I recently attended a Tagaytay wedding with my girlfriend and on our way there we faced tremendous traffic which made us think if we were able to reach the ceremony on time. After passing the 2 hour traffic we decided to give it a try, so I drove as fast as I can hoping that for some reason the ceremony started a little later than planned, and when we got there true enough we were able to catch the start of the homily.
It was a rainy afternoon in the Chapel on a Hill with just a handful of guests we sneaked in and found ourselves some seats, as we listened to the officiating minister we can’t help but notice how fun he is as person, he had a “clapper” that he used instead of clapping with his hands, he blew bubbles during his message which lightened up everyone’s prim and proper moods, he sang a song that was appropriate to his message and he had props that he used to get his point across, we were impressed because it was not “baduy” and curious at the same time, part of his message that I like was that if you want to get to your partner’s heart, you have to use your ear, because when you look at the word HEART, the word EAR is in the middle of H-umility and T-rust, ok that didn’t sound impressive, I guess you really have to hear how he said it.
After the ceremony we went on our way to the reception, and while we were spending our time waiting at the cocktail lounge of Antonio’s we saw him chatting with other guests and my girlfriend told me that she wished she can chat with him too but she’s kind of shy, so while I was trying to convince her to just go and try, suddenly he came to us and started the conversation with a quick start up line: “Are you two Koreans?”.
So we chatted for the better part of the cocktail hour, enjoyed exchanging some thoughts here and there, he even showed us his curious “clapper” that he got from Papua New Guinea. Then about the time the reception was about to start I took a picture of him with my girlfriend, they shared their school invocations like “Live Jesus in our hearts, Forever!” and he shared his which sounded like “Serve God with Joy” and then he shared to us about wanting to add the word Holy to it, “That’s It!” I thought to myself, we have a God who is a joyful God, sure we should give our reverence but the joy that God gives is essential in being a christian, that’s what sets us apart and makes other people curious of what makes us really smile, Holy Joy huh… hmm, I’ll keep that pegged in my mental notepad so I can process it more next time. We then proceeded to our tables and enjoyed the the rest of the reception, every time we clapped I would watch him raise that curious clapper to make some noise… maybe I should get myself one of those.
By the way, I used to think that priests, pastors, or ministers are somewhat on the “serious” side if you know what I mean, this guy totally smashed my mental stereotype.
Also, the H-umility and T-rust part was my idea and I told him about adding it to his talk and he thinks it is brilliant! (Pats self on the back).
Whats Interesting:
Tags: Antonio's, Chapel on a Hill, Holy Joy, Personal thoughts