Alex Menez, one of the prioneering good formators of our first year high school class of St. Pius X Seminary, which includes of Fr. Melchor Montalbo, whom we fondly call Boyet wrote me, in our Aklanon language, “Pero seriously owa gid kinyo it ma sueat it tribute? Para imao meteor ng nag hayag pero naduea. Dapat kunta like a star/constellation that brightens the dark sky for a long time. . . .. So brilliant and to die alone. Oh well, solus cum sola – that’s how God wants it”

[Translation] “But seriously will there be nobody among you(r class) to write a tribute? He is like a meteor which brightens up but disappers [suddenly]. He should be like a star/constellation that brightens the dark dark for a a long time. . . “

“So brilliant and to die alone [as Covid-19 positive]. . .”

Yes, he was brilliant, being always the first intellectually in the class and took his doctorate in Rome with the thesis about Carol Wotyla’s (St. John Paul II) philosophy of the acting person and because of his articles, lectures and books, especially on his three volume work about the Theology of the Body, which continue to give much light on human sexuality and marriage. I have to affirm that he is not only a meteor but truly a star that continues to brighten the darkness of this secularistic epoch.

Thirty seven years ago the family of Fr. Boyet with whom we were acquainted with received a gift from God: the gift of the priesthood which was conferred to him by the late Cardinal Sin. This reciprocal self giving between God and the person of Fr. Boyet is a grace based on both the freedom of God who initiated the call and that of Fr. Boyet who responded to that call, “You did not choose me but I chose you” and the constant yes’es which in the final analysis, is culminated in his encounter with the personal God who called him to the priesthood. Truly he died alone with his only Love. “Solus Deus cum anima sola” His “soul alone with God alone”.

I was also graced to be his classmate when we first entered the seminary as first young high school students of 12 years old, together with other classmates whom we fondly remember.

And I could say, being consistently always the first in our class he has been always been our leader and inspiration. Also in my priestly life especially during the years when he got sick with an illness which prevented him from pastoral ministry, he instead has given me strength to go on.

He was our high school valedictorian, and when he enrolled in the University of Santo Tomas to take our philosophical studies, he was consistent to be receiving summa cum laude, with highest honors, and consequently became the rector’s awardee. Perhaps this is the reason why, almost immediately after his ordination, his bishop, the late Jaime cardinal L. Sin sent him to study in Rome to be a professor in the archdiocesan seminary.

In Rome, he graduated Summa Cum Laude with his Doctoral Thesis about Pope John Paul’s Philosophy on the Acting Person. He would later say about the Pope who has “profoundly touched and influenced my life, and continues to be my philosophical and spiritual mentor and guide.” How could I be not inspired by this classmate of mine who does not only excel academically but is nourished spiritually and guided by a man who has also guided the unfolding of the post modernistic history of the world and who could rightly be called Pope John Paul II the Great – and was recently proclaimed a saint.

For nine years, he was professor and Dean of Studies at the Philosophy Department of San Carlos Seminary. He has taught philosophy at the UST Graduate School and the Fr. Hannibal Center of Studies of the Rogationist Father. He published “The Church and Workers, Philosophy of God, The Popes Speaks on Peace, Short Reflections on the Eucharist, Him: Called to Heal, and he has published articles on the personalist philosophy of Pope John Paul II on many journals including the Filipiniana Sacra of UST. He has also finished publishing a three volume book on John Paul’s Theology of the Body. It is no wonder that Fr. Boyet was nominated in the past, as a possible recipient of Catholic Book Awards.

These are some of Fr. Boyet’s ways of saying yes to God, in loving Him with all his mind. I remembered that after teaching in San Carlos, he wanted to give more. He went to Fordham University in the United States to study further.

But his life is not limited to intellectual pursuits. He has also been a pastor of San Antonio Abad parish in Maybunga, Pasig, Our Lady of Beautiful Love Parish in Merville, Jesus the Divine Healer in Tahanan Village, Holy Eucharist Parish in Paranaque, and served as chancellor of the Diocese of Paranaque. These are his way of loving God with all his strength and with all his heart.

