Remembering our Jesuit classmate

Having spent a little over a decade at the Ateneo, one couldn’t help but imbibe the Jesuit way, with Christian ideals and values at the core wherein each and every one is encouraged to practice compassion and be a man of service for others, using the gifts and talents God has blessed us with to help fill the needs of our fellowmen.

Over the years, I lost track of many of my classmates having gone to another school by “force of circumstances.” To my Ateneo friends, they thought I was “misguided” for having gone to the “other school,” but to my La Salle classmates, I had “finally seen the light.” Even my late friend Max Soliven – himself a staunch Atenean – used to rib me, describing me as “mixed-up” for having gone to both schools.

But I looked at it differently. I thought I was doubly blessed to have gone to both Ateneo and La Salle – seeing both sides of the equation and at the end of the day got the best of both worlds, so to speak – grounded on good Christian values that not many other schools focus on, or even try to incorporate in their teachings especially during those critical formative years in one’s life. After all, whether imparted by St. Ignatius de Loyola or St. John Baptist de la Salle, it all boils down to the Christian values with Christ at the center and learning the Christian way we all must practice today.

But one distinct person who has made an impact with many people and stood out was our Ateneo classmate, Fr. Leonel “Lennie” Sumpaico, who developed the virtue of compassion, overcoming common failings to become a deeply spiritual person who generously gave of his time, his resources and yes, even his shoulder for those who needed one to cry on. During our numerous class reunions, he would always act as the adviser, celebrating Mass every first Friday of the month at the Blue Room of the Ateneo Graduate School in Rockwell, where he would deliver relevant and simple messages – providing spiritual food that nourished and strengthened many of us – as we all enter the last quarter of our life.

Fr. Lennie belonged to Ateneo Class ‘61, ‘65, ’69 (elementary, high school and college) before taking up his calling and joined the Society of Jesus. Shortly before entering the priesthood, he broke up with his girlfriend who eventually felt that she, too, had a calling and herself became a nun. One of Fr. Lennie’s fellow novitiates at the Sacred Heart remembers Fr. Joel Tabora, the scholastic-in-charge of vocation at the time, ordering the new entrants to sing, “…young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line…” – a song popularized by American pop-rock group Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. Fr. Lennie, who was most likely smarting from the recent break-up, muttered under his breath “Babanatan ko ‘to! (I’m gonna hit this guy!)” – perhaps knowing it signaled the end of worldly love and marked the beginning of a life dedicated to holy celibacy. Not that the decision to enter the priesthood came as a surprise to those who knew Fr. Lennie and his family, since an uncle and a nephew also joined the Society of Jesus.

Those who are quite familiar with Fr. Lennie and worked closely with him say he was an athletic kind of person, also had a temper like many of us and was sometimes naughtily playful (or playfully naughty), like the time he dropped squirming earthworms inside the pants of a fellow young priest whom Fr. Lennie knew was deathly terrified of the slimy, squirmy creatures. But perhaps it was all these “human frailties” that made our Ateneo classmate all the more charismatic.

He was also known for his staunch loyalty, never hesitating to lend his support to any friend who needed help. Aside from compassion and generosity (which some say was taken advantage of at times), another quality many admired in Fr. Lennie was his idealism and his passion in encouraging others to be better and to do better, whether in sports and athletics, academics or any vocation in life. I am told he loved the poem “Coaches never lose” (author unknown) perhaps because of the passages that contained so many truths many of us take for granted or even forget: to play fair, to be humble in victory, be proud in defeat. “The major task is to make grown-ups out of children…” to “implant character and not simply impart skills,” the poem says, encouraging us to teach children to live up to their potential whatever it may be, to do one’s best and to strive to be as good as one can be if one tried harder. But most of all, Fr. Lennie was admired for his deep spirituality, known as “a man of prayer who sought to encounter God in various ways” – in Scripture, in prayer, in meditation, in retreats – all of which influenced many whose lives he has touched, ingraining in them such Christian values as forgiveness, generosity, charity, kindness and compassion.

Our dear classmate (born November 7,1947) passed away last Monday after five years of battling cancer. We have no doubt Fr. Lennie was joyfully embraced by our Creator, knowing all too well up to his final breath that he lived a life conscious of “AMDG” – “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” – because when all is said and done and no matter which school you’ve gone to – we all share the same faith, and in the end offer our life, like Fr. Lennie, “for the greater glory of God.”

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