But he left this world in peace, confident that the God whom he had served, all through his life, was waiting for him with open arms. He loved the Philippines, and the Filipinos loved him. The finest way that we can show that love, now that he is gone, is to live by the directions he gave us, so strongly, with all his heart:
Live by the Gospel of Life, and not by the
Culture of Death!
Care for the poor, and share with them all that you have, and all that you are.
Live in peace with each other. Forgive those who hurt you. Pray for those who persecute you. The only way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.
The vivid portrayal of his sickness, his suffering and death – on television, over the radio, and in the press – has led many Filipinos to think seriously about that long mysterious journey that we will all have to take some day. The great adventure. The journey home to God.
In this season of Easter, when we meditate on the resurrection, most Filipinos would like to follow the way of Our Lord: repentance, forgiveness, peace of soul, and eternal life. The hardest step is the first: repentance.
Those who are turned away from God would really like to turn back to him. They would like to give up the things they are doing wrong, and begin doing what they know is right. But sometimes they are ashamed to go to confession, because they feel that inevitably they will fall back into the thing they are doing wrong. They do not want to lie to God. They do not want to make a promise that they feel they cannot keep.
But God understands his children. He knows that they are weak. He came down from heaven, and was born in Bethlehem, to reach out to sinners. When he was dining in the house of Matthew, the tax collector, the Pharisees grumbled about this. They said to the Apostles: "Why does your Master eat with publicans and sinners?" And Our Lord said: "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick!". . . . . "Go and learn what this means: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice!"
So many of his parables taught this! The lost lamb; the shepherd leaves the 99 on the hillside, to look for that lost lamb. "There is more joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance than over 99 just who need not penance." The laborers sent into his vineyard at the eleventh hour. The prodigal son. "This, my son, was lost and was found. He was dead, and has come to life again!"
The only thing that God asks of you is to try. Just try!
When I was a very young priest, just ordained, I was acting as the chaplain of Georgetown University Hospital, in Washington, D.C. There was a nurse, who was a patient. She was critical. She had been bleeding for weeks. They expected her to die at any moment. The nuns, who were administering the hospital, begged me to give her absolution. They said: "She is one of the best girls we have ever had."
But when I went to her, in her hospital room, she said that she could not be absolved, because she was living with a married man, and could not promise to give him up. I discovered that the man, with whom she was living, had been married in the Catholic Church twenty years ago. He was nineteen years old at that time, and the girl he married was twenty six. She lived with him only for three months, and then disappeared, taking all his money. He had not been interested in any other girl until he met this nurse. He fell in love with her. And she fell in love with him.
I said to her: "But you are dying!" She answered: "Well, father, I can not promise to give him up provided I die! If I make a promise to God, I have to keep that promise, even if I get well. And I can not do that. I love him."
So I could not give her absolution. The nuns were very angry with me, saying: "What kind of a priest are you? Not giving absolution to this poor girl, who is dying!"
The oils of ordination were still fresh on my fingers, and the moral theology that I had been studying, even in the concentration camp at Los Baños, was fresh in my mind. I knew that I could not give absolution unless she promised to give up the man with whom she had been living.
Then there was a special celebration at Georgetown University, and I went to dinner with the community. A big Belgian Jesuit, named Verhousel, listened to my agony over this nurse, who was expected to die that night.
After I had finished my story, he said: "Ah father! Do not say to this poor girl: ‘You must give up this man whom you love.’ Just say: ‘Will you do all in your power to cooperate with the grace that God will give you?’ That’s all you have to say!" At the end of the dinner he took me by the arm with his strong Belgian grip and said: "Father, do it!"
So I did it. The nurse wept and said: "Well, yes. I can promise to try to cooperate with the grace that God will give me. But you explain that to the Sisters. I can’t." So I gave her absolution, Viaticum, and anointed her. It was a deeply emotional moment. The nuns were kneeling all around her bed. Even my own eyes were wet.
They expected her to die by midnight. But exactly at midnight the bleeding stopped. When I brought her Communion again, in the morning, she said: "Father, if it is necessary, I will give him up." Within that week she came off the critical list. She was on the way to recovery.
Blushing, because I was a very young priest, I said to her: "The trouble is not your being together with this man. It is living together as husband and wife. If you could abstain from intercourse, you would not be committing sin."
To my amazement, she said: "Oh, we have never had intercourse! He has cancer of the lymph glands. Intercourse for him is impossible. He is terminal. That’s how I met him. He was a cancer patient, and I was his nurse." It was just pure love!
So we got a dispensation from the Bishop of Washington, who at that time was Fulton Sheen, for them to live together as "brother and sister". It worked out beautifully.
Whenever you try to do what God wants you to do, it works. All you have to do is try! Just try!
Not even God can ask more than that.
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