It is through the hands of the Virgin Mary that I received my vocation. I went to Lourdes in 1997 working as a doctor and I was the one healed! As a Plastic surgeon I had enjoyed my career so much, trying to reconstruct various wounds but Jesus, the ‘Good Doctor’, asked me to reconstruct his people.
The calling began to make sense listening to the preaching of the Verbum Dei Sisters in Sydney Australia. They were announcing a Jesus who was alive and kicking. The Word of God they shared was sharper than a scalpel (cf. Heb 4:12 ) which entered deep into my heart. The Holy Spirit helped me to realise that what was lacking in the hearts of many was the Life, often physically well but dying inside. When Jesus told me “I am the Life”, I felt an overwhelming urge to communicate this Life to the whole world especially to those dying for lack of eternal Life. “For this is the eternal life - to know Jesus” (John 17:3 ). When Jesus asked me, like he did the first fishermen, to leave everything behind and follow him I could only say yes (Luke 5 , 1-11). Having found the love of my life I was not going to let him go (Songs 3, 1-3).
Many people say “Oh what a sacrifice - to leave everything behind”. But is it a sacrifice to leave behind our nets, all that
tangles us up and stops us really living life to the full? For me, to follow Jesus is as Mrs Turner would say «Simply the best. Better than all the rest! ». When Jesus called me, at 29 years old, I realised I had been taxiing on the runway for too long. It was time to take off. Even with all the things of this world “I still hadn’t found what I was looking for”. But finally Jesus found me! To let ourselves be found by him, this is the true life and the only thing that can fill our hearts. As St Augustine reminds us «Our hearts are restless until they rest in God».
After entering the Verbum Dei community I had the privilege to spend 5 years in the Philippines (Salamat kaayo sa atong community didto sa Cebu) followed by four years in Rome (Ringrazio Dio per la esperienza con voi in Italia!) receiving a solid biblical and theological formation with a specialisation in Moral theology and Bioethics. When I told my Dad that I was going to study in Rome, ‘the eternal city’, he said that is a good place for me as at 39 and still asking him for financial help he calls me ‘the eternal student’!
Our formation is long, intense and on-going and it has to be so that we can dialogue with the contemporary world of today. As a community we commit ourselves to help each member of the Verbum Dei Family “fan into a flame the charism we have received” (Cf. 2 Tim 1 , 6). The Spirit we have received is not one of timidity but instead urges us to reach out to “a multitud de gente” (a vast number of people) as Fr. Jaime Bonet, our Spanish founder, often prays.
After my ordination I was sent to Manila, Philippines, to open a new community with my brothers Gerson Ortiz (Venezuela), Michael Cheong (Singapore) and Lucio Arellano (Mexico). Now the community here has grown and we are 12 and counting. The Lord is calling many to respond, and to work in the vineyard! What a privilege and pleasure to serve in the mission fields of Asia.
Let us pray that through our lives Jesus can continue to walk through the streets of London, Manila, Sydney or wherever we are in the world. That we may continue to reach out and touch the lives of many people, offering the Word of God that soothes and binds up, that cleans, heals and really reconstructs the life of the one who listens to it.
And may Mary, our Mother, accompany us each step of the way so that our lives and our preaching can be a continual propagation of the life of God for generations.
So be it!
