Today is a significant day. It is significant not only because today is the end of Ramadan or the birthday of my sister in-law, the late Alita Marte Madula Rebaldo, but above all we finally lay Nay Nelly to rest in peace after how many days and nights we watched over her and prayed for her. This day becomes significant because the family of Nay Nelly though how much they love her they now have to LET her GO to meet our God the Father.
My dear friends, it is easy to say that if we love someone, we should know how to let the person go. As I have said this is easier said than done, i.e., to let go of the person we love. Why do we love in the first place? To love is to hold, to embrace the person, to laugh with, to be with and to stay with the person. Letting go seems do not form part of loving.
Letting go of someone we love happens usually when the person we love does not love us anymore. It means we have to forget the said person. Thereof, it is a good advice to let go of the person who betrays our love. The purpose of letting go here is to forget the person who ceases to love us in return.
But today letting go is not about forgetting the person. The family and friends of Nay Nelly let her go not for the purpose of forgetting her. Letting her go today means we allow her to be absent in our midst and to be present before God the Father. We believe that she will be in her happier state of life with God compared to the life she had with us. Letting her go today gives us this consolation that comes from God the Father that everything will be okay for Nay Nelly. Just like what Jesus said in our Gospel according to John, in the Father's house there are rooms prepared for her.
My dear friends, God the Father will take care of Nay Nelly. I am sure of this. I am really sure of this because on June 19, 2016 the day Nay Nelly died was Fathers' Day. Nay Nelly is meant to be our sacrificial gift to God our Father. Nay Nelly is the family's best gift to God our Father as we celebrated Fathers' Day.
Another thing why I am sure that God the Father takes care of Nay Nelly because this week there are no priests available to say this Burial Mass. Almost all of the priests in our diocese are in Antipolo for our Annual Retreat. But here I am. I am here to tell the family of Nay Nelly, do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not worry because God the Father prepares everything for her. God the Father sends me to tell you such message.
To end, I realize that after our oathtaking and signing in the Roll of Attorneys, my first Mass for the Dead when I came back here in Aklan as a priest and as a lawyer was last June 24, 2016. I celebrated the said mass for the soul of Nay Nelly. Today, I also realize that this is my first Burial Mass as a priest and as a lawyer. As I reflect on this, I remember that Nay Nelly though she too was sick had the time to visit my sick mother who underwent an eye surgery. A mother who visited my mother. This reminds me of Mama Mary, the mother of Jesus who visited Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Both mothers shared their joys and aspiration. As Nay Nelly was with my mother during troubled times, I am here in behalf of my mother for the family of Nay Nelly on this troubled time. The joy and aspiration of my mother which is being a priest and at athe same time a lawyer is now shared with Nay Nelly. For me, these are all signs from God the Father saying to the family and friends of Nay Nelly that everything about her, her life and death, is in the hands of God. Nay Nelly is now in faith and in fact in heaven with our Father. Amen.
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