THE
month of March can be considered a special month for
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, the first successor and
close
collaborator of Opus Dei founder, St. Josemaria Escriva.
Blessed
Alvaro was born on March 11, 1914 and died on March 23,
1994. He was
an engineer before he became a priest. He met the Opus
Dei founder in
the 30s, before the Spanish civil war, and soon saw his
vocation.
I had
the privilege of living with him back in the late
80s, when I was sent to Rome for priestly studies, though
at that
time, it was really not clear whether I would end up as a
priest.
I
accepted the possibility of becoming a priest because my
father was wondering why I chose to be celibate and I was
not a
priest. That was the immediate motive. Of course, along
the way, I
realized that the calling was there.
Anyway,
in my two and a half years in Rome, I had many
chances to get close to Blessed Alvaro, and all I could
say is that he
truly was a very holy man, inspiring me no end. He always
exuded an
air of serenity, was very fatherly and kind. He was
always saying,
“Gracias a Dios,” (Thanks be to God), whenever I would
respond to his
asking if I received any news from the Philippines.
tone. I never heard him raise his voice nor act in some
abrupt or
agitated manner. I did not notice lines of tension and
disturbance on
his face. In fact, he had a quiet smile on his face all the time.
And
yet, in spite of his meek demeanor, he was a very
tough man, capable of undertaking very difficult tasks,
and of
absorbing all kinds of pressures. In fact, Opus Dei
founder St.
Josemaria named him “Saxum” (Rock) because of his ability
to do
extraordinary things.
There
was a time when he was sick, and since he was the
one in charge of looking for money to pay for some
workers, he had to
get up from his sick bed and managed to get some amount
to pay the
workers on time. St. Josemaria was amazed at the spirit
of sacrifice
he saw in Blessed Alvaro.
As the
close collaborator of St. Josemaria, he did many of
the unpleasant tasks, especially at the beginnings of
Opus Dei where a
lot of things still needed to be done and to be
clarified. There was a
lot of misunderstanding and even mistreatment from what
St. Josemaria
used to refer as the “good people.”
Blessed
Alvaro was always at the side of St. Josemaria.
Even in some public get-togethers, his eyes were always
fixed on the
founder, and he was quick to respond whenever the founder
asked
something. He was always there for the founder.
But my
personal contact with him, though very limited, was
always awe-inspiring. One of my job assignments when I
was in Rome was
to clean some parts of the building where the headquarters
of Opus Dei
was. It happened that I would clean a room where there
was small
window through which I could peep into the tomb of St.
Josemaria.
When I
learned that Blessed Alvaro would do his afternoon
prayer before the tomb at a certain time, I made it a
point to take a
peep at that time. And true enough, without fail I would
see him doing
his prayer punctually. He was always concentrated in his
prayer. I
never saw him nodding in sleepiness in his prayer even
when he was
alone.
He also
had a great sense of humor, with some
down-to-earth wit. Though I knew he was really a holy
man, I felt at
ease with him. He made everyone, in fact, to feel that
way with him.
One
time he complimented me that I sing well, though I
know it was said more out of fatherly affection than
whatever worth my
talent in singing had.
No comments:
Post a Comment