A tribute to Msgr. Rolando A. Jimenez, servant of God
Our family is blessed to have a devoted priest, a hardworking pastor of God's flock and of course, on a personal note, a loyal and helpful first degree cousin of mine, Monsignor Rolando Abad Jimenez. He is the erstwhile parish priest of the great Carcar City Parish and its sub-parishes, and now assigned in his mother's hometown in Barili. Monsignor Lando has always been an exemplary priest, beloved by his parishioners and esteemed by his colleagues. He used to study in Rome after a stint of teaching job in the Seminario de San Carlos in Mabolo. All those who met him has always nothing but good words about my cousin.
Of course, my testimony would be tainted with bias because we are blood relatives. He is the eldest son of my father's elder brother. But I have no reason to perjure myself in this tribute because my cousin is not running for any public office nor is he aspiring for higher ecclesiastic assignment. He is happy where he is now. I remember that his first assignment as parish priest was in the tiny parish of Alcantara, next to our twin towns of Ronda where my mother hails, and Dumanjug where both my own father and Msgr Lando's papa were from. Then I think he was sent to Boljoon, then to Toledo City, then San Fernando, and Consolacion respectively.
Msgr Lando solemnized all the marriages of all my cousins, and my own in 1978, together with Father Daddy Silva and my bosom friend from Bohol, the late Fr Nemie Angus. He even jokingly told me that my wedding then was like a political caucus because my ninongs included then Governor Eddie Gullas, Mayor Dodong Solon, General Narcise, and former Cebu Governor and DSWD (then called Social Welfare Administration), Secretary Francisco Emilio F Remotigue, our pride from Ronda and Argao. But Father Lando remains a humble, simple and unassuming servant of the Lord. I have never heard anything derogatory about him. I'm truly proud of my cousin.
He goes out in the dark of the night bringing the Holy Communion to dying parishioners. He counsels couples who are on the brink of separation and annulment of marriages. He gives spiritual lectures to the remote barangays who badly need spiritual nourishment. He solemnizes marriage to many long-time live-in couples. He organizes the parishioners well and remains a truly prayerful and contemplative priest. He is very restrained in his words and actions, decent and respectable, and is never vulgar or coarse in his language. He is gentle and polite and very approachable by even the poorest members of his parish.
I have always wanted to be a priest myself. But my family advised me against it because I am the eldest and I have to earn enough to help send my younger siblings to college. Mgsr Lando is also the eldest but he has only one brother. And so, somehow I used to be envious of him. When I was very young, I used to wear many hand-me-down clothings and shoes from him. This Saturday he will solemnize the Holy Matrimony to my eldest daughter, Joyce in Ayala Alabang's St James Parish. Once again, I will look at my cousin with awe and admiration, for remaining truly holy in a world filled with greed, lust, and ignominy. And I thank God for cousins like him.
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