VIP TREATMENT

Photo retrieved from www.google.com 

Last February, when our school campus ministry held a special holy Eucharistic mass celebration in our school chapel in line with the Ash Wednesday fête, I experienced inferiority from one of the organizers of the event.

When I entered the chapel I noticed a lot of devotees who were already sitting inside and waiting for the mass to begin. Anticipating that most of the students would attend the mass, I had some doubt in mind whether the extent of the chapel could accommodate the sea of the mass partakers.

I realized that I needed to take a seat so that I would not obstruct the way of the other people who would be attending also. I moved my sight and found a vacant bench located at the last row. I was thankful then, because the only one who was sitting on that bench was one of my respected heads in my work assignments. I acknowledged him and decided to be seated beside him. After awhile, one of the organizers suddenly grabbed my arms and directed me to stand up and vacate the seat for the faculty who arrived a minute before the mass would start. I sensed the discrimination, humbly stood up and decided to stay at the back.

Since I knew that most of the facilitators in our university are religious and the organizers of the said event are theology teachers, I was really expecting that there would be no bias that would take place in our CATHOLIC academe. I did not expect the unfairness that would arise in that special mass celebration inside our treasured chapel. I anticipated the justice and fairness inside the chapel yet what I experienced was the paradox.

I am aware of the truth that one of the values that the school has been imparting to the students like me is to give utmost respect to other people most especially the elderly but I could not even ponder that it would come up to the point that I would feel the inadequacy from them.

I was the earliest to occupy the seat; therefore, I deem that I should have deserved the likelihood to sit there. If the coordinators wanted to accommodate the faculty who were coming late, they should have sought for another means of accepting them inside the church. They should have looked for other seats to be used by the group of people they were fretful to. One of them should have not treated me the way she did. As a religion teacher, she should have grasped that even though I am only a mere student, I still have the right to be valued and allowing me to remain there I think would be one of the good ways of expressing her respect to me. I suppose that everyone in the school, regardless of the position he/she is holding, should be approached equally. Yes, it is factual that it is hard for us to perform this because in the first place, the teachers and the students, for instance, have far differences in terms of experiences and knowledge but let us keep in mind the significance of equality that God wants us to uphold.

I might seem mendacious if I would say that I did not feel mad at the person who treated me unevenly during that religious occasion but I would say that I appreciated their (organizers) effort to maintain the arrangement of the mass partakers.

I have written this article not because I want to protest against them who upset me but because I want to let everyone be reminded that indeed, prejudice is still present nowadays and that the evident bigotry will still be observable even in the place where we might not even expect it to happen. :)