It takes a couple of days for the feet of a JVP volunteer¹ to get to his area of assignment in Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao. But it takes the heart a lifetime to understand what being a JVP Volunteer means.

On a hot and quiet June afternoon in 1992, I arrived at my area of assignment: Anao-aon, Surigao del Norte. One year in Anao-aon flew with the wind. With the enormous task I had to do – teaching all of eight subjects and being adviser to a sophomore high school class, plus moderating the student government and some other clubs at the San Nicolas High School – I was always wishing for more time to know my students, prepare my lesson plan, check papers, talk with a fellow Jesuit volunteer and partner in the mission area, Sarah Balane, relax and spend time with my foster family and co-teachers, see the sights of Surigao my students bragged about, write my family and friends, and to do a host of other things like doing the laundry and washing the dishes.

There was never enough time. Somehow still, in the midst of all these busyness, the people of Anao-aon found their way into my heart. And when it was time to say-good-bye at the end of 10 months, we could not help but shed tears as I shared my Manila address to students, friends, and family in this home of almost one year for me. I knew I would henceforth carry these precious people in my heart.

True enough, when I started teaching Philosophy of the Human Person at the Ateneo de Manila right after my JVP year, I found myself citing examples from Anao-aon when I taught about the value of human person. I remember telling my students how in Anao-aon people would say “labay lang” (passing by) as they walked along the road and passed by neighbors who had come out of their homes in the evening to chat under a starry sky. When I became a lawyer in a big law firm for a year and later on at the Supreme Court for more than four years, I would keep in mind that I was dealing with the lives of real people even though I was faced with only mountains of papers and records of cases. Throughout those years, I kept in touch with the people in Anao-aon and my life remained intertwined with theirs.

Now that I am back in JVP, I strive to keep in mind that people and their lives are at the heart of service and volunteerism. At the end of the day, when you have spent every ounce of energy in your body, the measure of energy in your body, the measure of service and volunteerism is how much you have given of yourself in your effort to improve the lives of the people you serve. When Christ entered the world, He loved concretely – healing, teaching, and living among the people of His time, especially the marginalized. He struggled to improve their lives with all that He could give.

  The entire history of JVP is about that same love of Christ, a love that build both the lives of the volunteers and the people they serve. Each of the 26 batches of JVP is a rock that builds our country  and Christ’s people, His Church – with each rock building on top of the other. Over the years, more than 700 Jesuit volunteers have served hundreds of schools, non-government organizations, and parishes in an effort to build His Church and our country. The JVP has formed young missionaries to commit to the vision of building “a just society that celebrates the fullness of life” so that even after our JVP year we would “try the heroic best to live Jesus’ life within the cubicles of our respective careers,” in the words of Batch One’s Father Jett Villarin.

Following the example of Christ, the Jesuit Volunteers endeavor to build this country not only for but with the people they serve. They go to the indigenous peoples in the highest mountains of Bukidnon or to the farthest fishing villages in Samar or to the most deprived rural high schools in Nueva Ecija, so that working with the people in these communities, they would together see and awaken in themselves the power to make things happen, to embrace change, and contribute to the growth of communities and the entire nation. This was succinctly captured on JVP Batch 22’s shirt: “Imagine the power of one, multiplied several times over.  Together let us make a difference.”

Our country is about to take another turn, hopefully for the better with the upcoming national and local elections. Soon we will be starting again with newly-installed government officials. But government, as the steward of progress, cannot single-handedly steer our country towards development. The key to building a just society where people have the opportunity to realize the fullness of their humanity is the people themselves committed to working for this society.

It is this commitment and passion to follow Christ in loving and building that runs through the lives of all Jesuit volunteers from Batch 1 to 27; it binds them all together. As an organization, the JVP has had to go through trials and difficulties, but it is this commitment of the volunteers that has brought it to its 27^th year. The songs that various JVP batches sing may have varied, with Batch 1 singing Pippin’s “With You” and Batch 25 singing “Buksan ang yong mga Mata.” But anywhere and everywhere, it is the JVP cross that each volunteer wears which animates his service, volunteerism, and love of people and country. And even when the volunteers have ceased wearing their JVP cross on this chest during their JVP year, this symbol has undeniably left an indelible mark in their  heart.

Several years from my feet left far away Anao-aon at the end of my volunteer year in 1993, my heart continues to strive to understand what it means to be a Jesuit volunteer and what it takes to follow the Man on the JVP cross I once wore. He continues to call me to build. The Jesuit volunteers and the communities they serve make inroads to each other’s heart, and in turn make inroads to the heart of this country we are all striving to build. And all of these are happening because Someone has found h is way first into our hearts.

(Footnotes)

¹ The terms “JVP volunteer” and “Jesuit volunteer” alternately used and cited throughout this article refer to the full-time volunteers of the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines Foundation, Inc (JVPFI).