The following is the first part of my unsolicited testimony. The second part is not as yet thought of since it would depend on how much a CLS would affect me further - if such a CLS is possible at all. As of this time, I am attending regular meetings with a group of evangelizing Christians somewhere in Cebu City.
Introduction
Introduction
-Today* is only my 2nd time with you in this hallowed hall. I feel unworthy to share with you the shaded part of my life in faith. Crime does not pay and Judas could not have done it all alone. He needed honchos to deliver Jesus to the Sanhedrin. This explains why you are there sitting down with them and I am here standing under machinegun fire – Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat!
Body
-I was born a catholic; raised up a catholic; educated in catholic schools. Married in a catholic church; my uncle priest officiated the ceremony and my lolo priest provided the calf to slaughter. At 19, I was employed in a ‘catholic’ company San Miguel where I had the honor of 3 promotions in a span of 14 years. In June 1986, before my 38th birthday, I embraced Islam in Riyadh Saudi Arabia . BIG DEAL!
-Bakit nga umalis ako sa SM sa pagkakataong naging isang department head na ako? Why must I leave my teacher wife, my 3 children of 10, 5 and 1.5 years? Ano ho ba ang nangyari? Ako po bay isang mamamatay tao o isang biktima lamang?
-The Lord God is my witness ….. for now I can only say I had to do that suicidal and irresponsible act to avert a tragic end of my family life and employment career.
(slow)
-My rendezvous with Islam started in Christmas of 1973 when I picked up a woman’s magazine from a pile of thrash. One of the remaining pages was a feature story of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the time of her pregnancy according to Islamic tradition. This coincided with the family searching for a name of my firstborn son. So I named my son Imran which by Islamic tradition comes from the family line of Amram, who included Imran, St. Anne, Mary, and Jesus. With nothing more to read, I simply assigned the magazine to kitchen duty.
-When our OFW batch arrived Riyadh Egypt , Palestine , Sudan , and mga igso sa Mindanao fell like manna from Heaven. Additional literatures just came without notice and without me asking for them.
-At one time a Greek Orthodox Christian asked me: Roy
-Not all truths are written in the Bible, the book itself says so. We find them in other scriptures (the Vedas, Avesta, Quran) and in the books dealing with archeology, biology, physics, and engineering – to name a few.
-There is no baptism or re-baptism in Islam, no confession nor communion, no priests – only prayer and worship to only One Entity - God! A Christian would only have to declare belief in One Deity, in Muhammad, in the life hereafter, in the hellfire, in the Old Testament books, in the Angels, and the punishment in the grave. A convert is not asked to deny the divinity of Jesus only to believe He is the Messiah, the Son of Mary, a Prophet with a power to perform healing and miracles. Muslims respect and honor Mary – in fact they do pilgrimage to Fatima and in other places of approved apparitions. Muslims, Arabic Christians and Catholics in the middle east call God Allah, also Elaha and Alaha.
-When you are drawn to the reality of UNUS DEUS in Islam (or in Judaism), you will find it difficult to let go of the idea of SINGLENESS in exchange of A MYSTERY still debated up to this day which is the Christian Dogma of 3 divines in One God. The good news is it is possible, ALTHOUGH THE PROCESS HAS NOT AS YET ENDED IN MY CASE!
-The Religion of Judah
-Am still securing my return to Catholicism, cementing where Christianity and Islam meet and reinforcing where they seem to disagree. By this, I hope to find the EQUALIZER - that as Judaism is for the Israelites, Islam is for the Arabs - the biblical breathren of the Jews; progenies of Abraham through his eldest son Ishmail; that Islam is a different interpretation of the will of God revealed to Muhammad tailored for the inhabitants of Western Arabia .
End
-It is not easy to come back and hold-tight to the mercy of a Faceless God whose features are brazenly sketched by human hands. It took me about 3 weeks of daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament before I could finally clip my fingers and direct THIS HAND to make the Signum Crucis AGAIN for the first time in 27 years!
-Lord am still waiting for you and I will wait for you forever…. This is my prayer!
-I am re-reading my Catholic Faith, reviewing the catechism not only of the Catholic Church but also of the Apostolic Orthodox Churches* established by Peter, Mark, Bernabe and Thaddeus long before Peter and Paul arrived in Imperial Rome. Members of these churches are, in fact, our real brothers and sisters in faith, partakers of the body and blood of Christ!
-I had my confession about April this year with a Redemptorist confessor. As I was saying: Forgive me father for I have sinned and this is my first confession in 27 years and that I am a Muslim, I thought he would jump off and ran away. But he was kind and re-assuring.
-Last July, I answered the invitation Dali pamahaw na kamo*. And NOW is my 6th breakfast* with Jesus and you, thanks to my conspiring friends Vic Mancelita and Felix Ayaay.
-Insha-Allah, God-Willing, I may find in this group the final puzzle piece of my trip back to the saving arms of Jesus.
*Assumed date Oct. 8
*Antioch , Jerusalem , Egypt , and Armenia
*(Juan 21:12).
*Assumed date Oct. 8