I join the chorus of all who have met him to thank God for the gift of Fr. Boyet to the Church, the Body of Christ, the same Christ who is present with His People even in this pandemic. Even in his illness in bed, Fr. Boyet has given himself to serve since knows that without this sincere gift of oneself, “man cannot become what he is supposed to be” as has always explained by his mentor St. John Paul II. This self giving of Fr. Boyet reflects that Supreme gift of Christ to the Church. When I had the occasions to be in Manila, I make it a point to visit him, and I saw Him slowly being configured in Christ as an alter Christus, not anymore on the altar of the church but on the altar of Calvary. His altar has become his bed and sometimes his intravenous medicines or the tubes for his regular dialysis are like nails inserted to his body.

In our meager conversations which in time would end in a wave of a smile in his eyes, I could always see his heart’s desire to make the Church he loves to be what it is supposed to be. Since Fr. Boyet has a certain facility to grasp the “ideal”, the “what should be” of things – due to his keen intelligence – this very same deep understand of things makes him sometimes impatient to what is happening in the world and in the church because he shares what should have been done. “Sana ganito” – “How I wish it should be like this” is always in the mind and expression of Fr. Boyet.

His advanced knowledge, which sometimes becomes a prophesy, being contrasted with the harsh realities within and outside the church, makes him feel in an intense way – a kind of eschatological tension – which sometimes makes a toll on his body. We could compare him as a lighthouse who gives light to us wayfarers, but this lighthouse is situated at the edge of hope, sometimes battered by strong waves of the sea of confusion of the world.

Fr. Boyet, you are that lighthouse, while giving light, you could be exposed to the storms and the toss of waves as Pope Benedict our pope imeritus would allude: “from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth.. . . Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, . . . looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards. . . which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily at the Mass pro eligendo romano pontefice, April 18, 2005. )

The more the confusion is present, the more grows his suffering as a priest who loves Christ, and his Body, the Church. I am reminded of a wine, which he loves to drink when we are together, that when aged, it emits more its own flavor. Thirty seven years of his priesthood are not very long but it more than enough to thank God for this priest of God.

When we were in high school Fr. Boyet used to sing with his guitar: “In the morning, when the moon as it its rest, you will find me, at the time the time I love the best, watching rainbows play on sunlight, pools of water . . . In the day time, you will find as before, in the tone lights and colors of the ceiling in my room. . . Please be patient, with your life, its only morning and you have to live with it. . . . ” Yes, if life begins at 40, our Fr. Boyet is only twenty two years old.

But let us allow Fr. Boyet to speak from what he wrote on one of his books on the Eucharist and Priesthood published by his former parishioners who love him: It shows his humility, simplicity and the truthfulness of his experience: “They are not the best of men and they themselves wonder why God chose them and called them to the priesthood. They are not necessarily the holiest or the brightest of men, though they know they are expected to guide people in their difficult spiritual journeys through the trials and vicissitudes of life. . . But God in his infinite goodness and wisdom, chose them to be his priests. . . .How do we regard them, how do we relate to them, these priests of God? Do we expect too much from them? Do we expect them to have all the answers of our problems? . . Do we know that they too need us [the laity] in their search for and longing for God’s presence (in their lives?) They too need us [the laity] to mirror to them God’s infinite love and forgiveness. . . Let us not forget one thing: when priests stand on the altar, let us be reminded that behind them is Jesus in Most Holy Sacrament. Let’s look beyond them then, beyond their shortcomings, weaknesses and even sinfulness, not to condone them, but so we can see Jesus who embraces us all, priests and lay people, with his forgiving and infinite love. . .”

In this time of bereavement during his passing here on earth to his heavenly Father, we feel that Jesus embraces us all in his immense and personal love for Fr. Boyet. Let us thank God that this love is made visible to us by God through the gift of the person of Fr. Boyet who for 62 years have been faithful to this love. May our hearts be one with him for he invites all of us in thanking God. But we could surely say: Thank you Fr. Boyet, for your friendship, your generosity, your life, you light and your love. Thank you!