What is this About?

Looking back at the events surrounding 9/11 25 years hence, I, Antonio, recall the shocking events as my uncle Bishop Julio Xavier Labayen, OCD, DD, was stranded staying with our family unable to continue his hectic travel schedule when planes were grounded.

Background

Philippine Bishop Labayen of the Prelature of Infanta maintained a very busy foreign travel schedule of pastoral conferences and speaking engagements. He was delivering a conference at St. Joseph Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Seattle, Washington State. He had been visiting them for a few decades.

Dr. Maria Orallo, OCDS, MD, foundress of so many Secular Carmelite Communities throughout the Western United States in the California-Arizona Province of Discalced Carmelites, was only a month younger than Bishop Labayen. She was regularly requested by the prioress to pick him up and drive him to the airport. But as I moved my family to Western Washington State in the year 1995, I took over the airport duties and Bishop Labayen would make it a point to visit us as he did in other places where I had resided in the past.

I picked him up from Carmel on midday, Monday, September 10, 2001. He was going to stay with our family on Raft Island in Gig Harbor, Washington State. St. Nicholas of Tolentino Parish in Gig Harbor had scheduled him to celebrate the weekday mass in the morning of 9/11 with proper clergy clearances secured from the Archdiocese of Seattle. It is a coincidence that he was baptized in Talisay, Negros Province in the Philippines, at the Parish of San Nicolas Tolentino.

We spent the afternoon confirming his travel arrangements with the airlines and his destination hosts. I maintain and reorganize the files on his IBM ThinkPad whenever he comes to visit us. We went to Office Depot and I bought him a portable printer that he can use for his travels. We had some family bonding time that afternoon when my sons came home from school. Gus, named John Gustav, after the Carmelite St. John of the Cross and the symphonist Gustav Mahler was in middle school 7th grade. JD, named James Daniel, after the apostle James and the prophet Daniel, was in elementary school 1st grade.

September in Western Washington State is the loveliest time of the year. The air is crisp and the leaves start their show of sublime autumn colors. Our foliage has more muted colors than the eastern states that show their brilliant maple yellow display. We had a relaxing dinner on the deck outside the dining room in the shadow of the tall old growth cedar trees that proudly stand to protect and shelter the island.

Pandemonium

Gus had already run to the island entrance early that morning of 9/11 to catch the school bus for Middle School. I was getting JD ready and took him to the island entrance 500 meters away in our small Kia Sportage SUV. The parents stood by and bid our children a fine day in school as the bus came by to pick them up. As the parents congregated, there was some pandemonium and shock among them.

That was the first time I really spoke with our neighbor from another block, Eliza. She is Romanian and married a chef from Arizona. Her son Alex later became great friends with JD. Eliza described in horror what she saw on TV that morning. She said there was a tragedy and crisis. I don't have a habit of watching TV, so I had to deliberately turn it on with Bishop Labayen in the family room. We watched in horror at the news reports of the World Trade Center buildings being bombed by jet planes.

We drove 6 km to the parish church for his celebration of mass. As I had done for decades in accompanying him in his ministry, I prepare everything for the mass, including the liturgy. He said that we have an exception to the Ordo instructions that morning. He pointed out to me the place in the Roman Missal for the Mass of War and Civil Disturbance. In all the decades I had prepared the Roman Missal, this was my first encounter with this mass, as I had not really scanned the entire missal from the front to the back cover. The mass with the congregation that morning was very somber with trepidation, uncertainty, and shock.

Life Interruption

Upon reaching home, we found out from the news that ALL aircraft were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration FAA. Bishop Labayen was in disbelief and unwilling to accept the situation. I had to reiterate it to him and we listened to the news reports. We called the airlines to verify. The landlines were abuzz with busyness. Cellular phones were not yet popular in the United States then. I only had one for emergency use.

We called his destination hosts to apprise them of the situation. We didn't know yet when travel would be resumed. He was stranded with us in Gig Harbor. That was good fortune for our family to now have him for the uncertainly foreseeable number of days. That was family time we cherished, and additional time for me to assist him with his technological needs, ensuring the backup of his laptop contents and setting up programs to ensure the regular maintenance.

We took the opportunity to make a day trip to Mt. Tahoma at the Paradise Visitor's Center at a mile-high 1,600 meter elevation. Snow annually accumulates to depths of over 3.5 m at this spot, and takes until late July to melt. It will start accumulating again in October. Above the 3,000 meter elevation, the snow never melts as permanent cover up to its 4,400 meter height.

The wildflowers were already past their bloom and the meadows were drying up after the summer's sunshine. Aircraft flying east and south usually circle around the mountain's vicinity, giving a splendid display to passengers. However, this time, as all aircraft were grounded, the sky was pure blue and white with clouds and no jet trails all around the mountain. WOW! This was indeed a rare sight! And along the way up and down the mountain was a gorgeous display of autumn foliage!

Resuming Life Activities

As the week progressed, more news of recovery came. Flights were resumed. However, in order to preserve the rest of Bishop Labayen's itinerary, we had to arrange for itinerary changes with the airlines. He was to fly to San Jose, California from Seattle on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. His next destination was Lafayette, Louisiana. It was already Friday, September 14, 2001. We were on the phone with the prioress of San Jose Carmel. They could not accept that Bishop Labayen now has to skip the San Jose visit during this trip. They were so disappointed. He explained to the prioress that this is a "force majeur" and we have no control over the developments. He now has to fly to his next destination, Lafayette, Louisiana on Saturday, September 15, 2001.

My sons were off school on Saturday, and we took Bishop Labayen to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Along the way, they asked him, "How do we pray?" While Jesus Christ responded with The Lord's Prayer in the Gospel, Bishop Labayen responded with a Carmelite meditative discourse. He said, "Gather yourself in silence and gaze at the Lord on the cross. Ask him why he died for me." He went on with further discourses which now escape my memory, but this was the core of his response.

My Sons Now

Without my volition and with the precious few moments my sons had with Bishop Labayen during his visits, my sons are now grown adults and embody a contemplative demeanor. They are very active in social justice issues, especially in racial discrimination of the brown race that they are proud to be born into. Such was the impact of Bishop Labayen on them with few, infrequent visits.

As Bishop Labayen always introduces his theological orientation of the Church's Preferential Option for the Poor, he quotes the Gospel according to St. Luke 4:15-30, where Christ begins his ministry in the synagogue reading from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah 61 (in the New American Bible Revised Edition NABRE that Bishop Labayen favors):

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me;

He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

release to the prisoners,

To announce a year of favor from the Lord

and a day of vindication by our God;

To comfort all who mourn;

to place on those who mourn in Zion

a diadem instead of ashes,

To give them oil of gladness instead of mourning,