His early days 

With his BS Commerce degree from the University of San Jose Recoletos in Cebu City,  Fr. Perfecto Ll. Adeva, Jr., O.Carm. fits well his position as ISA Director  for Administration and Finance. But he was also among the first Carmelites of the Philippine Province to go to its PNG Mission under the patronage of St. Therese of Lisieux.

He said at the lecture, “Missionary work is only an extension of the basic reality that one is a beloved of the Father. The best gift I have ever received in my whole life was to experience God’s gift of life and love. To spread the love of the Father by sharing the story of Jesus is for me the foundation of mission. `To tell the world of His love, that He sent His only Son.’ ”

In his last years of secondary school, Fr. Adeva had seen innovations by the Church to fit the requirements for the participation of the laity. He was also involved in the student movement for the marginalized, where he raised questions of the concern of the Church hierarchy for the poor.    

After college he returned to his hometown of Iligan City in the southern part of the Philippines. He found employment in the early 1970s but soon faced conflict with the management.

He became an animator for the Basic Ecclesial Communities movement of the Church. He also worked with the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference (MSPC) with its slogan “Total Human Development and Liberation” and its logo of a vinta boat in the open seas.

“The logo was an inspiration to me and my co-workers,” recalled Fr. Adeva. “I also joined the Redemptorist Mission Team in Mindanao. I was invited by a friend to be a Carmelite but I was still struggling with issues in my early 30s.” 

Priesthood

Eventually he did join.  Fr. Adeva had his Simple Profession of Vows on March 29, 1984; Solemn Profession of Vows on May 11, 1987; Deaconate Ordination on January 15, 1990; and his Priestly Ordination on July 16, 1990 which was solemnized by Bishop Julio Labayen, OCD, D.D.     

Eventually too, he rose through the ranks. 

He was elected as the First councillor of the Philippine Carmel for three terms starting 1991 and ending in 2000. During the same period, he was also assigned as the School Director of two Carmelite schools in Agusan. It was then that the schools were renamed Mount Carmel College and that they established the tertiary level of education.   

At various times Fr. Adeva was Formator in-charge of the Postulancy Program; Superintendent of Carmel Schools; member of the Commission on Independence; Assistant Formator; and President of Mount Carmel College of Escalante.

In 2004, he was elected back to the Council for one term. During this period he volunteered for the PNG Mission.  At the 2017 Provincial Chapter of the Philippine Province, he was elected First Councillor and appointed as Provincial Bursar.

Questions

Somewhere in this timeline, Fr. Adeva faced a crisis of the soul, At the Public Lecture he did not specify exactly what but he shared, “It was not easy for me to become a Carmelite. Triggered by many circumstances, I encountered real and personal issues that must be addressed. It is like going into a battle with myself who believes being a self-made man in my early 30s.”

God was prominently absent from his personal life: “If ever there was a glimpse of that relationship, it was very functional and more to boast my personal status and not so much on His empowering presence in my life.”

He started to lose grip of the situation and felt not in control of events. He also started to realize his vulnerability. “No amount of reasoning or logic could satisfy my hang ups, anxieties and fears and slowly realizing that I didn’t have anymore the authority I used to hold on to.”

He moved houses and settled down to a self-imposed exile.

“From a very comfortable and secure accommodation in the convent to a lowly set was really challenging, especially in my effort to find myself and of course this time no one to cling on but God,” Fr. Adeva described those days.  

He did not specify either what that `lowly set’ had been but he showed a slide of carpenters and the tag line Ora et Labora  (prayer and work).  

Fr. Adeva also recalled, “I got sick with TB and my stamina was getting shorter. My resources, physical, mental and psychological, were almost exhausted. I was struggling with myself, with my idealism.”

Answers

He started to nurse back to life his orchids which had been affected by intense heat due to a fire. The stem of some got scarred, blackened, dried, dehydrated and traumatic. But early one morning eight months after caring for them, he saw a sprout on a severely damaged orchid.

“From that day on, my hope that the orchid would survive grew,” Fr. Adeva said. “I had expectation and limitations. But the orchid surrendered itself to the Father’s love.  The question at this instance was, does the Father really love me? I asked myself, do I really love the Father? I could not really understand the words `You are my Son, Beloved. My favour rests on you.’ ”

Almost three years after self-imposed exile, Fr. Adeva got a letter asking him to report to his Superior; failure would mean automatic dismissal, since he had been given only a year’s leave.

“I took it seriously but was not shocked at all,” he recalled. “I had to accept the rule.”

Back in his room he just cried. And then he read a famous line from St. Therese of the Child Jesus (“My vocation is love”) and he decided to piece the puzzle of his life together. 

He also learned that the superior of the Dutch Carmelites, the late Fr. Tiu Timmermans,O.Carm. was coming to the Philippines to speak to him.

Did he really want to leave, Fr. Adeva was asked. Ultimately, it was settled that he would stay. Shortly after, at age 58, he volunteered for Papua New Guinea.

Mission area

“The deepest foundation of my decision was the growing understanding of my love relationship with God and the deepening understanding of consecrated life as my concrete response to God’s love,” Fr. Adeva said during his talk.  

“Missionary work,” he pointed out, “is only an extension of the basic reality that one is a beloved of the Father. There is no place for doubts and apprehensions, fears and anxieties because wherever God will bring you, even to places unknown to you, surely it is the best place for you according to the Father. That place will be safe always because the Father is with you.”

He has also learned that mission is mainly about the story of the Father and the Son continuously revealed to the people through the Holy Spirit inspiring the missionary church of today in the search for God and building God’s kingdom in the here and now.

He links mission to spirituality in this way: “Spirituality is not detached from those spreading God’s love and helping people seeking God’s love. Being the beloved, a missionary must be deeply inspired by the love of God, because no one can be a messenger of Love without God’s love in his life.  John the Evangelist said: `Let us love one another, for love comes from God.’ ”

After his talk Fr. Adeva shared pictures of his contribution to Missio ad Gentes (to the people) in PNG, where Christianity was introduced by missionaries 135 years ago. With independence came localization of Church administration. Many foreign congregations left their parishes, which has affected the presence of young women in the hinterlands who used to help there.

The Philippine Church was the first to respond despite the interest of some missionaries to go to the First World, said Fr. Adeva. But the need for men and women missionaries is very urgent.  

“It seems that the problem is to find younger missionaries who will not fear discomfort or primitive culture, due to mis-information about backwardness,” he explained.  “Most of the ones who are responding are in their late 40s already.”

“CALLING ALL YOUNG AND ABLE RELIGIOUS TO SERVE THE PNG MISSION,” said Fr. Adeva in his last slide, all caps and bold letters.

Interaction

To end the afternoon, ISA asked the participants to group themselves into seven each and to interpret each letter in MISSION. Each presentation was followed by a response from Fr. Adeva.

Here is the output of a group composed mostly of the Religious of Notre Dame of the Missions nuns, first-timers to ISA but welcomed to return:  M – Magnificat: I – Integrity; S- Solitude; S- Solidarity; I – Inspiration; O- Openness/Observance; N – Never give up.

And here is the winning group with Fr. Ponce whose members all lined up in front to act out the words: M – Maturity in God’s love; I – In love alone; what God wants us to do: S – Service; S- Spirit-filled; I – In sharing with God; Obedience,  N – Nothingness to be sustained by emptying ourselves and we will be filled. MISSION! (Applause from the audience)

In response Fr. Adeva said, “It is important to be prepared theologically sound for a mission. And then, we have to know the people and learn how to show God to them.”

Perla Aragon-Choudhury