I Confess

CEBU, Philippines - I go to confession. I still do, despite the ‘injustice’ done to me by some Filipino clerical mafia in the Colegio Filipino in Rome, way back in 1977. I have forgiven them, because God forgives my sins as I forgive those who sin against me.

Indeed God writes straight with crooked lines. I find consolation in the Gospel last Sunday (John 12:20-33) which says in part: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just one grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

My children and grandchildren are grateful to God that I survive until now, some 38 years after I almost died due to the machinations of some clerics in Rome. What they did was an injustice not only to me, but also to the Archdiocese of Cebu that sent me there on a scholarship and most especially to the Roman Catholic Church which assures those who go to confession that the priest would keep the “seal of confession” under the penalty excommunication for those who break it.

St. Ambrose called Adam’s sin for eating the forbidden fruit “felix culpa,” meaning “happy fault,” for after it, God sent His only begotten Son to redeem man.  Aside from my children, the Ocaña Learning Center, Inc. (O.L.C.I.) is grateful to God our Father because if it were not for that “injustice”, I would not have gotten married and I would not have thought of starting a school: OLCI.

I still go to confession in preparation for the First Friday of every month. And I confess to Almighty God through the priest in the Redemptorist Church, where there is a regular schedule for confessions. Above the entrance of said Church are the Latin words: “Copiosa apud Eum redemption,” meaning “With Him (God our Father) is abundant redemption.” This jibes with what Pope Francis wrote: “God never tires of forgiving us. It is we who tire of asking for His forgiveness.”