Eulogy for NY BCBP member DANILO SABIO

By Eduardo S Canlas

Sept 10, 2023

“ Behold, the Virgin shall bear a son who shall save the people from their sins.”

In St Mark it is told that:

“Jesus rose from the dead early on the first day of the week. He first appeared to Mary Magdalene…who went to announce the good news to his followers who were now grieving and weeping.

But when they heard that Jesus was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

Finally, when the disciples were at table and Jesus was revealed to them, he took them to task for their unbelief…then told them: Go into the world and proclaim the good news: “ The man who believes and accepts baptism will be saved.” Mark 16

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We could try to reconstruct in the way we can, the good and godly things that DANNY accomplished in his life, founding a family, loving them and loving others in the concrete,

and so forth, but how about reflecting on the writings of one of one the great Catholic mystics, the late Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton?

Paraphrasing him we

apply his writings to Danilo:

“Like all of us, Danny had his faults and sins as well as his virtues, among them the Christian virtues of humility, service to others, prayerfulness and the love of God.

But most important of all: Danny was a baptized Christian, with a baptism that effaced all sins, as when Christ said

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved”

Mk 16

Cathechism if the Catholic Church 977

“ Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification so that “we too might walk in the newness of life.”

Keeping all these in mind, we continue to apply Thomas Merton’s words to Danny as follows:

“Suppose( or imagine) that Danny, for once in his life were to vanish into God for the space of a minute?

All the rest of his life has been spent in sins and virtues. In good and evil. In labor and in struggle. In sickness and health. In gifts, in sorrows. In achieving and regretting. In planning and hoping. In love and in fear.

He has seen things. He has considered them. He had Known them. He Made judgements. He had spoken. He had Acted wisely or not. He had blundered in and out of the prayers of beginners.

But, ( most importantly) Danny has found the cloud, the obscure sweetness of God. Danny had known rest in prayer.

In all these things Danny’s life had been a welter of uncertainties. In the best of them, he may have sinned. In his imperfect prayers and contemplation he may have found sin.

But in that moment of time, the minute, the little minute in which he was delivered into God, and we believe that Danny was truly delivered, there is no question that then, Danny’s life was pure.

That then, Danny gave glory to God.

That then, Danny did not sin. That in that moment of pure love, Danny could not sin.

Merton continues:

“So it is in these two desires, God’s love and desire for us, and conversely, Danny’s love and desire for God, perfectly conceived and fulfilled, that Danny was emptied and transformed into that joy, and it is in this that Danny cannot sin.

It is in this ecstasy of pure love that Danny will arrive at a true fulfillment of the first commandment: loving God with our whole heart and our whole mind and all our strength.

Therefore it is something that all people who desire to please God ought to desire: Not for a minute, not for half an hour, but forever.

For It is in these souls that peace is established in the world.”

We hope and believe, like every true Christian would, that the good works that Danny did in his life has somehow established peace in this world , his world, and in our world.

That having been judged at the moment of his death, that Danny has been found worthy by God, and if found still with blemish, that all these blemishes would be purified in purgatory for Danny to eventually find his place in and with God.

And so we continue to pray for this purification and believe that all will be well for those who love God, who promised that all who believe and follow His will shall never die.” (Merton)

Cathechism of the Catholic Church 979

“ If the church has the power to forgive sins then baptism cannot be our only means of using the keys of the kingdom of heaven received from Jesus Christ.

The Church must be able to forgive all penitents their offenses even if they should sin until the last moment of their lives.”