Lessons from a healing priest

Named after the late King of Philippine Movies Fernando Poe Jr., Father Fernando Suarez is famous. Sometimes, infamous, and he knows it, and jokes about it.

Numerous testimonials of his healing touch have made him a celebrity of sorts, but to his credit, Father Suarez always says, “I am not the healer, Jesus is the healer, I am only God’s instrument.” For his birthday last month, his friends documented 49 accounts of healing attributed to him, and the book’s authors claim these testimonials represent less than one percent of the total number of those cured.

I know of at least two people who were healed by the prayers and touch of Father Suarez — doyenne of Filipino chefs Glenda Barretto, and the brother of a fellow editor. Glenda, who had suffered a stroke, was able to move again certain parts of her body after Father Suarez prayed over her during a chance meeting. She felt the grace of recovery instantaneously — she tore off a piece of receipt from the cash register and wrote her name on it. Before that, she couldn’t write even if her life depended on it.

My colleague’s brother lined up for hours to see Father, and when he got to the front of the line, he was very thirsty. Father gave him bottled water, which quenched his thirst and cured him of his throat cancer.

My own father Frank Mayor was suffering from late-stage cancer of the pancreas when Father Suarez visited him in his home in Anaheim, California on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 2009. I had tried to move heaven and earth to have Father Suarez visit him, and with the help of Beth Tagle, got the contact number of Father’s American hosts. They told me Father was going to be in L.A., about an hour from Anaheim, and could we pick him up and drive him back? Of course, we said, even if he lived in Texas, we would! My mother Sonia desperately wanted Father Suarez to pray over Dad. Lo and behold, it turned out Father Suarez’s schedule that day was in an area only 10 minutes away from my parents’ home! It was a miracle — a reassurance from Above that God was listening to our prayers. It was a kind gesture for my mom, who received the gift of peace of mind. Father says the ultimate purpose of healing is conversion — to bring the healed person closer to God.

I asked Father what was the common denominator among all those who were healed after he prayed over them.

“Submission to the will of God, not just on the part of the patient but also on the part of his caregiver, or the person who brought him to the healing session,” he answered.

A “humble and contrite heart” is the most fertile ground for a miracle.

My dad passed away seven months after Father prayed over him, but somehow I never thought that Father Suarez was a fake. How does one refute all the other stories of healing, just because my dad succumbed to illness? To me, it simply showed that there is a God, and that ultimately, He is in control of all the timing in the world. It was my dad’s time, unfortunately for us. And the miracle was that he lived another day, another month, another Christmas...

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Father Suarez was the special guest at last Tuesday’s Bulong Pulungan forum at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

For the last five years, he has been assigned to the small island of Iling in Occidental Mindoro. On March 31, 2011, he was accepted by the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro to start the Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor.

When he arrived in Iling, the island had no electricity. Today it not only has electricity from solar energy, it also has Internet facilities.

Among his parishioners are the Mangyans, indigenous peoples who live in the mountains of both Oriental and Occidental Mindoro. From them, Father learned a new lesson — an even temper can help you beat the odds!

According to Father, the Mangyans believe that every time you get angry, you will get sick soon after. Anger is like a virus that debilitates you.

The Mangyans also believe that when you get into a fight, you are virtually preparing yourself to die. Even if the fight doesn’t involve guns and weapons.

Father Suarez has also observed, from Iling Island to Forbes Park, that the poor have a common denominator and so do the rich (“Pero hindi yung nagnakaw ng yaman, ha!” he hastens to add.)

The poor, he claims, are “madamot” and not just with material wealth. That’s why they remain in want.

The rich, on the other hand, are “generous.” That’s why they are continually blessed. The more they share, the more blessings come their way. He says the words “generous” and “God” have the same meaning in some cultures.

Father says it is for this reason that one “should give even when you do not have enough.”

So he tells his flock to rid themselves of their fear of having nothing left for themselves and to give of themselves.

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More than 20 years ago in Batangas, Fernando Suarez was on his way out of the church when he noticed a beggar lying forlornly on the sidewalk. He approached the beggar, touched his leg and said, “Do you want me to pray with you?” Then they prayed.

The beggar then stood up and walked.

Fernando was terrified by the phenomenon that unfolded before his eyes and ran away.

For the next 20 years, Father Suarez, now 49, said he tried to deny his gift for healing. “I wanted to enjoy my life!”

But he couldn’t deny his calling for the priesthood. At the ripe old age of 35, after being rejected by seminaries in the Philippines, he was ordained a priest in the order the Companions of the Cross in Canada, where he had migrated.

It was his superior there who, having noticed the many cases of healing attributed to Father Suarez, told him: “Fernando, this gift is not for you. It is for the people.”

According to Father Suarez, “All Masses are healing.” One need not seek a healing priest.

With each healing miracle that takes place, “God’s promise is being fulfilled in front of your eyes,” says Father Suarez.

Though a healer, he sees beauty in suffering. “Suffering makes you acknowledge God.”

Being doubted by others, ridiculed even, “is part of the package,” says Father Suarez.

“I have been humiliated, humbled and been unwanted,” he once told me.

As the title of Father’s book says, “Jesus heals you.” If all those who believe they were healed by Father Suarez’s prayers believe he has a gift, then let us rejoice in this gift — for it has given many a respite from suffering, pain and misery.

(For inquiries on the book on Fr. Suarez, please contact 734-6300 or 788-6521.) (You may e-mail me at [email protected].)