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Parting Message and Benediction
33rd Commencement Exercises
Dr Jose  P Rizal School of Medicine
Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan
14 June 2019

It has been observed that when Jesuits give homilies or talks they usually give three points. Trying to be a good Jesuit, I have three words, tres palabras, for my message this morning.

The first, a word of thanks for Dr Alfaretta Luisa Reyes. Maraming salamat po, Dr Reyes for gracing us with your presence during the Commencement Exercises of XU Medicine. We thank you, Dr Reyes, for the witness of your professional life. We laud you for your commitment to excellence in academic leadership in medical education, as Dean of the UERM College of Medicine, as Chair of the CHED Technical Committee on Medical Education, and as evidenced by your many awards for your outstanding work in educating and training physicians.

Thank you most especially for considering medicine as a vocation and a mission. You have been at the forefront of those sounding the global call for transformative medical education, emphasizing three crucial pillars: universal competitiveness, national relevance, and social accountability. You have been the leading authority in the quest that medical education: prepare physicians for needs and expectations of society; cope with the explosion in medical scientific knowledge and technology; inculcate ability for lifelong learning; ensure training in digital technology; and adjust to changing conditions in health care delivery systems. These aspirations are certainly shared by the Dr Jose P Rizal School of Medicine and which we have strived to motivate our Xavier Ateneo Medical students to share these aspirations.

Thank you, Dr Reyes, for your words of wisdom for our graduates. I am sure that in moments of fatigue and discouragement, they will remember your words to inspire them to be steadfast in their determination to be physicians-for-others. Mga igsoon, pakpakan nato pag-usab si Dr Reyes!

The second word to someone whose shoulders XU School of Medicine stands on. Great institutions stand on the shoulder of giants. Dr Jose P Rizal School of Medicine is no exception. XU Medicine is strong and solid because it has been carried all these years since its very beginning on the shoulders of the giant whose name is Dr Jun Panopio. Allow me to express at this august assembly, the appreciation of Xavier University and my personal gratitude for Dr Panopio’s immense and invaluable contribution since 1983 to establishing the XU School of Medicine as the best in Mindanao and as one of the leading medical schools nationwide. Dr Panopio’s legacy will always be remembered and recognized whenever the JPRSM story is told. Today, we celebrate the accomplishments of another class of medical students whose minds and hearts Dr Panopio helped form so they will become doctors for others, the Xavier Ateneo way. My good friends, a round of applause for Dr Jun Panopio.

The third word to our dear graduates. Please keep in mind, that for the Xavier Ateneo physician, medicine is not only a science, not only an art; medicine is a vocation. And your vocation as healer calls for two gifts: competence and compassion. Competence will demand your commitment to life-long learning of updating and sharpening the knowledge and skills of your profession. But for the Xavier Ateneo physician, competence must be wed with compassion.

Compassion means you care – always care, at times agonize. Care knows no cases; only persons. Each has a name. Each has a story not irrelevant to the disease. Each patient needs not only a prescription or a placebo, not only an anesthetic or a scalpel. Each patient needs a doctor who cares, especially when the prognosis is dismal. The miracle of touch, the pain in your eyes, the smiles on your lips, the encouragement in your voice – these are ways God speaks to the sick. Only rarely does God appear in person at a hospital bed. God is there through you, in you.

In his message during the 2019 World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis said that “Caring for the sick requires professionalism, tenderness, straightforward, and simple gestures freely given, like a caress that makes others feel loved.”

My dear Xavier Ateneo Medicine graduates, you are called to be healers, competent and compassionate. You are called to be servants of life. We will always pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart so that you may see how beautiful the vocation to which you are called.

Before you leave the portals of XU, please allow your University President to give you a final blessing. My dear Xavier Ateneo Medicine graduates of 2019, please rise.

My good faculty and staff, please also rise and kindly join me in imparting a blessing to our graduates by raising your right hands over them.

Graduates, please bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing:

God be in your head|
and in your understanding
God be in your eyes
and in your looking
God be in your mouth
and in your speaking
God be in your heart
and in your thinking
God be at your end
and at your departing
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May he look upon you with kindness, and give you his peace.|
Amen.  Amen.

Experience Excellence, JPRSM Class of 2019!

Mabuhay! Congratulations!∎