[LAW SCHOOL PHILIPPINES] Law School Reflections for Good Friday 2020

Holy Week has always been among my favorite holidays because it’s that one time of the year where life really slows down to a crawl. The streets of Manila are relatively empty; walang traffic at walang mahahabang pila. My wife and I usually go out to a Lenten retreat ran by our church and that’s that.

I think my fixation with life slowing down comes from a summer vacation I spent in the mid-90s, as a little boy in my mother’s hometown. She grew up in a tiny barrio and there were no motorized vehicles on their tiny street. Oo, kapatid – that’s just one street. They had carabaos and carts, and the occasional kuliglig.

Their tiny barrio was right next to a river and that river, to a certain extent, happily provided for the needs of the local residents. In that pristine river, I was taught to swim, to gather small shellfish, river prawns and I even managed to catch small fish. That was Good Friday for me, almost 20 years ago.

Good Friday today is eerily quiet. There are no motor vehicles in our area, except the e-trikes that deliver our water and the occasional firetruck, blaring all sorts of music to disinfect out street. The Holy Week retreat is streamed online. It’s all quiet here in Manila, but the quiet just isn’t the same.

It’s the quiet of hushed tones, and faint voices. It’s the quiet of people going to bed early because there’s nowhere to be, or there are no deadlines to meet. It’s the quiet of a people who are collectively struggling in these crazy times.

Tonight, let me share with you some of my law school reflections for Good Friday 2020.
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