They Call Him Mr. Pagsi

As we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph this month, in the year dedicated to him by Pope Francis, we present stories honoring the human yet divine fatherhood of St. Joseph. As the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph humbly and faithfully showed us how a father’s guiding, protective love for his child should draw from the heavenly Father’s boundless love for His Son and for us.

STELLA PAGSANGJAN DERIQUITO

HESUS KO

Maging kaibigan Mo Salamat, Hesus ko. Pinili mo ako. Nagkaligaw-ligaw ako. Pagkalayo-layo sa ‘Yo Inakit-akit mo akong bumalik-balik sa ‘yo.  Sa sandaang pangamba kong makabitiw muli sa ‘Yo Yakapin Mo ako, Hesus ko, Hesus ko.

English Translation

Jesus, you drew me into your friendship. Thank you, my Jesus, for choosing me to be your friend. I was lost so many times, running so far from you. But you drew me to return again and again to you. Amid a hundred fears of losing you yet again, embrace me, my Jesus, my Jesus.

Mr. Pagsi, my father, has written many songs. “Hesus Ko” was his most recent work.

Most of the songs my father wrote were for Dulaang Sibol, the little high school theatre group he formed and mentored.  However, he has also written lyrics for religious songs, which Fr. Manoling Francisco SJ set to music—songs sung at masses all over the country.

But the song he wrote in July 2018—for which Fr. Manoling Francisco SJ composed a lovely melody – is, to my mind, quite special.  He wrote it in the twilight of his life.  By twilight, I mean he wrote it a month after his 91^st birthday!  

“Twilight” came rather late for my dad.  He was an indefatigable high school teacher at the Ateneo de Manila for over 60 years, teaching well into his late eighties and mentoring Dulaang Sibol for nearly as long.  

Why is this song special?  I think this is, in essence, what my dad ultimately wanted to teach his students.  He taught English and Filipino, and even Latin one time.  He taught grammar and literature.  He taught enthralling classes on The Little Prince, Lost Horizon, Julius Caesar, Dandelion Wine, and much more.  He gave generations of students so many life lessons they would not forget.

But the older he got, the more he honed in, you might say, on teaching the lesson he himself learned to be most important: that of friendship with Jesus. As the twilight in his life deepens, the words of that song he wrote in July 2018 speak with simple tenderness, what is in his heart now: gratefulness to the Lord who had chosen to be his friend, and an almost desperate, childlike need to be embraced by that friendship till the very end.