The theme you chose for this acquaintance party is Unity in Diversity. This is something that strikes at the heart of our reason for being as a mission institute – to be a channel of bringing unity amid the given divides which both nature and humans have created. Certainly, our celebration notes the task to learn, to make use of our time, and to appreciate our uniqueness without forgetting that we are equal and one with the others – in dignity and in the creativity to imagine a future of oneness among peoples.
Spending time, wasting time, enjoying in food and drinks with others informally are truly leaps or strides in building our unity amid the differences our culture, hereditary traits, and individual life stories have given us.
Acquaintance celebration is a door opener. It serves as the unlocking of the beauty that awaits exposure and recognition. True there are old and new ones among us, true there are Filipinos and non-Filipinos in our Institute, true there are males and females…the list is long for us to name all the differences.
Yet, at the heart of these is the desire to meet the other, to see the face of another, to be at least be familiar with the other, to make the self also known and recognized by the other. This is the human longing that disposes us to open our doors that others may see and recognize who we are and all the mysteries that lie under where our beauty potentially awaits discovery. This calls for wasting time, this entails readiness to embrace difference, this prods us to be creative in knowing and recognizing.