It is my wish to join with the family of Ray J. Moncada as they remember this 100th day when he left us.
One hundred days may seem too long to feel the absence of a person, but to remember a loving husband, a caring father, a lolo who was a buddy, a jolly uncle, such length of days seems like a day or two, especially as we recall those happy moments with him. Not one among us want those days to end. Not even on the kind of death that our beloved Ray Moncada experienced.
We may be having mixed emotions as we are gathered to worship God to celebrate and give thanks for giving to us the life of Ray Moncada.
I can still recall that night when Atty. Ray Moncada’s body was laid at the Udarbe Memory Chapel. I was thinking if the coming days would ever be good to his family, especially to his loving wife Eva who will have to continue on living without Ray’s presence.
But thanks be to God, for this 100th day is another manifestation of God’s goodness to all of Ray Moncada’s family, for the strength that sustains you all.
I know our hearts are still heavy even until now for losing a very dear loved one. I know how our hearts ache for losing Ray Moncada so unexpectedly. Our hearts may also be in rage still, for the tragic death that he had to suffer. We all know he did not deserve that kind of painful death. All of us continue to cry for justice.
On this 100th day since his passing, there might still be questions left unanswered. And remembering his death, we cannot help but continue asking God, “Why, Lord? Why did it have to be Ray Moncada?” “Did God forsake Ray Moncada that He allowed that thing to happen?” “Was God being unfair to his family for snatching the life of someone so harmless and so quiet?” “Was God being cruel for allowing killers to take the lives of innocent people like Ray’s?”
With what we continue to go through now, has God forsaken us?
But thanks be to God, we are not alone in our ordeal. Jesus on the cross had also uttered those words of anguish: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus had also felt so alone and so lonely as he was facing death, feeling that even his heavenly Father had abandoned him.
We realize that God never did and never will forsake us. For in every moment of our lives, God has always been there with us and for us.
Never did God forsake Jesus on the cross. His cry was not actually a cry of abandonment, but instead, a premise to a foreseen victory that is to come.
In our times of loss and mourning, in our moments of distress and grieving, we may have felt that God has abandoned us, that God has forsaken us. But in truth, God is here with us…grieving with us, mourning with us, crying with us.
God feels what we are going through because He has been there. Jesus’ cry of abandonment is actually our assurance that we are not alone in moments like this because Jesus himself experienced the same. Jesus was blameless. Jesus was kind and even went about doing good. Jesus was innocent. And yet, this same Jesus was ridiculed, suffered, and experienced the kind of death that He did not deserve.
Jesus’ cry on the cross could mean something for us, as well as on the death of Ray Moncada.
First, Jesus’ death on the cross shows us how cruel the world has become. It tells us that no matter how good a person is, anything can happen anytime. The world that God created has become evil. Evilness has consumed many of its inhabitants.
What happened to Ray Moncada might as well be a wake-up call to all of us. Through his death, God reminded us that anything could happen to anyone anytime. We may be here today, and gone tomorrow. Who would have thought that Ray Moncada’s beautiful life would end so soon?
This could also be a call for all of us to be vigilant, to be one another’s keeper.
And yes, this is a call of vigilance on the authorities of the land. In the height of the controversy on the country’s judicial system, Ray Moncada’s death can be one of those cases that can be considered as a “sacrificial lamb”.
Together with the other innocent lives who were slain without any just cause, it is our prayer that cases such as this will lead our legislative system to come up with better laws in this regard.
Second, Jesus’ death on the cross is a reminder on how short life is. Death reminds us that all of us are very near to death, and this should enable us to reflect on life’s true value.
Indeed, Jesus was himself young when he died at 33. Sadly, his mother Mary did not have any idea nor hint on the impending death of her son. Had she known, she would have prevented Jesus from going to Jerusalem.
