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The famous healer sees himself as mere conduit for a faith that moves mountains and heals the sick

FATHER FERNANDO Suarez, the celebrated priest of the Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor, offers an interesting explanation of the nature of faith, a commonsensical notion that’s often overlooked: It was not the faith of Lazarus that raised him from the dead but that of his sisters Martha and Mary.

In other words, it is not necessarily the faith of the person that will make him or her whole. The faith of others will suffice.

Suarez quotes the Epistle of James: “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.... The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Here he relates a boyhood incident when he discovered his own power.

When he was 16, he saw a paralyzed 60-year-old beggar woman outside Quiapo Church. He asked if she wanted him to pray for her, just to console her.

After one Hail, Mary, one Our Father and one Glory Be— “biglang tumayo, ’di ko in-expect na gagaling, natakot ako, tumakbo ako!” Suarez recalls with a flicker of horror in his eyes.

He is having breakfast of Greek salad and bibingka at the poolside of Rockwell Club in Makati. With the help of tennis coach Dustin de Torres, we have gained access to this private moment of the healing priest, after which he says a brief individual pray-over for those at the table, goes up the mall’s roofdeck for a game of tennis, and spares some time to tell his story and reaffirm the power of faith.

Gift for people

Suarez was born in 1967, one of four siblings, in Barrio Bulong, Taal, Batangas. He was a chemical engineer, a graduate of Adamson University, when went to live in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1995.

In 1996, he saw a vision of thousands of poor children coming to him for help.

The following year, he joined Companions of the Cross, a newly established community of priests and seminarians in Ottawa. This young congregation of the Society of Apostolic Life, only 25 years old, is an offshoot of the Catholic revival in Canada. It is similar to the diocesan, with active lifestyle and missionary in spirit.

That year, Suarez’s spiritual director discovered he had the gift of healing. It was also at around this time he informally started the charitable organization Mary Mother of the Poor, from the stipend he received as a seminarian.

After he was ordained in 2002, his spiritual director tried to convince him to use his power of healing, saying: “This gift is not for you but for people.”

His first year as priest he spent as associate pastor of the Parish of St. Timothy in Ontario. Healing day was once a month, on a Sunday.

“I struggled with it for 20 years,” he says. “I felt I was not worthy. I did not want to be the center of attention. I asked God na ibigay na lang sa iba.”

God, of course, had a sense of humor—because, in 2003, Suarez’s superior decided to assign him a specialized ministry.

“Since then, wala na akong ginawa kundi mag-healing ng mag-healing,” he says.

Just pure grace

His ministry has brought him all over the US, Europe, Australia, the Middle East. At every service, he estimates an average of 100 testimonies of actual healing.

He relates that in Baguio, two years ago, a pulmonologist had asked for his discarded bottle of mineral water and applied it on two comatose colleagues. To everyone’s surprise—“nabuhay!” Suarez exclaims.

“I’m a total conduit,” he continues, “just an instrument of the Lord. While doing it, ’di ako napapagod, I don’t go into a trance, I don’t use miraculous things—just grace from God, and it is they who receive those manifestations of grace.”

Now 44, Suarez has been a priest for nine years. He lived in Canada for 15 years but has never given up his Filipino citizenship.

In 2007, in his absence, he was cited as one of the country’s Outstanding Young Men, for Religious Service. Two years ago, he returned to the country for good.

Last year, he founded the Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor (MMP), composed of three priests living in a tent in Montemaria (formerly Amuyong), Alfonso, Cavite, on a 33-ha land overlooking Batangas Bay, which was donated by San Miguel Corp. (Suarez says he was told SMC stocks rose after the donation.)

It is a temporary shelter called the Oratory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a makeshift chapel that has become a pilgrim church where the faithful gather for his healing ceremony at 10 am every Saturday and Sunday.

Weekend visitors average 20,000, and 50,000 the whole week. On Holy Tuesday, 16 truckloads of pilgrims came, and Suarez held a three-hour Lenten recollection and healing session.

Soon the place will have a 33-story, 350-ft statue of Mary, higher than the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Cristo Redentor overlooking Rio de Janeiro. This is, indeed, a soaring manifestation of faith, at a time when a deranged infidel tried to turn the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia into a towering inferno.

Preferential option

Suarez says MMP is self-sustaining—largely from donations, plus a cottage industry of rosary bracelets (freshwater pearls, wood, crystal). A wooden bracelet sells for P100.

These bracelets are being worn by celebrities such as boxing champs Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire, even Imelda Marcos (imagine the kind of endorsement).

Pacquiao, in fact, had asked Suarez for a pray-over before two recent fights. He was particularly anxious about his forthcoming bout with Oscar de la Joya (we know what happened next).

Other celebrities who have sought out the priest for a pray-over are SMC chair Danding Cojuangco, businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco, actress Amalia Fuentes, businessman Greggy Araneta, TV newscaster Vicky Morales (who finally got pregnant shortly after the pray-over).

This gives rise to the rumor that Suarez has a preferential option for the rich and famous. Which sharply contradicts what he is known to have been doing all these years.

Once a month he goes to poor parishes all over the country. He has given 100 impoverished families in Batangas a livelihood in the manufacture of rosary bracelets.

And proceeds from his healing ministry go to the MMP, which is into sponsoring families, seniors, scholars, seminarians; feeding students; hosting medical missions; erecting classrooms; building homes in depressed areas.

Suarez celebrates TV Mass every third Sunday of the month, 6 a.m., on Channel 2; and every second and fourth Sunday on TV5. He hosts a program, “Healing Grace,” 6-8 p.m., on RadioVeritas.

Normal human being

As break from all that religious fervor and wondrous incidents, he runs 5 km every day and plays tennis for three hours, at least twice a week.

“Late na ako in playing tennis,” he says. “Before, just basketball.”

Tennis caught his interest a few years ago in Canada, during international conferences for the game where he was invited to say the invocation. He has since played with Davis Cuppers Felix Barrientos, Raymond Suarez (no relation), Roland So.

He says he prays before and after a game, and his mind goes blank while playing, so he can concentrate on his shots. He grips the racquet with both hands, whether for forehand or backhand, which makes for very strong ground strokes. (An unorthodox style, really.) His feet are quick on the court, able to run after every ball.

“After a game, maganda ang disposition ko, I’m not cranky, so I can relate with people better,” he says. “It’s a way to be a normal human being.”

So it’s not really true what some say that he draws his healing power from tennis. If at all, he gets from it the energy and stamina to survive hectic schedules and heaving crowds.

He is also promoting tennis among fellow religious and organizing tournaments thrice a year. He estimates some 150 priests and bishops all over the country are now regular tennis players (the oldest being 74-year-old Bishop Wilfredo Manlapaz of Tagum, Davao del Norte).

As one can see, even at play Fr. Fernando Suarez is diligently working in the vineyard of the Lord.

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Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer