By Danny G. Mendiola

Fr. Mar Sanchez

I cannot recall now which spiritual writer it was who said: “God’s language is the experience He writes into our lives.”  Nowhere is this true than in the life of Father Mario Sanchez, a man whose life experiences bear God’s obvious handwriting all over it.  And written in bold letters is the word “family” that has become the trademark, as it were, of Father Mar’s life and ministry. 

Father Mar’s story is the paradox of a man who had left a wonderful family and renounced his right to raise a family of his own, only to gain a larger family whose limits only the reach of his all-embracing heart can set.  But more, Father Mar’s story is at the same time the story of people he considers his heroes, the people he considers family, the people who are “the wind beneath his wings”… 

The Two Fathers Who Inspired Him

Sociologists say that in our matriarchal society, rare is the boy who is close to his father, hero-worships him, and maintains a close bond with him until adulthood.  Father Mar was such a boy.

Although the priesthood was already in his mind as a young boy, Mario also thought he wanted to become an Engineer like his father Ireneo.  Upon finishing high school, however, and seeing how supportive his father was when he learned of his son’s continuing desire to become a priest – even encouraging him to talk to a visiting seminarian-friend and then accompanying him to the seminary to inquire even after he already had enrolled at Adamson University for an Engineering course -- the young Mario finally decided to enter San Carlos Seminary to start his priestly studies.  When he vacillated while on retreat during his first week at the seminary, it was to his father once more that he turned for counsel.  His father’s wise advice, to give himself more time to experience what the seminary was all about, was all he needed to go on. 

The relationship between father and son grew deeper as the son grew not only in age but also in spirit at the seminary until years later the son became a “Father” himself, a priest after God’s own heart.

Years later, this relationship will be put to the test.  The priest-son wanted to be with his father to minister to him as the father lay in bed dying, but a very important priestly assignment was beckoning at the same time.  He was the official Master of Ceremonies at the closing rites of the Year of Jesus Christ in Manila in preparation for the International Jubilee Year with no less than the Papal Legate himself officiating.  The father, even as he was gasping with every breath, quietly told his priest-son: “Your Nanay and I have given you up long ago to the Church.  Go and do your duty well.”  He even managed a smile and said: “Mag-ayos ka, so you will look good on national television.”  Thus consoled, the priest-son went off and did his job with flying colors at the Church rites the following morning in Luneta.  After the ceremonies, however, he was told by Cardinal Sin that his father had passed away the night before, not long after he had left his bedside.  Amidst the blurry confusion that followed, he clearly remembered what the Papal Legate told him in a fatherly embrace: “The love of your father will live in you.” True enough, the father has passed away, but to this day, the loving relationship with his son lives on. 

It continued to live on and was seen in Father Mar’s relationship with his seminarians in his stint as formator at San Carlos Seminary for seven years.  To his seminarians, Father Mar consciously projected a father image.  He cared for and loved his seminarians like they were his own sons.  To this day his former wards, who are now priests like him, still come to him to seek his fatherly wisdom. 

It continued to live on in his own spiritual life as Father Mar developed early in his priestly life a relationship with God like a son to his Father, talking to God intimately in prayer like he used to talk to his Tatay – asking for favors, seeking advice. 

It continued to live on in his parish assignments, both in Las Pinas as well as in his present assignment here in OLAP, as Father Mar fulfills his role as pastor to his flock like a father to his family, forming and molding them in matters of the spirit as if he is raising his own children.  For him, the family is basic and family life takes priority in everything, while the parish is his one big family.

As a tribute to the man to whom he owes this orientation in his personal life and ministry,  Father Mar to this day drives an old car and wears a watch that his father had given him as gifts.  To this day, too, this priest-son never forgets to cite “Tatay” in all his masses as he remembers the dead.

After his Tatay died, another father-son relationship developed in Father Mar’s priestly journey into life.  He found a second father, another priest in the person of Jaime Cardinal Sin, the late Archbishop of Manila. 