Who would have thought that Ray Moncada’s beautiful life would end so soon? For sure, he still had so many plans together with Eva and his family. No one — not his wife, not his family — ever thought his life would even end that way, knowing that he didn’t have any adversaries. His death, therefore, enabled us to be reminded of how fleeting life is.
Like how the Psalmist compared our life to that of grass that “flourishes like a flower of the field, when the wind passes over it, it is gone…” (Psalms 103:15-16)
We should in fact, be thankful to Ray Moncada then because through his life and death, we are called to treasure every moment that we have with our family, our friends, our parents, our loved ones, as these are all precious, never to be wasted in anything else that has no lasting value. For life is so short, so uncertain, so temporary, and so vulnerable to abrupt tragedies.
Lastly, Jesus’ death on the cross assures us that God has not forsaken us! We may have thought that Jesus’ words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is an utterance of resignation, a cry of abandonment, a cry of despair, an expression of desolation. We may even have thought that as Jesus cried those words on the cross, he felt abandoned and cut off from God.
But we realize that those words uttered by Jesus on the cross were not his own. That was only the first sentence of Psalms 22; the whole chapter of Psalms was actually running in the mind of Jesus. Psalm 22 was recited by a pious Jew in those hours of suffering and pain.
In light of this view, such words are not a cry of helplessness or hopelessness. The rest of Psalm 22 exudes a great note of victory and of hope and of trust in the ultimate victory.
So for Christ who was hanging on the cross, those first words of the Psalm could be a relief — as he was facing his death. It was not a weeping of the hopeless, but the cry of the head of an army who was calling his men to do battle, because victory is assured.
Therefore, these words of Jesus is an affirmation for all of us that in the darkest hour of our lives, when we are faced with problems, frustrations, and are in grief like there’s no way out, like in the death of Ray Moncada, God is actually there with us.
That symbolic event on Jesus’ death assures us of God’s awesome power and presence working in our lives. God’s presence is manifested through the strength and wisdom that enable us to struggle with our situation.
If God indeed had abandoned us during our darkest hours, we would not even be here to celebrate the beautiful life Ray Moncada.
Our presence here now is a manifestation of God’s works in our lives, allowing us to praise and worship Him even in the hour of sorrow and grief. And in fact, this is a life-long assurance that even in the absence of Ray Moncada in our midst, we would be able to handle this because God assures us of His presence.
The tears of Jesus on that day were not tears of desperation but of joy, for He knew that God has overcame the power of death.
Therefore, in the death of our loved-ones, let us not suppress our feelings. If we want to cry, let it out, as I have always encouraged others to do the same. For tears are a symbol of faith and total dependence on God. Our tears are expressions of our weakness before God, and at the same time, they usher in God to take hold of us. Let us not be embarrassed nor be afraid to cry, because when we think we are strong even in the face of uncertainties, then it means we do not need God. For God’s strength is manifested in our weakness.
Jesus has redeemed us through the very words of promise he uttered: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
This promise is also true for Ray Moncada. Jesus has redeemed his life, and is now safe in the dwelling place that God had prepared for him. This is an assurance for all who believe and have faith in Jesus Christ. And we do believe that Ray was one of those who had gone ahead of us for whom Jesus had prepared a place.
Since Ray Moncada lived a faithful life, his death is not in vain because it continues to serve as a reminder for us that something more powerful than death, something more lasting than this earthly life is in the horizon for all of us who believe and live out his faith.
In the same way that he now has a place right in the very company of God in heaven, we, too, believe, that we will also become heirs of the place being prepared by Jesus for all his faithful followers.
We may have wished a longer life for Ray Moncada, but the quality of our life is not measured by the number of years we have spent here on Earth but on the kind of life that we lived in service of others.
With the kind of life that Ray Moncada lived, we now he did not die in vain, but that his life has become a source of empowering memory that can energize us all to work towards real change and transformation of our lives in a manner worthy of the place being prepared for all of us.
Rev. Leny Jovita
Minister, Silliman Church
