A living saint

Cesar Gorillo .

WAY back in the year 1989 while I was still operating my truck to haul my canes from my sugar farms, my driver parked it beside my house located on top of the hill in Valencia City.  But — horrors of all horrors! — when my driver turned the engine on for a trip back to the farm, it lost its brakes and cascaded down the hill hitting the fence of my neighbor’s house and almost hitting the house itself.  I went down running to see the damages and, lo and behold, it rendered the entire house without a fence because my truck rammed through it side ways and the fence looked liked a stack of cards falling beside each other. The owner of the house went out, looked at the damage and went back inside the house and I trembled because I then thought he might get his gun and shoot me or the driver. About a half an hour later, he never came back and I decided to knock at his door to offer my apologies and to  volunteer to pay for the repair of the fence. He just smiled and told me he will repair it himself and told me to just relax because he knew I did not do it on purpose and it was simply an accident.

I went back to my house and told my wife about the goodness of my neighbor whom I didn’t know because we were just six months in the area having transferred there from Quezon, Bukidnon. I inquired from my neighbors just beside my house and they told me he was a good man and a member of the Eucharistic Ministers in the San Agustin Parish, one of those giving the Holy Communion during the Holy Mass.

Later, when I joined the charismatic movement in Valencia City in 1992, I was allowed to join the small prayer community known as Living Word Prayer Community which meets every Monday for a weekly prayer session held at the members house on alternate basis. I was so shocked that he was one of the members there and I found out his name to be Federico Bada. He clasped my hand as a new member, embraced me and he smiled at me with a very wide welcome smile. I then thought that he was a man whose heart is so pure, with no pretentions whatsoever who simply wanted to be like Christ.

I later found out he was a member of the Perpetual Dawn Rosary which rotates the visit of the image of the Our Lady of Fatima to all houses every day willing to receive her every four o’clock in the morning till six o’clock.  He would wake up as early as 3 am bringing with him the bamboo torch and he has not made even a day of absence except when he was sick and hospitalized!

Then,  he makes visit for all the sick in their homes for those who cannot take communion because they have been bedridden. That is, after he came from the daily mass for which he has not made a single day of absence.

He has hosted several meetings and parties in their houses for church gatherings and I was a witness to the massive food he offers to those in attendance. I then thought he must be very rich the way he nurtures his guests.  I later learned that his business is just grinding ice and I could never fathom how he can host that kind of sumptuous church affairs with such kind of meager income. I checked from the lending businesses and he has not borrowed a single centavo.

Another fact shocked my being. I later learned that many people go to him to borrow money and he never says no.  He gives whatever is inside his wallet and he has never attempted to collect from those who borrowed from him.

I had never seen him get angry. He has always a smile on his face for everyone. And when he lectures in the church, everybody is touched and listens to him because he lectures with a very sincere heart and he does what he says.

He is very distressed every time a priest leaves the priesthood. He, therefore, decided to organize a movement in the whole Diocese of Malaybalay known as Love Your Priest Movement because he believes that priests are leaving their vocation because parishioners have not showered them with love and care and they have been tempted to look for other persons of the opposite sex to care for them.  This movement is  getting a lot of attention in all those interested in preserving the vocation of the priesthood.

With the problems facing the country due to some of its wayward citizens, we are still proud that there are still living saints in our midst.

I know that when he knows I have featured him in this column, he will not have allowed it.

When I become a cardinal, I will recommend this man for sainthood.