We should ask what Jesus really means to us

Last Thursday I was in Mt. Makiling to attend a three-day retreat organized by Jess Estanislao of Opus Dei, which ended last Sunday when I got the news from the Facebook pages of Sara Soliven and Wilson Lee Flores that our dear friend and also an active Facebook friend, Nelson Navarro, had passed away Sunday morning. Here we were with a group of Catholic Filipinos taking a retreat to strengthen our having a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ who at the end of our lives we would surely meet. It was then that I learned from Facebook that we just lost Nelson Navarro who was the author of so many biographical books, including my mentor, the late Sir Max Soliven entitled “Maximo V. Soliven: The Man and the Journalist”.

This book was launched at the Manila Peninsula five years after Sir Max died on Nov. 24, 2006. It was then that Nelson went to Cebu to interview me and I toured him in Cebu and took many photos with him. Of course his biography of Sir Max who served ten Presidents was akin to writing Philippine history in the years that Sir Max lived.

I also have the two previous biographies written by Nelson, one is entitled “What’s Happening to our Country?” The Life and Times of Emmanuel Pelaez, which was launched on July 31, 2009 at the Casa Gorordo in Cebu City and the other is entitled “Rodolfo & Elsa Pelaez: A 20th Century Legacy”. Somehow while these two personalities came from Mindanao, perhaps because Nelson also came from Mindanao.

Being active on his Facebook page, Nelson told me that it was time he revisited Cebu, especially after hearing that his dear friend, Mrs. Martina “Beling” Go Ching Hai died last January. At this point, I would like to ask my pious readers to please pray for the repose of the soul of Nelson Navarro. I’m sure he is with his good friends, Sir Max and Manning Pelaez talking about politics in heaven. Farewell Nelson. You have been a good friend.

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Call it timely that I wrote about the proposal submitted to the Senate about having divorce in the Philippines, because after all, this was one important topic that we had during our three-day retreat in Mt. Makiling. First of all, my thanks to Opus Dei original Jess Estanislao who is a Cebuano who always invited me to these retreats. Actually I already attended several retreats and was preparing to attend the retreat in 2016, but my kidney failure prevented me from attending. Last weekend was the first time I returned to the Opus Dei Retreat and let me tell you that it was indeed great to see old friends who always give their time to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and give time to focus on our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was with Engr. Ricky Dakay and Bimbo Fernandez of the Patambayaong Foundation, and my good friend Bobby Joseph who joined us for the first time. It was great to hear Fr. Francis Ongkingco, our retreat master who lectured us on many issues about Christianity, emphasizing that our Lord Jesus Christ was a shepherd and we fear no evil!

I had a good talk with Jess Estanislao and he emphasized the importance of the up and coming 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines. Thus I find it unfortunate that our Chief Executive Pres. Rodrigo Duterte could only see the negative of those times when the world was split between Portugal and Spain simply because very little of this earth was then known to man. Jess Estanislao told me that it was time for Filipinos to get into the roots of our Christianity and seriously ask ourselves what our Lord Jesus Christ really meant to each and every one of us.

Indeed, few Catholics realize that our Lord Jesus Christ has elevated us to become the children of God, which is why he taught us to pray saying “Our Father”. St. Jose Maria Escriva always started his prayer with “Abba Father”. Ask yourself… how could God the creator of the Universe and all living things know us personally? We are billions of souls living on this earth. But then we know that nothing is impossible with God. As scripture in Jeremiah 1:5 taught us “Before I formed you in the womb I knew] you, before you were born I set you apart.” This is why the Catholic Church is against abortion and the death penalty because we shouldn’t kill what God created.

At this point, I suggest that we Catholics should improve our Catholicism and do a little bit more. Jess Estanislao suggests that we conduct a Holy Hour with our friends or neighbors in our community. As for me, I exhort our fellow Catholics to at least go into one retreat before we reach our 500th year as a Catholic nation. Remember, while we Filipinos are supposed to convert Asia, but what has really happened 500 years later is our overseas Filipino workers helping the churches of Europe to re-evangelize it.

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