What a consolation it is to celebrate the life of our dearly departed Fr Paco Mallari during the Easter season. As we acclaim in confidence that indeed, Christ is truly risen, so too we believe that Fr Paco now rests in the bosom of the Father, waiting in peace for the great day when he and all of us receive the heavenly inheritance won for us by Jesus through His passion, death, and resurrection.
Our hope is in Christ risen, and today we give thanks for how Fr Paco reflected this hope fully in his life. In the past days, much has been said of his faithful apostolic and pastoral presence across multiple assignments during his long and fruitful life. Allow me to speak instead of Fr Paco’s twilight years, and how he held on to and embodied the hope in Christ risen.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus proclaims to His disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” When I was first assigned to work with Fr Paco Mallari in Ateneo de Naga, his apostolic life was on the wane. The heyday of his teaching and research in Philippine history was a flickering memory for him. His lively presence at meals—as Fr Paco the bartender preparing his famous highballs and other cocktails—had faded away.
But in his own serene and quiet way, Fr Paco steadily did the work of Jesus, confident that he was going to the Father. I was just a few days into my first semester in Ateneo de Naga when Fr Paco approached me one Saturday afternoon. He was alarmed and disturbed. Apparently he had missed the ride to the Junior High School in the Pacol campus, where he was supposed to hear confessions. He then requested me to drive him there. I told him that it was alright for him to miss hearing confessions and that he need not worry it. I was of course also trying to avoid the chore of having to bring him to the Junior High School, but Fr Paco insisted. And so it was that my first major task in Naga was to serve as driver for Fr Paco. It was a most fulfilling assignment, if only to behold the consoling sight of Fr Paco emerging from confessions with a smile of quiet satisfaction on his face, knowing he had done his duty.
This same sense of duty would compel Fr Paco to care for the disadvantaged in a most compassionate way, even when his faculties began to fail him. From the Acts of the Apostles we read today of Stephen and his companions being summoned to serve the poor and neglected in the early Christian community. Fr Paco remained very much a kindred spirit to these first deacons, serving the needy in his own small ways.
During his free time Fr Paco had taken a liking to walking around the downtown area of Naga City. He would come back to the Jesuit community in a tricycle, and he would then ask the driver to wait. He would rush into our kitchen, take an ice cream bar or cone from the freezer, and offer it the surprised tricycle driver. When our modest supply of ice cream ran out, much to the consternation of our minister Br Raymund Belleza, Fr Paco would instead take an ice cold bottle of San Miguel Beer and give it to the shocked driver. On a more serious note, he never forgot the Ateneo de Naga staff who would ask for financial help, offering them what he saved up from his meager allowance or from small amounts he solicited from the few friends he was still in touch with. When we organized a simple party Fr Paco on his seventieth year as a Jesuit in 2021, we asked him whom he wanted to invite. The only he guests he requested were the staff whom he had helped, along with their families. All these are now most consoling memories for us who lived with Fr Paco, a true inspiration of love and service for the poor.
It was this same sense of love and service that made Fr Paco hold on tenaciously to his priesthood, even as the ravages of old age and the failings of memory began to take their toll. From the first letter of Peter we hear these words addressed to the Christian community: “… like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Fr Paco took these words to heart till the very end. In his later years in Ateneo de Naga, he was prohibited by the Provincial from saying Mass publicly, since he was beginning to miss parts of the Mass and to ramble on in his homilies. Shortly after this decision was handed down, Fr Paco would frequently approach me as his director of work, visiting my room and even my office unannounced. He would express to me the deep pain this was causing him. I consulted the other Naga Jesuits about this, and it was then that Fr Martin Licup and Fr Jun Embile suggested that perhaps we could let him say Mass in our Jesuit community gatherings. Thereafter Fr Martin, Fr Jun, and I would take turns guiding Fr Paco through the Mass, turning the pages of the sacramentary for him. Since Fr Paco could no longer prepare homilies, we would randomly draw a homily from his stack of neatly written out sermons, never mind if the homily did not match the day’s readings. Fr Paco would read a few paragraphs from this, and at our signal he would dutifully stop reading and continue with the rest of the Mass. Again, the look of simple happiness on his face after these Masses was priceless. This is perhaps the most consoling memory of Fr Paco that lingers in my heart and mind: Fr Paco, a faithful priest to the very end.
There were other happy memories to be sure. Memories of Fr Paco filling his glass to the brim whenever the community would receive a gift of fine scotch whisky. After a few sips, Fr Paco would throw out the scotch into the sink, again much to the disappointment of brother minister Raymund. Memories of Fr Paco uttering an innocent “I love you” to the occasional pretty lady who would visit our community. Memories of Fr Paco grimacing through the jokes and gentle ribbing of Fr Ernie Carretero and Fr Sammy Dizon. All these were halted abruptly when Fr Paco, together with Frs Ernie and Sammy, was asked by the Provincial to transfer to the Jesuit Health and Wellness Center shortly after the pandemic began. There was much sadness, but in the end they graciously obeyed. All three are now part of the triumvirate of revered lolo Naga Jesuits enjoying eternal rest, and interceding for the rest of us left in this vale of tears.
All these memories prompt me to ask, when our time comes, what will remain for us in the very end? We often pray the words of Sume et Suscipe: “Take and receive O Lord, all my liberty; my memory, my understanding, my entire will.” What happens when this prayer is answered for us in the most total way as it was for Fr Paco, through what the Greek playwright Aeschylus called “the awful grace of God?” For Fr Paco, this was what remained: his sense of duty to his flock, his care for the poor, his steadfast dedication to the Eucharist. As the darkness closed in all around, for Fr Paco what remained was the greatest of virtues, love.
Loving Lord, we thank you for the beautiful, painful, and faithful witness of Fr Paco all through his Jesuit life. With grateful hearts we pray: receive his soul and present him to God the most high.
Preached on 3 May, Fifth Sunday of Easter (A), in the Oratory of St Ignatius, Loyola House of Studies, Loyola Heights, Q.C.