Pio de Roda, Angela Grace C.

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A Reflection on the life of Saint John Baptist de La Salle

Saint John Baptist de La Salle was a well-educated French priest born in a rich family from Reims.
He was passionate about teaching to the point that left his family, gave up his canonship and sold all his
assets to fully devote himself in teaching children and providing food for the less fortunate. He started
the Brothers of the Christian schools wherein their mission was to build schools all over the world to
provide free quality education for children with a vow of poverty and obedience. His life was not a
smooth sailing journey. He reformed the way students were taught from one-on-one to what we call
now as the classroom set up and he taught them in French instead of Latin. This caused a dispute with
the other schools. They saw him as a threat, and they tried to bring him down. Despite all the challenges
he had faced, he still had faith. He believed in God and his people, so he and the institution overcame all
the challenges that came their way. His advocacy and sacrifice made him the patron saint for teachers
and father of modern education.

In the Movie, St. La Salle realized a sad reality and he said, “There’s a misery much sadder than that
which begs at the cathedral door”. Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Everyone’s
battles are different. Some people even struggle to the point that they give up on life forever. There are
so many people who have unfortunate circumstances and there’s always someone who has it worse. We
don’t get to choose the cards we are dealt with and that’s how life is, but we control how we play the
hand. Those who are lucky can help those who are not. When we have more than enough it is our duty
to help those who are in need, whether they ask for it or not. Not everyone asks for help even when
they need it so we must try our best to observe and to listen carefully. We can’t help everyone, but we
still must try our best to help as much as we can.

Our family has a long history of charity work. In the Philippines, the history of Med Tech began when the
first laboratory opened at Quiricada St., Sta. Cruz Manila. The said laboratory was introduced by the
Medical Laboratory of the United States Army Brigade at the end of World War II. In 1944, the training
of the high school graduates to be medical technicians began. However, a year later the Medical
Laboratory of the United States Army left the laboratory and only Dr. Alfredo Pio De Roda, my great
grandfather, a Filipino doctor and well-known Bacteriologist preserved the remains of the laboratory
(which is now called Alfredo Pio de Roda Memorial Laboratory) and started the training. That’s how he
started. He cares about children and education. He cares so much that he donated a piece of our land to
build an elementary school in Indang, Cavite which is now known as Dr. A. Pio de Roda elementary
school. We continue to help the school by providing support to their scholars and recently we donated
additional land to make room for the high school department. Honestly, it’s hard to live up to the name
and to be able to achieve so much but I still try my best to help other people. I participated in feeding
programs and orphanage visits. I make small gift packs for street children during Christmas time, so
they’ll have something to bring home. I act as councilor to my peers when they need it. I listen to
strangers when they have problems. I once listened to a girl whose best friend committed suicide. She
was the last person her bf called, and she said she was busy. She blamed herself because had she talked
to her she could’ve stopped her, and she could still be alive. I gave her advice and I reassure her. I
allowed myself to become a sounding board for a stranger and I continue to do so even now. I always
tell everyone that my doors are always open for anyone who wants to talk. I have always tried to be
helpful to other people and watching this movie made me want to do more. I want to be more.