“This Son of Mine Was Dead, and Has Come to Life Again; He Was Lost, and Has Been Found”

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

The Christian journey is beautiful, bountiful, mystical, and full of wonderful surprises. I was baptized as an infant into the Catholic faith, attended Catholic schools, went to Mass every Sunday throughout my childhood, then fell to the temptations of the world throughout my adult life.

I accepted an invitation six years ago from Vanessa Navarro to attend the 10 a.m. Holy Mass at Santa Teresita in Mangilao. My thought at the time was, “Why not? I don’t have anything else to do this morning.” Had no plan and not even a clue that I’d just keep going after that. Took a long time to realize I was on a journey.

Took quite a while to acknowledge my failures and repent of my evil ways. Took a lot of struggle and suffering to understand all of that was a blessing.

I’m the most joyful version of myself in the nearly 45 years I’ve been on this earth; and this is despite my ongoing failures, temptations, struggles, and trials of faith. The journey continues.

I’ve told this story before, but it is worth repeating: Eight or nine years ago, when I was a government employee deciding to make my exit to the private sector, I settled on starting an independent news agency and calling it “Candit,” a play off of candid and the Chamorro word for Light. Way before my conversion back to Catholicism, I resolved that this news agency would help to steer the conversation among the community up the ladder of Truth. That, with advocacy, we could help turn the dialogue from crime and corruption to the arts and the humanities and then to the One Truth… the Light. That’s what Kandit actually means; the real purpose driving this effort.

Nearly five years ago I started living in Barrigada and made the Agana Cathedral Basilica my parish. I would go to the weekday 12:10 p.m. Holy Mass at the Chapel of St. Therese, which was right next door to our former office at the DNA Building; then on Sundays we’d go to the 6 p.m. Mass in the main church.

One of the reasons we loved that particular Mass was the choir – the Rivera family – whose angelic voices brought the parishioners to tears nearly every Sunday. In the first six minutes of this video who hear the vocal accompaniment of Abigail Rivera singing Twila Paris’ “How Beautiful Is the Body of Christ,” which is played on the piano by Frankie Gutierrez.

If you haven’t been to Mass yet today – and especially if you haven’t been to Mass in a while or ever – listen to this beautiful song (picture montage of photos featuring Monsignor James Benavente taken from the Cathedral’s Facebook page). And, tonight at 6 p.m., go to Mass at the Cathedral. I promise you won’t regret the experience.

This morning at my parish at Our Lady of Lourdes in Yigo, Deacon Len Stohr read aloud the Gospel reading, and it spoke to the depths of my heart. Today’s Gospel is the story of The Prodigal Son. It’s a story about me. It’s a story about you. Most importantly, it’s a story about the boundless love of The Father.

In this video, after the song and after the reading of the Gospel, Father Val Rodriguez delivers the homily. I was reduced to tears in my pew. I was a little boy weeping for the love of the Father.

For the Lord said about you and me, His children who rebelled and sinned against Him and left His home: “[W]e must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

The Father is waiting for us to come Home. And no matter what we’ve done, if we make that journey, He’ll come running to us to embrace us.