THE JOYFUL BURDEN OF THE 'APOSTOLIC MISSION

We've learned that grandparenting isn't about reliving the past — it's about celebrating the continuation of life's beautiful story through the next chapters.

- DR. RAFAEL R. CASTILLO

(Illustration by DONNA PAHIGNALO)

If there’s one kind of missionary work that requires no ordination, theological degree, or foreign language proficiency, it’s what Filipino grandparents fondly call the apos’tolic mission.

It’s a divinely appointed, emotionally fulfilling, and physically exhausting undertaking — one that comes with milk bottles instead of Bibles, lullabies instead of liturgies, and toddler tantrums instead of theological debates.

My wife Becky and I are currently “deployed” abroad for this sacred assignment. Our mission field? The warm, toy-strewn, occasionally chaotic home of our two grandsons — Leon, two years and eight months old, and Elliott Rafael, just two months old and already showing alarming signs of advanced intelligence (he knows exactly when to smile to disarm his weary caretakers).

We call it apos’tolic because, like the apostles, we were “sent” — not to preach though, but to help. And unlike biblical apostles who performed miracles, our miracles involve getting a toddler to nap, burp, or eat a vegetable without launching it like a projectile.

THE SWEET MISCHIEF OF LEON, THE LION

Leon is an energetic bundle of contradictions: wonderfully mischievous but irresistibly sweet. He can turn a calm morning into an Olympic event — chasing after imaginary monsters one moment, with his toy Superman in hand (to serve as backup for his “mission”); then running into my arms the next, declaring, “Tatay, hug!”

He has discovered the infinite joy of asking why — an inquiry that begins at dawn and ends only when sleep triumphs. “Why is the sky blue, Tatay? Why does the dog say ‘woof, woof’ and the cat say ‘meow, meow’? Why is Nanay sitting down again?” (Because, my dear boy, Nanay has just done her night shift with Baby Elliott and has reached her anaerobic threshold.)