Family and Papa Justine’s parable

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger Sinot Sr.

TUBA, Benguet -- In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity or co-residence. In societies, the family is the social unit into which children are born.

It also refers to a person’s relatives and ancestors. Most families are based on kinship, that is, the members belong to a family through birth, marriage, or adoption. Family reunions are held left and right. It’s a yearly affair. But do we really go for the real meaning of family? Here is a song by American country singer Dolly Parton. Hope we grasp the real meaning of family.
 

When it’s family, you forgive them for they know not what they do/ When it’s family, you accept them ‘cause you have no choice but to/ When it’s family, they’re a mirror of the worst and best in you/ And they always put you to the test/ and you always try to do your best/ and just pray for God to do the rest/ when it’s family.
   

Some are preachers, some are gay/ some are addicts, drunks and strays/ But not one is turned away/ when it’s family/ Some are lucky, others ain’t/ Some are fighters, others ain’t,

Winners, losers, sinners, saints/ it’s all in family/ And when it’s family, you trust them and your heart’s an open door/ When it’s family, you tolerate what you kill others for/ When it’s family/ you love and hate and take, them give some more.
   

Somehow you justify mistakes, try to find some better way/ to solve the problems day by day , in the family/ Choose your lovers, you pick your friends/ not the family that you are in, nah…/ They’ll be with you till the end, ‘cause it’s family/ And when it’s family you forgive them, for they know not what they do/ When it’s family, they’re a mirror of the worst and best in you/ When it’s family, when it’s family.

 Let me be all that I should be to the family. The song says it all to be a family, where fathers belong. Happy fathers’ day!

                **”

My late father-in-law, Justine Sr. used to preach in the barrios where outreach Sunday masses were held. In one of the masses in Nangalisan, Tuba; he related a parable about a farmer and his family. Here goes:
   

In a hut by a ricefield lived a grandfather, a father and a grandson. The father commanded the son: “Son, you might as well go to the ricefield and plow alone as I have to stay in the house to attend to your grandfather’s needs. One of us should stay and serve my father, your grandfather, because he is too old and weak. He can’t even climb his bed. Somebody has to take the spoon and feed him.”
   

Then the son said: “But father, we can just put everything that grandfather needs beside him. We can make more terraces and we can plow more fields if both of us will go.” The father answered the son: “My son, there are three reasons why I can’t leave your grandfather alone. First reason is, without your grandfather, I will not be here and you won’t be in this world too. Second, without your grandfather, we will not have the riceland we are tilling now. The third reason is, when I, your father will grow old like your grandfather, I want you my son, a father to be, to do the same like I do today to my father, your grandfather.” This is the chain of fatherhood.
   

Happy father’s day to all dads, granddads and dads to be. We remember them – Papa Justine Daoas Sr., my brother Joseph Sinot, and Lily Sinot Patro who all celebrate their reunion with the Almighty in the month of June. Happy trails to all of you up there! – RDS