I rationalize that God created an Eden for me to keep my sanity in a foreign land, years away from my family. But like Adan and Eve, unwittingly I got caught in a trap.

For two years I was spiritually dead for a sin committed, a sin I would not tell anyone, not even to a priest. I did not violate man's law in that country but God's. At that state of spirituality, I still joined other Christians in attending masses but did not partake in the banquet of the Lord. It didn't bother me much as I was preoccupied with the demands and pressures of graduate school.

The penance for my sin was inevitable. My wife learned about it when she came to help me packed my things for home. I was at the post office mailing some of my books when a phone call came in. Our world caved in when I got back. My son and daughter, at their young age, could not understand the coldness in the heated apartment; it must be the abnormal blizzard happening in springtime in Michigan, they must have thought.

Our sufferings became worst during the years that followed. Distrust, arguments and threats of separation capped our life. Hurt ego and rationalization clashed, understanding was non existent; peace was nowhere to be found. Between running away and letting time to heal it, I chose the latter....It cost me too many years.

I confessed my sin to three different priests as though I committed the same sin three times. Things improved but I know it's just the veneer. There's still the rerun of unpleasant events. Talking to each other ended up in arguments; in days to weeks of silence.

I seeked the Lord, offered our problems, prayed more often, that I've never done before. I read more about Him, not as an intellectual pursuit but of spiritual gain. I joined a community in praying and singing praise to Him.

He called us for service. We found ourselves immersed in church projects, formation seminars, a weekend of marriage encounter, renewals and apostolate works, one after another. From the confines of our home and ourselves, we moved out to the community to get involved in the service of the Lord. We found the real meaning of humility, forgiveness and the trappings of sin. THE LORD SHOWED US THE WAY.

The Lord has shown me the way to redemption from my death from sin.

Brothers and sisters, join me in prayer and praise to the Lord.