Life in the Spirit: Wonderfully Uncool!

"I'm glad you were home."
"I'm always home. I'm uncool."
"Me, too."
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when you're uncool."

A conversation between Lester Bangs and William Miller, Almost Famous (2000)

I remember when someone first proposed that I should consider receiving Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. It was on one of the few times that I took public transportation, and while I was on my way to Galleria, the Scripture quoting derelict who started hemorrhaging bible verses convinced me to alight at Megamall. Perhaps that's why for the longest time, I subconsciously associated Megamall with a sense of sanctuary. Before, even considering such a deeply personal, and mildly offensive offer, was preposterous. Even worse, as I was a recent graduate of quite possibly the most self-assured, and therefore, the most suspiciously sensitive university along Katipunan, I was convinced that not only was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, like most relationships that have their origin in non-airconditioned buses the world over, horribly inconvenient, it was fatally uncool.

And so, my best friend Ralph's graduation from Serviam Catholic Charismatic Community's Life in the Spirit Experience #8 is one of those blessedly rare occasions when I intentionally revisit the embarrassing ignorance of my youth and celebrate the wonders of a wisdom won not through my own efforts, but through Christ alone. Like many Ateneans who went to school along Katipunan during the late '90s, Ralph seemed forever scarred by our inability to generate wins in UAAP basketball save through the intervention of Our Lady, who may have lavished us with many "moral victories" on the hardcourt, but who refused to intercede for us with her Son in order to produce actual wins during the interminably long UAAP season. Christ was someone we went to when in search of that elusive season defining win against our Green Archer rivals; our Lord was not someone we called upon to define our lives outside basketball.

I am told the Ateneo finally has a basketball team that can almost match the brazen self-assurance of its alumni. Ironically, I stopped watching Ateneo basketball some time ago. As such I cannot completely celebrate my alma mater's championships. But, more importantly, my friend Ralph has discovered another advantage to living a life in Christ, bereft of whatever assumptions a personal relationship with Christ has for one's beloved basketball team. A life in Christ, when judged from the standards of Ralph's old life, will forever be uncool. But the only true currency one has in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. And he has so many wonderful, thoughtful, Spirit-filled, fatally uncool friends after this weekend.

That's certainly worth celebrating. Now, Ralph is home. He can be deliriously, gloriously, happily uncool.

Pictures may be found here and here.