VOLUME 22 ISSUE 4 / APRIL 2025
Whom the Lord loves He reproves
Wis 3:12
I first met Joe Tale in 1993.
I was then the Director for Functional Cooperation at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia and Joe came to see me at my office. I thought it was an official call of a Filipino working in the Philippine Government, but it was not. He came to the ASEAN Secretariat to meet Jun Abad, a Senior Officer at the Secretariat who was his former colleague at the Presidential Management Staff of the Office of the President in Malacañang some years back.
Having learned that I was the highest-ranking Filipino at the ASEAN Secretariat and that we had started to strengthen the CFC community in Jakarta by holding a series of CLPs and teachings focusing primarily on the expatriate community, Joe wanted to know more about these initiatives
I did not know then that he was a member of the CFC International Council. I knew only two members of the IC, namely, Frank Padilla as CFC Chairman and Rouquel Ponte as CFC Director.
It was an uneventful meeting. Joe did not introduce himself as an IC member – which clearly displays his humility and simplicity – and we had a merely casual meeting about new CFC activities in Jakarta. We did not meet again until very much later, years later.
Dreams for both country and Church
We got to know Joe better when I became a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas More and Associates (STMA) where he served as chairman. We had many memorable and productive STMA Board of Trustees meetings under Joe’s leadership, the most memorable of which was our planning meeting in Subic.
If my memory serves me right, it was at this planning meeting that we agreed to organize a party list under the banner of STMA and have it registered at the COMELEC. After several more meetings and discussions, we agreed on the name of the party list – Alliance for Good Governance (AGG).
In my capacity as Secretary of Science and Technology in the Estrada Cabinet, I accepted numerous invitations to speak at STMA Forums all over the Philippines. Many joined the party list as members and paid the membership fee of PHP25. The funds were duly receipted and remitted to STMA.
Unfortunately, AGG’s application was not approved by COMELEC. But this initiative displayed Joe’s strong leadership of the STMA, his long-term vision for CFC, and his unwavering desire to serve both the country and the Church with honesty and integrity.
Sterling public service
I remember that after one of our STMA Board meetings, we visited Rene de Villa at his residence in Ayala Heights, Quezon City to congratulate him for his appointment as Executive Secretary under President Gloria Arroyo.
During our conversation, Rene stated that he needed one more Deputy Executive Secretary. Confident that Rene would consider my suggestion having been in the Cabinet before, I immediately suggested the name of Joe. Rene then asked Joe if he was interested to which Joe responded in the affirmative. And thus commenced Joe’s sterling public service in the Arroyo government during which I personally witnessed him helping many.
In 2011, returning permanently to the Philippines after a total of 12 years in Jakarta holding senior diplomatic positions at the ASEAN Secretariat and as Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation and a total of 8 years in Bangkok with the United Nations ESCAP, I was elected as a member of the CFC International Council.
For 4 years, Joe and I served as members of the IC. It was during this time that I witnessed directly and personally the commitment and dedication of Joe to serving God in the community of Couples for Christ.
But God did not exempt Joe from problems, difficulties, and concerns. As Scriptures remind us:
For whom the Lord loves he reproves, and he chastises the son he favors.
(Wis 3:12)
God who tests the people he loves most has allowed Joe to experience serious disagreements with an equally committed and dedicated CFC leader. Perhaps it was their strong beliefs in what from their own perspective were good for the community that triggered their lengthy and acrimonious debates.
Disputes between disciples
While some considered these episodes negatively, they reminded me of the conflict between Paul and Barnabas as reported in Acts 15:36-39:
36 After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us make a return visit to see how the brothers are getting on in all the cities where we proclaimed the word of the Lord.”
37 Barnabas wanted to take with them also John, who was also called Mark, 38 but Paul insisted that they should not take with them someone who had deserted them at Pamphylia and who had not continued with them in their work. 39 So sharp was their disagreement that they separated.
But more than the disagreement between Barnabas and Paul, which led Barnabas to take Mark and sail to Cyprus and Paul to take Silas and travel to Syria, I am reminded of the conflict between the two greatest saints of the Catholic Church – St. Jerome and St. Augustine.
They were contemporaries – Jerome was born in 347, died in 420, while Augustine was born in 354, died in 430 – but, very much like Joe and the other CFC leader, had a complex relationship characterized by both mutual respect and intellectual tension.
Augustine became a renowned theologian and bishop of Hippo while Jerome became a renowned biblical scholar, particularly for his Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, from the original Hebrew text.
The main dispute between Jerome and Augustine revolved around the use of the Greek text versus the Hebrew text when translating the Bible into Latin. Augustine preferred the translation from Greek while Jerome translated directly from the original Hebrew text. Augustine was concerned that Jerome’s reliance on the Hebrew text might lead to confusion and division within the Church since the Greek was already widely used by the early Church.
Another cause of conflict between Jerome and Augustine was the latter’s criticism of the former’s interpretation of Galatians 2:11-14. Jerome posited that Paul’s rebuke of Peter was not genuine but was only intended as a polite fiction in the interest of winning over the Judaizers, and that Peter was complicit in this scheme.
Augustine was horrified by Jerome’s commentary deeming it an affront to the veracity of Scripture itself. Augustine confronted Jerome who responded abrasively.
Loving despite our differences
Brothers and sisters, God tested Joe and the other CFC leader in the same manner that he had tested Paul and Barnabas and Augustine and Jerome. But God who sees the heart knows that love flows from the two despite their differences.
In the process, God strengthens their faith who are both fully aware that whom the Lord loves he reproves.