Unbeaten, kuno

Yesterday was the feast of St. Joseph and it was very heartwarming to see the number of people who heard masses in the various churches of Bacolod, and, possibly elsewhere in the country, to honor him. St. Joseph is only remembered as the “foster father of Jesus” and the “husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. But he surely played a big role in bringing up the child Jesus, and working hard as a carpenter to support them.

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St. Joseph is mentioned several times in the Bible because of his humility, and his complete acceptance of what God asked of him, to continue being the husband of Mary, in a message delivered to him by an angel. We read about him taking the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem, where she gave birth in a lowly manger, and of taking her and the boy Jesus to Jerusalem in compliance with the edicts of the times. But have we ever read anything about he had said? He was so low-key, he just stayed in the background, being the one who knew what a precious and unusual child he was calling his son.

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But he has not been forgotten or ignored by Christendom. All over the world today we see churches, convents and houses of prayers named after him. We know of towns, village and even cities, named after him, too. And his feast day is marked by Catholics with special celebrations, as what several families in the Philippines have been doing. Our own family, starting with our greatgrandparents, had been observing the tradition of getting together of a boy, a young girl and an elderly man, to be the honorees in the presence of friends and relatives. This has been handed down from generation to generation.

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Yesterday I was very happy to see a news item announcing the elevation of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Balanga, Bataan to a Cathedral Shrine of St. Joseph. This was realized yesterday, his feastday, which was also the 40th founding anniversary of the Balanga Diocese. The announcement also said that plenary indulgences will be granted to those who visit the shrine from yesterday up to November 7. By the way, it was also noted that our dear “Lolo Isko”, Pope Francis, was inaugurated on St. Joseph’s day in 2013.

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Meanwhile, fans of Julie Andrews, and her unforgettable movie, “The Sound of Music” will be delighted to know that a big-to-do is being planned by the movie company that produced it to mark its 50th, or golden anniversary this year. Just imagine, 50 years have already gone by since the time thousands, nay, millions of moviegoers, young and old, fell in love with the fresh-faced young woman, too irrepressible to be accepted as a nun by the local convent, moving on to become the governess to seven, equally irrepressible children of a stern military man.

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How many months after watching that movie did your local radio station and your own record player continue playing “Doe-a-deer, a female deer”, “Edelwiess”, and “My favorite things?” Confess now, how many times did you watch it – if you belong to my generation, or even a little earlier or later? Me, I was so fascinated with it, my sister and other relatives and I grabbed the opportunity to watch the stage presentation in Manila last year.

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Oh, Oh. Now it’s the daughter who is facing multi-million cases from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Ms. Jeane Napoles , daughter of You-know-who (why haven’t we heard anything about her lately?) is being slapped with a P17.88 million tax evasion case. Well, maybe she deserves it, after calling attention to herself by posting the excesses in her lifestyle in the U.S. on social media. In Makati, we have a father and son facing charges, in Manila a mother and daughter are girding for both fraud and tax evasion cases. It’s all in the family, see?

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So it’s not really true that Floyd Mayweather is “unbeaten” as a boxer. The item of sports writer Quinito Henson yesterday in the Philippine Star: enumerated the EIGHT times the so-called “unbeaten – 47.0 – boxer had suffered defeats in the ring, and even named the ones who beat him. These losses occurred before he became a professional, but a loss is a loss is a loss. So how come he and his loudmouth daddy keep repeating like a mantra that after one loses, that loss will always be on one’s mind? Someone should tip Manny Pacquiao on this, and tell him to whisper “Eight losses, eight losses” to Floyd everytime they start a round. So that’s the story behind the “Unbeaten” kuno. For our foreign readers, “kuno” translates roughly to “So they say.*

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