A few weeks ago, I received a call from our senior pastor in Pampanga asking me to preach in their congregation on November 10 because the one scheduled to give the sermon, Pastor Carlos Castro got sick again and was in the hospital. It was serious this time, he was brought to the ICU.

Last Saturday morning, I was with our church members in San Pedro. We had a Discipleship Class and we continued with our discussion on how to study the Bible — how to really read the Bible well. We also discussed the importance of having a Christ-centered lens in interpreting and understanding Scripture.

The following day, early morning of Sunday, my family and I were preparing to go to Pampanga and drive for some 2 hours or so in order to attend worship services there when I received a message from one of our church leaders that Pastor Carlos Castro had already passed away at about 5:30 a.m. As the media guy in our church, I immediately announced the sad news to all our church members through our Facebook group.

I preached the message about “The Truth and the Way of Our Being in Christ” that morning to our Pampanga church members and the atmosphere was a bit joyous because I was there (their former pastor) but sad at the same time because Pastor Carlos Castro, also their former pastor and an elder, passed away already. He had been a long time member of the church since the 70s. He was loved by many. He was fondly called, “Tatang Carling,” “Kong Carling” and I fondly called him, “Kuya Caloy.” I was their pastor for some 4 years beginning sometime in 2008 and we lived in Pampanga for some 7 years so I really got close as well to Kuya Caloy and the church members in this area. We alI felt the loss of someone we highly respected and loved.

Later in the afternoon, our current Pampanga senior pastor and other church members (along with our church members from our Urdaneta congregation) were able to visit the wake of the late Kuya Caloy at their residence. There we met the grieving wife, Ate Linda and Charles, one of their sons. It was a really sad occasion when we visited after the passing of just some 10 hours or so ago when Kuya Caloy died.

I first got to know Kuya Caloy in 1986 when I was assigned in Pampanga as a ministerial trainee for some six months. He was back then a deacon along with the late Tatang Pio (Pastor Pio Umlas), another much loved elder and also their former pastor. Kuya Caloy was a dedicated Christian, passionate for the Lord. A loving person. He was loved by many. In the province of Pampanga, he was given the honor of being a “Poet Laureate,” an honor given only to a few poets in Pampanga. He really loved poetry and he expressed himself a lot in poems: in English, Tagalog and of course in Kampampangan. I have one of his poems in Tagalog that I really liked and you can read it right here in my blog site at this link.

During the worship service last Sunday, I reminded our church members about our hope in the Lord. Though we may grieve when a loved one dies, we can at the same time rejoice because all is not lost. We will see our loved ones once again. The apostle Paul comforts and encourages us with these words:

“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.” ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)