Faith Transfigured by Grace

I met GOD’s grace face to face on August 8, 1995, when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer with metastatic brain tumor, stage 3B, and was given less than two months to live.  GOD’s grace did not reveal itself sugar-coated.  It came right between the eye and stabbed through the heart.

It was a painful meeting.  I remember I squinted in its glare, shut my ear in its loudness and turned my back in pain.  The mind asks, what then is this grace that does not seem to give but rather take?  But just when all else seemed to slip from within me, I felt my mother’s hand on my shoulder.  I cling to her as if my life depended on the tightness of my grasp.  Then we prayed.  And just right then, I met my father’s gaze.  His eyes spoke of gentle strength.  He smiled at me consolingly as if it were my life that was ending.  Then we prayed again, and again, and again.

Prayers overflowed from within and without, for the harder the pain had become, the easier it was to surrender.  Slowly, GOD’s grace manifested through the outpouring of love from family, friends and community.  We lived and loved that one year everyday as if it were our last.  Ironic as it may seem but what could have been the most painful experience of my life turned out to be the happiest, for through GOD’s love, I was held, as with the rest of my family, within the grip of GOD’s infinite grace.

At my daddy’s deathbed, as he lay motionless and could no longer speak to assure me, I sang everyday in his ear, more for me than for him.  I believe “YOUR grace is sufficient for me, YOUR strength is made perfect, when I am weak.  All that I cling to, I lay at YOUR feet.  YOUR grace is sufficient for me.”

I know now that GOD’s grace allowed me to blink a little.  HE turned deaf for a while, and hurt me as I needed, if only to teach me how it is to be held in HIS gentleness, lulled by HIS comfort, and embraced by HIS love.

My father died in the peace and grace of our LORD on August 25, 1996.  One year is not long, but it was sufficient to last me a lifetime.                               (Written by Mayen A. Sarenas)

Above is just one of the many stories in the AMUMA Cancer Support Group Foundation, Inc.’s book SIGE DAW: Stories of Cancer Survivors and Caregivers.

Last July 28, 2013, The yearly AMUMA medical-dental mission served 672 patients at the Talomo Barangay Hall.  Acknowledged and announced at the 8am mass at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish, AMUMA also coordinated with Barangay Captain Artemio Jimenez, Sr.  Member and non-member Surgeons, OB-GYNE/ Family Medicine, Pedia Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Medical Technologists, Pharmacists, Opthalmologists, other allied medical professionals from private and government organizations has never failed us in their volunteer work.  Constant in their support too are the Office of the Mayor and Vice-Mayor, Councilors Mabel Acosta, Ibuyan and Abellera, Brokenshire Community Extension Office, pharmaceutical companies, barangay staff, AMUMA volunteers and nameless kind souls who were there with their gifts of service.

Whether as survivor, patient, caregiver, or as a friend of those with cancer, AMUMANs are renewed, reinvigorated, and  somehow find themselves ‘transfigured’  by their sharing of other people’s pain.  Always, to GOD be all glory!