The second father-son relationship developed naturally as Father Mar, in his official duties as head of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, usually accompanied the Cardinal in his sorties throughout the archdiocese – at ordinations, church dedications, blessings, installations, etc. as the Master of Ceremonies.  Father Mar’s love for Church liturgy was noticed early on by the Cardinal who thereby sent him to Rome for a Licentiate degree in Church Liturgy.  It was also the Cardinal who later assigned him to his first parish after seven years as formator at San Carlos Seminary.  But it is the Cardinal’s fatherly words at the death of his Tatay that Father Mar recalls most fondly. 

The final ceremonies of the Eucharistic Congress have just ended when the Cardinal who was already in his car and just about to leave called for him.  Expecting a commendation for a job well-done, Father Mar heard instead a most fatherly counsel as if it was coming from God Himself: “Son – be brave, have faith, your father died.”  Looking back, Father Mar believes that the sad news of his Tatay’s death could not have been delivered more poignantly and with more sympathy and compassion than by this man he considered even then as his second father.

Thus it was truly difficult for Father Mar when he first heard of the Cardinal’s own demise last year.  Father Mar himself revealed this in a message he wrote for the OLAP News sometime ago.  There he bared his feelings on how he was twice orphaned, losing a father two times over.  The second father has also died, but again as it was in the first, the relationship lives on in his heart and will live on forever! 

The Two Mothers Who Said “Yes”

Like most priests, Father Mar attributes the origin of his vocation to his Nanay.  Though she never pushed him into the priesthood, her silent influence and encouragement were always there.  Father Mar grew up seeing his Nanay go to daily Mass, fingering her rosary and saying her devotional prayers.  He was named after his Nanay Maria who literally was on the verge of giving up her own life in order that he may live.  Father Mar was “suhi” (upside down) in his Nanay’s womb, and the attending doctor wanted to cut him off in order to save his Nanay’s life.  But Nanay Maria declined the offer and went on to give birth to her child the natural way through the efforts of her own mother and the boy’s grandmother.  Like the Virgin Mary, she said “yes” to life and gave life to the future Marian priest.

Yes, Father Mar considers himself a Marian priest not only because of his name, but more so because he has dedicated himself to the propagation of the devotion to the other Maria in his life -- the Blessed Mother, his second Mother.  This is his way of giving tribute to his own Nanay Maria who gave him life at the possible cost of her own life.  Thus, Father Mar considers his parish assignments at Our Lady of Fatima in Las Pinas and now at Our Lady of the Annunciation, both named after Our Lady, as truly God’s will for him to nurture his continuing love affair with Mary his second mother. 

The Brother Who Loves Him Unconditionally

In the same breath that he mentions his Tatay, Father Mar also mentions a certain “Kuya” as he remembers the dead in his masses.  This is the second older brother who has also influenced Father Mar’s family orientation. This is the older brother who got married, but never had a child.  So his Kuya simply and quietly dedicated himself to caring for his parents and siblings.  Father Mar will never forget what his Kuya wrote him while he was in Rome for his studies:  “You know how much I love you, so much that I will even give my life for you.” 

His Kuya Poly is now dead too, but the brother-and-brother relationship he had forged with the priest-brother whom he loves lives on to this day.  Thus, the brotherhood of men goes on as Father Mar loves to call almost everyone in his parish “Kuya” and “Ate”.  That is probably why the Parish Renewal Experience (PREX) is close to his heart because there everybody is “Kuya” and “Ate”, and in PREX the family is a little church.  That also explains why he goes to great lengths to reach out to the families living under the “tulay” along Mindanao Avenue not far from the parish church and to the community of families in the “garahe” area where he initiated the formation of Basic Ecclesial Communities.  That is why you will find him in the activities of family-oriented organizations such as the Marriage Encounter, Couples for Christ, and others.  And to those he himself cannot reach, there is the Family Life Enhancement Committee of the Parish Pastoral Council which he insists must be strong in its programs for the wholeness of families.  

His Journey continues…

Today, Father Mar’s journey continues towards new horizons and more challenges.  He does not know what or where.  But Father Mar knows one thing for certain, he will continue to preach by word and example his experiences of the loving Fatherhood of God, the caring Motherhood of Mary, and the all-embracing brotherhood and family of men in Jesus our Brother.