Image Source: Museo Valenzuela

 

City government officials, colleagues, friends, and family will pay their last respects to Monsignor Mario De Jesus Arenas — parish priest of the Barasoain Church and founder of the Museo Valenzuela — at a requiem mass at the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Valenzuela City at 2:30 p.m. today, April 24.

Interment will be at the Tierra Santa Memorial Park aftewards.

Arenas died on April 16, Holy Wednesday, while confined at the Philippine Heart Center for treatment of colon cancer. He was 58.

Arenas’s was a short life, however, a well spent one.

Known for being creative and enterprising, his accomplishments cover not only works for the church but also those in local history and culture of Valenzuela City, and in as unexpected as the cooperative sector.

Ordained in 1979 at the age of 24, Arenas served in various parishes under the Diocese of Malolos. For 14 years — from 1988 to 2002 —   he was the Parish Priest of the Parish of the Holy Cross in Valenzuela City.

He served as Vicar Forane of the Vicarate of Valenzuela for two years, from 2003 to 2005, before transferring to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Marilao, Bulacan.

His tenure at the Divine Mercy lasted for eight years until he became the Parish Priest and Rector of the historic Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan.

Parishioners remember him for his use of acronyms in his sermons. On his birthdays – Arenas was born on December 7, 1955 — he would give away leaflets of his poetry.

“Kaya pala tayo ay dapat na magsikap ay hindi lamang sa ating pangarap kundi dahil may misyon tayo sa mga kapuspalad (So this is why we strive: to not only realize our dreams but to fulfil our mission with the destitute),” Arenas writes in Kaya Pala (That’s Why) in 2011.

Arenas walked his talk. Wanting to help the poor in Valenzuela, he opened the Holy Cross Credit and Savings Cooperative (HCCSC) in 1990.

“Napansin niya na ‘yong mga mahihirap, walang pinupuntahan kundi iyong mga nagpapautang na malaki ang tubo, lalong pinaghihirap ‘yong mga mahihirap (He saw that the poor had no one to turn to except loansharks, who only make them sink deeper in poverty),” said Benita de Leon, who founded the HCCSC along with Arenas, at the necrological service in the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine on April 23.

With the cooperative, Arenas and his group hoped to ease poverty by lending money to the poor with easy payment terms, de Leon said. HCCSC has since become among the top cooperatives in the country and a frequent recipient of citations from the national government.

Arenas would also be elected chairman of the Philippine Federation of Credit Coooperatives and, in 2008, founding president of Ating Koop Partylist.

In every parish he would be assigned, he would also start an “Alay-Aral Scholarship Program” to send underprivileged youth to school.

Jonathan Balsamo, curator of Museo Valenzuela, attributes Arenas’ strong social conscience to his father Isidro, who was Valenzuela’s vice mayor from 1971 to 1986.

“Marahil dahil dito, kaya maagang namulat ang interes at pagmamalasakit sa bayan ni [Arenas], lalo na sa mga bagay na may kinalaman sa kasaysayan at kultura ng bayan ng Valenzuela (It was probably his father’s political involvement that sparked Arenas’ early interest in the history and culture of Valenzuela),” Balsamo writes in a post in the Museo Valenzuela blog.

Arena’s literary bent and love of history would marry when he wrote books on church history, Isang Pastol, Isang Kawan; and life of revolutionary Dr. Pio Valenzuela, Valenzuela: Ang Bayani at Ang Bayan and Silent Conspiracy: Memoirs of a Misunderstood Patriot.

But perhaps his greatest legacy to the city is the Museo Valenzuela in Karuhatan, the two-floor bahay na bato that showcases the life of the patriot.

In 1996, Arenas was among the founding members of the Museo Valenzuela Foundation, a group which raised funds for the museum’s construction.  Two years after, the museum opened its doors to the public. Museo Valenzuela has since been the city’s arts and culture center, hosting events such as academic lectures, art workshops, and choral competitions.

City Mayor REX Gatchalian, in an interview, said Arenas’s passing is a “great loss” to Valenzuela City.

“We may be of different faiths, but he remains one of those people I respect for having put to good use his influence and intelligence,” Mayor REX said.

Librado Valenzuela, a member of the museum board, said he can best describe Arenas with a line from a work by George Bernard Shaw: You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”

“Pag may nagtatanong, Bakit siya [si Arenas] nandoon? Siya’y pari. Bakit hindi na lang niya ibahagi ang kanyang buhay sa simbahan? Ang sagot ko: Bakit hindi? (When people ask, why is he there, doing all those things? He’s a priest; he should devote his time to the church. I defend Arenas by answering back: Why not?),” said Valenzuela.

The Shaw quote comes from the play Back to Methuselah and is spoken by the serpent to Eve.

Not everyone would agree with describing a priest with a line from the serpent, but then again, Arenas is not an ordinary priest. He served God in wherever he could find Him – be it a church, a cooperative, or a museum − in whatever way he could. RAFAEL CARPIO CAÑETE