Last May 13, 2015, I had the experience of a lifetime. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever dream of coming close to a Pope! My closest encounter with any Pope was in 1995 during the World Youth Day in Manila. My dad carried me on his shoulders along the corner of Buendia and EDSA and I was able to catch a glimpse of Pope John Paul 2 in his Pope mobile for a good 3 seconds from a distance.
I
flew to Rome for 3 days because I had been invited by the Pontifical
Council of the Laity, one of the key arms of the Vatican, to speak in
the Seminar for Sport 2015. The theme of the conference was "Coaching
the Coach". I posted my speech in a previous entry in this blog. Here's the link to my testimonial.It happened during the elimination round of the 3rd conference of the PBA. Thankfully, the Rain or Shine management and Coach Yeng were very understanding to allow me to miss some games and to take part in this rare invitation.
Anyhow, I had no idea that I was going to have the opportunity to meet Pope Francis.
At
this point, all I knew was that they had given us access to a special
section where we could see the Pope closer than the thousands of other
visitors of the weekly Papal audience. Our car went inside the walled
Vatican city and we walked from the inside to get to the stage, which
was guarded by the Swiss guards and other security members. We were led
to the VIP section to the left of the stage where the Pope would be
siting. We arrived just before 9am and after 5 mins, the gates closed,
the band played and the Pope appeared and did his rounds through the
thousands who came to the square. If I had not taken that earlier flight at the last minute, I would have not been allowed to enter! Whew!
I
was so excited because we had reserved seats in the first row and we
were just about 10 meters away from the Pope's chair. After he did his
rounds, he walked up the stage and walked right in front of me maybe 3
meters away, waving and smiling pleasantly. Then he took his seat. I was
thinking, this is unreal!!What truly amazed me is his patience and sincerity in meeting and blessing the common people. He is 78 years old and still took time to get off his vehicle and touch the babies in the audience in the scorching summer heat.
After
the 2-hour audience, he then began to make his rounds again until he
came to our section, slowly shaking hands and talking to each single
individual in our VIP section by the stage. As he kept getting closer to
me, I was already getting nervous and rattled. I didn't know what I
would say or do.Finally after approaching like 50 people, it was my turn to meet him. I shook his hand and touched his ring and said, "Hello Holy Father, I am from the Philippines where you just visited. I am also an athlete" Honestly, I don't know why I had to say that haha! He never stopped smiling and to my amazement he said, "Please pray for me!" Then, he gave me a rosary.
I totally didn't expect this encounter, otherwise I would have prepared. Maybe I would have given him a gift, brought a rosary to be blessed or perhaps ask him to sign my jersey! Oh well...
That encounter really hit me. It was like meeting a living Saint. It was a different 'high' feeling. Deep inside I was thinking to myself, this person is so genuine and so humble, who am I to pray for him?
What an inspiring moment for me. Definitely one of the highlights of my life :) Up until today, I keep reflecting, what does God want of me? Why did he make this happen for me?
Let's all pray for our dearest Pope Francis and his mission. May his message of love, mercy and service be propagated to all ends of the world.
Chris
P.S. I kept my camera video rolling the entire time as you can see in the photos. But these photos were taken by Fotografia Felici, the official photographers of the Vatican. I just went online to select my photos and went to their store just outside the Vatican to receive the high resolution files. I paid 6 euros for each of them so I might as well post them here! Right? So pardon me for the bombarding of pics. hehe
