children have come perhaps from the poorer areas of Makati because of the undernourished look in the faces of many of them and the simple clothing  they worn.  I congratulate the parish priest of the shrine for, like Jesus, he loved the children even if not one of them dropped a  coin during the collection.

Years ago, I recalled an incident when, as a family, we heard mass in a local church in Iloilo City .  Our youngest, a girl, who was then about 2-1/2 years old, went to the center aisle near the altar while the mass was going on.  Silently imitating the priest in front, she knelt and made the sign of the cross, then stood up and bowed several times towards the altar.  When the priest saw the little girl at the aisle, without saying a word, he stopped his mass.  It was embarrassingly long, but our little girl did not return to the pews even as we were calling her.  She continued her "prayers" on  the aisle. 

Finally I had no choice but to bodily carry her back to the seat.  To our embarrassment, she cried out loud when I did that.   I had no choice but had to go out of the church with her, and  my wife with  our six other children followed.