David’s conceptions

When then matinee idol Gabby Concepcion appeared on the cover of the inaugural issue of STAR! Monthly magazine in 1981, the cover story, written by Marlu Villanueva, was titled, “Gabby’s conceptions.”

The subject of my column today has something in common with Gabby, aside from his surname. Like Gabby, Fr. David “Dave” Tampus Concepcion is a matinee idol of sorts, with a loyal following of men and women inspired and enthralled by his homilies, teachings and pilgrimages. His “conceptions” are a blend of doctrine and personal wisdom, and I was fortunate to be among those who joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land that he guided. After that pilgrimage, another Fr. Dave fans club was born.

From Lucena, Quezon, Father Dave has known deprivation in life. In college, he and a brother shared one pair of rubber shoes. When his older brother came home, the pair of shoes was aired briefly before Fr. Dave slipped his feet into them for his “turn” in the afternoon. When he was a parish priest, there were times he and his helper shared a fried egg for breakfast, mysteriously found by the helper under the cloak of a statue of the Blessed Virgin inside the church. Father Dave is now the parish priest of the Maria Goretti Parish in Paco, Manila, and the president of Catholic Travel Inc., which sets aside a portion of its earnings for sick and abandoned priests.

Father Dave, a licensed mechanical engineer, entered the priesthood late. It took a miracle for Fr. Dave to truly see the light of his calling.

Stabbed five times in the University Belt in his younger years, he bled on the streets with no one stopping to help him. Somehow, he managed to drag himself to the FEU Hospital, where emergency surgery was performed on him. His doctor, Roman Cruz, told Father Dave the knife wound in his side missed his lungs by a hairline.

Unable to pay for his medical bills, his family asked if the hospital would accept a promissory note. According to Father Dave, the doctor agreed but quipped he would not take the stitches out if they didn’t pay him by that time.

Father Dave recalls that one day, his healing wounds were so unbearably itchy that even though he wasn’t ready with the doctor’s professional fee, he returned to FEU. Perhaps, another kind doctor would take the stitches out of his wounds. But who should he bump into in the hospital lobby but Dr. Cruz himself?

“Come with me,” Dr. Cruz told him. Dr. Cruz then brought Dave to his clinic behind the hospital and took out the stitches. He also told Dave that the social welfare department had approved his eligibility as a charity patient. So, no hospital fees necessary. He then gave Father Dave 25 centavos to buy Band-Aid to eventually replace the dressing on his healing wounds.

When Father Dave returned to FEU when he was finally able to raise some money to pay the doctor, the hospital’s administration told him there was no record of a patient by the name of David Tampus Concepcion, nor a doctor by the name of Roman Cruz.

(When he was already a priest, Dave Concepcion returned to FEU to give his testimony of his healing in the hospital. And his mysterious healer.)

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Father Dave with pilgrims at the Church of Magdala.

During the pilgrimage, many of us took notes during Father Dave’s homilies. The following “conceptions” were like pebbles that continue to create ripples on my mind. Some “conceptions” I quoted verbatim.

From his homily at the Ein Karem in Jerusalem, where John the Baptist was born, Father Dave exhorted us to “pursue blessing.”

1. “Winning over your enemies does not make you a better person. If people are good to you, please be good to them; if people are bad to you, please be good to them because it is what you are. Do not allow others to change your character. Do not allow others to dictate your own personhood. Pursue blessing instead.”

2. “We are all capable of doing what is evil. It is by God’s grace that we are strengthened not to do it. It is by the grace of God that you are able to say ‘NO’ to sin. It is not by your own strength. You have to be grateful. You are not good by yourself alone. That’s why we have to acknowledge this grace. You don’t take this gift for granted. It is a gift from God to be able to do what is good. To be able to hear God, to be able to say ‘YES’ to God, is a grace. Don’t tell yourself ‘I was able to do what is good because I am good.’ You are good because God is good to you.”

3. “Don’t confuse your journey with your destination. Remember that our journey will not always be smooth. Martin Luther King said, ‘If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, just keep moving towards your goal.’ Don’t stop.”

“Heaven is our GOAL. There’s an old saying, ‘If you keep throwing stones on all the dogs that bark along the way, you will miss your destiny.’ Just keep moving. God is waiting for you. Pursue blessing.”

At the Church of Magdala, built over the ruins of the house of Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Christ in His resurrected state:

1. Those who love much have forgiven much.

2. Joys are whispers of God. Feelings of pain are shouts of God. Scars show the love of God.

3. Regardless of sin, God loves you. Nothing you can do can make God love you more; there is nothing you can do that can make God love you less.

By the Church of Multiplication by the Sea of Galilee, during a reflection of the day Jesus calmed the storm as his apostles quivered in fear:

1. We must be willing to get out to get out of the boat and embrace the storms of life. In order to sail, we need gusty winds.

2. God will not spare you from the storms of life.  Maybe God is teaching you something. Just like muscles are formed by carrying weights, spiritual muscles are formed by the weight of trials. “Storms are your ticket to heaven.”

3. Maybe God put your boat on a stormy sea because, “Your enemies don’t know how to swim.”

4. Quoting Robert Fulghum, he said, “If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.”

(To be concluded)

(There will be a Lenten recollection with Fr. Dave on Saturday, April 6, starting with a Mass at 6:30 p.m. at the Lay Force Chapel, San Carlos Pastoral Formation Complex, EDSA, Guadalupe, Makati City.)

(You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)