Sr. Esperanza “Parang” Quirino, RGS
(A partner, co-workers, mentor and a very dear FRIEND)
On Saturday, 8 April 2006, I received an email that a beloved friend, Sr. Parang also known as Sr. Hope passed away at 7:30 am on the same day.
The succinct announcement of her passing away said it all who this person was…
“Yes, our dear Parang has gone home to our Shepherd God at 7:30 this morning. Last night at past 10:00 pm. Parang collapsed on her way home from Church after “kumpisalan ng Bayan” (Communal Penitential Rite). She was conscious up to the end. The people were around her in the hospital. She even asked them to sing. The parish priest came who joined them for singing. Then he administered the anointing of the sick and after this she just passed quietly. She kept on telling them earlier that she could see her mother fetching her. Parang is an example of one who died with her "slippers” on.”
That same day and the days that followed, I mourned for her and reminisced the years we were together in Kabacan, North Cotabato. It was a reminiscence of a shared ministry with all the joys, hardships, frustrations and success characterized by deep bond of friendship not only between Parang and I but more so a remembrance of God’s love and care for the people of Kabacan and for the workers of the Gospel.
Kabacan was known, then, as a real “tough” place! Few people dared to cross the great Aringay River known to many as “Ilocoskovakia”.
The Ilocanos, of all the migrant peoples of the Cotabato valley, are known for hard work and thrift. They expect no less from their ministers!
By God’s providence, I was a “superman” Pastor of the place from 1976-80, and Sr. Parang was a “superwoman” Parish Sister.
Looking back, it must be “terrible”, awesome and fascinating, as well,sight to see a team of a “superman” and a “superwoman” trying to evangelize and conscientize the heart of “Ilocandia” in Cotabato valley during the Martial Law years of the great Ilocano Dictator, Apo Ferdinand Marcos, then President of the Republic of the Philippines.
Parang was a GREAT ILOCANA! There was in her an immediate recognition of “something made in Ilocos” by the people, especially the older generations who came from the Ilocos region. She was one of them and they saw in her, yet, another GREAT ILOCANO –her uncle, Elpidio Quirino, the second President of the Republic.
Parang was a great and patient mentor, particularly in everything Ilocano, including the language. She would translate into Ilocano my homilies and interventions in assemblies until I developed the courage to speak it and made it my own. With Parang and some lay leaders, we developed an Ilocano Cursillo and through the cursillo developed the basic Christian Community in the barrios of Kabacan.
Parang was an example of a Missionary Religious with “FIRE” - a Passion for Christ and Compassion for humanity”. She was tireless in her ministry, especially to the poor and the most marginalized. True to her RGS slogan: she made the poor and the most abandoned feel most important and valuable persons in the eyes of God.
Even before death, distance, space and times were never obstacles to her dedicated service. Her speed and travels were phenomenal – by bus, by boat or by TDK (truck de karga)! She was devotee of the God of the impossible!
But what stood out was not her wonderful works or speed, but her testimony to a deep prayer life and a simple life-style. Many times, she would say that she had to pray hard and lead a simple and frugal life because she talked too much and she was an Ilocana!
From her I learned that prayer is the important ingredient to a happy missionary life. We all have our share of frustrations, failures and successes. But what truly spells the difference is our faith and trust in God as we stand before him in prayer.
As I mourned Parang’s passage into a new life, I am assured, more than ever, of the mystery of the resurrection.
The 2006 celebration of Holy Week, particularly of the Triduum, has become special to me… as I mourn my friend's passing away.
As my unlce Johnny wirtes in his Sunday column, the passing away of friend is the mystery of encountering anew the crucified Jesus in a new way.
Like the disciples at Emmaus, it is an experience of "our eyes were opened," the evangelists add, "and they recognized Him in the breaking of bread".
They met Jesus after Calvary and arrived at certitude: this Jesus who died on the cross had entered into a radically transformed life. They "brought Peter the Rock out of Simon the betrayer, or the executed Paul out of the executing Saul, or the church of martyrs out of the scattered and fearful disciples."
The disciples’ experience has been refracted to us over the centuries. Even those who live out the implications of Easter—Mother Teresa or John Paul II or the Christians in South Sudan - stammer to articulate its meaning.
"Not everything has a name," Aleksandhr Solzhenitsyn writes. "Some things lead us into the realm beyond words…For an instant, you glimpse the Inaccessible. And the soul cries out for it." (Bapa Eliseo Mercado, OMI)
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