St. Josemaria Escriva

NO, I didn’t have the privilege of meeting St. Josemaria

Escriva in person, though I got in touch with Opus Dei five years

before he died in 1975. I was then an 18-year-old junior student in

college in Manila who was looking for a place to study, since I found

it hard to study in my boarding house nor in the school library.

             That was how I was led to know St. Josemaria whose feast

we celebrate on June 26. A classmate of mine introduced me to a place

that immediately got my interest. It was quiet, with an ample study

room, and the people were very friendly. I must say that I fell in

love with the place and started frequenting it.

  

            Along the way, I got invited to attend some talks they

organized there, and to have a chat with the priest, whom I deeply

admired since it was to him that I confided all my secrets, doubts and

issues as well as my dreams and ambitions that I had during those

youthful years. He clarified many things to me, broadened my

perspectives, and motivated me to study and work hard.

  

            Little by little, I was introduced to the practice of

mental prayer, spiritual reading, going to daily Mass, doing some

mortifications, and many others. That was when I “met” St. Josemaria,

because it was through his writings that I realized one can be a

consistently good person, even a saint, just by doing the ordinary

little things of each day with love for God and for others.

  

            The idea fascinated me. Of course, like anybody else, I

wanted to be a good person, but I did not know how. My desire could

hardly take off from the ground before I would already lose steam. And

my usual friends then were of no help. We were actually in the same

boat, filled with good desires by helpless in turning them to deeds.

  

            Besides, at that time I was attracted to the idea that one

can be a good person, yes, even a saint, without becoming a priest. At

that time, I just wanted to be a good businessman making a lot of

money, but consistently striving to be a holy person without showing

it off.

  

            St. Josemaria reinforced these desires of mine in his

writings. I found him preaching a lifestyle that called for turning

the ordinary circumstances and events of each day into opportunities

to love God and to others.

              In other words, I did not have to look somewhere else to

be truly in love. Where I was in any given moment is the very chance

given to me to develop love. It would be there where I could practice

to the full the demands of faith, hope and charity every moment of my

life and not just from time to time.

  

            This was what hooked me to him. And what strengthened this

attraction was to see many people following what St. Josemaria

preached, giving me the conviction that what he taught was doable and

that it must have come from above. It could not simply be his own.

  

            Now, as to how I ended up as a priest, that’s another

story. But St. Josemaria also had a lot to do with it.