“BACK then, the end of the world stopped at the Strait of Gibraltar. [Voyagers] were enticed to take the risks, to go beyond, and [they] discovered snails that could be induced to make purple dye. Purple became in vogue, worn by royalty. They took huge risks looking for those, then, spices. Who knows, our obsession with [today’s ] global wars and trade may no longer be in vogue [someday] . Just like the residue of [once] prehistoric plankton, oil, beautiful cars and houses may no longer have value [in the future]. Yet, there’s lasting value not in the material things that we fight so much, why not work for something lasting, that can’t be destroyed by anything, like compassion, love, that God brought in our midst? There are more important things in life than materials things that Uncle Sam may take anyway. When we die, we can take the love, good relationships, compassion with us, and leave [to others] good deeds behind.” - Fr. Lester Avestruz, 2011.
Fr. Lester wisely shared this homily last Friday on mankind’s history and the circle of life at a noon mass in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center -- the hospital of royalty, the rich, the well-heeled, and premium-paying members of Anthem Blue Cross. He is part of the spiritual chaplaincy office, which he shares with a rabbi and an inter-faith minister.
He received special training in Clinical Pastoral Education at St. Joseph Hospital in South Dakota, continuing on to a more specialized, supervised education and practicum at UCLA Medical Center where he worked with a group of interfaith ministers, and later at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.
He practiced his pastoral counseling skills for two years at UCSF Medical Center. Later, he was recruited to join O’Connor Medical Center in San Jose and became part of St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, where he worked for ten years. Now, he is currently at Cedars Sinai. He is a Board Certified Chaplain, and belongs to the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and to the Association of Professional Chaplains.
Though he no longer works in Long Beach, he continues to volunteer to celebrate masses at St. Mary Medical Center.
At Cedars-Sinai, he is piloting the “ No One Dies Alone “ Program, training nurses and volunteers to stay with dying patients. They are trained to stay with the dying for a maximum of two hours and are debriefed so the pain is not internalized.
As an altar boy, he heard God’s calling. He was still in high school then, at Colegio de Santo Nino in Cebu. One summer, he consulted Fr. Restituto Suarez about becoming a priest. He later made a choice to go to San Augustin seminary in Intramuros. After a Licentiate in Philosophy in UST, he took his novitiate in San Agustin Seminary for intensive spiritual formation. Their Augustinian group later took theology in the Universidad de Comilla, Valladolid, Spain.
Bishop Garmendia of Peru ordained him as a priest in Spain and he took the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in Manila. He took his Masters in Communication, taking night classes at the University of the Philippines, while as an associate pastor in San Agustin Church in Intramuros.
“How do you find God in your daily work?,” I asked. “In my mindset, I tell Jesus this is your ministry, I am your messenger. Sometimes patients throw me out of their room. That’s your problem, Lord. It is not about me. The patient is the Lord’s ministry,” Fr. Lester replied. He recalls the past when he was scrupulous in looking for violations of God’s commandments, but he overcame it by trusting the Lord fully.
Fr. Lester converses in many languages: Latin, Cebuano, Waray, Tagalog, Spanish and English. He described some of the miracles that he witnessed on his spiritual pilgrimages to the Holy Land: a woman in her eighties who could not walk to reach the Stations of the Cross. Later, he noticed she was temporarily relieved of her disability and she prayed at the steep hills. Another woman, with a walker, accompanied by her daughter, shed her walker to climb without assistance.
“Because the mind is limited and the mind can only process so much, everytime I go to the Holy Land, I experience more than the first. I feel alive. I witnessed another man whose heart condition made him pause after a few walking steps. Yet, he made it to the Holy Sepulcher to the healing mass, without stopping, and he climbed the hills with no apparent difficulty,” he said.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
