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I came upon this Katholikong PIlipino reel that tells of a Catholic bishop speaking in Bisaya and I was drawn to it because he looked youngish and thinnish for a bishop, and I thought he was still a priest.

As I listened to his testimony as someone with cancer and as he related how others in his diocese with cancers too, were drawn to him, reaching out to his hands and drawing them to their foreheads, asking for his blessings I realized too that sometime in my younger years, when I was head of a state college in Cagayan de Oro in 1991 or so, that I had known this bishop when he was still a priest, that in fact, I had played basketball with him.

He was a great athlete, and in fact, I was guarding him because he was piling on the points, and as I bodied him close, he just looked at me, and smiled, not a mean smile , but one that says, “hey, you can’t guard me. I’m too good for you.”

He was tallish, athletic, fit and always smiling. And in fact, when he shared at our BCBP Breakfast, he then related how he had a crisis when pursuing his vocation, until one evening, “on a moonlit night” ( his words) by the waters of the town of Jasaan, Misamis Oriental, when he told his Mom that he wanted to not continue his studies to the priesthood, that his Mom just quietly wept and told him, “ Son, it’s ok with me whatever you decide is best for you. But, as far as I am concerned you will always be “ Father Dael” to me.”

That was before he became a priest, a rector of seminary, a student in Rome and finally a bishop. Today his role is to journey together with those whom God continues to entrust to his spiritual care🙏

Our Father knows what is best for us. Amen.