Dato, Raymundo Ramos
March 15, 1921 – September 11, 2007
John 14: 1-8
Life is a precious gift. We did not choose to be born and life is not always nice. But we meet people who care and love, and we thank God that life is made precious through the gifts we receive.
My first recollection of Dr. Dato was his awesome initial R.R. Dato scrawled in my enrolment form. With his signature, you feel like you finally belong to Silliman. He legitimizes your enrollment and signs your diploma. R.R. Dato was a VIP, visible at graduation and university convocations.
Secondly I remember he was part of a game foursome, in tennis. He played with the likes of Dr. Cicero Calderon, Dr. Crispin Maslog, Hubert Reynolds and others… He was sometimes hard working in chasing balls, sometimes not, self-effacing in victory, and generous in defeat. Not in the same league as James Palmore or Art Cuevas, but a tennis player who had much fun playing.
My next acquaintance with him was 30 years later, when a niece of mine Lilou got married to his son, Jun Dato. This enabled me to know the person better.
RR. Dato’s humble beginnings were in Kabankalan. Born in March 15, 1921, a Catholic, Dr. Dato grew up in a large loving family. His father was a teacher. He had 8 siblings. RR went to high school in Bacolod. While there he heard about Silliman Universiy through a recruitment campaign. He then took up BS Education at Silliman. He was a working student in the office of the Registrar. He met Miss Montserrat Amores, another Sillimanian, in college and eventually married her, with whom he had two children. He took his Masters and Ph. D. in Education from Silliman. He became a regular Silliman church member. He was a voracious reader of Readers Digest, a subscriber since 1940s.
RR Dato was God’s gift to many of us. When I asked the family to summarize the life of “Dad” or “Lolo”, with word images, they gave me these: provider, strong, caring, giving, athletic, determined, courageous, loving, honest, respectful, kind, free hearted, calm, patient, warm, gallant, gentlemanly, devoted family man, friendly, jolly, accommodating, diplomatic, generous, protective, story teller.
Two gifts that RR Dato possessed were the gift of giving and the gift of compassion. For example, when his brother did not do so well financially, he gave him money generously. His compassionate devotion for his ailing wife is also well known. When his wife was weak with illness, he showed loving care, serving her well, paying attention to minute details of her needs. He was a loving husband to the end. RR’s wife died, 30 July, 2006. He was a fierce family man and loyal Sillimanian. Once he was offered a position as registrar at the University of the East in Manila. He turned it down, because it would separate him from his family. Dr. Dato was an incredible gift to his family and to Silliman.
Life is a precious gift to families and communities. We are precious in the eyes of God. For God so loved the world. We’re not precious because we’re perfect. We’re precious because God loves us. We were made in the image of God (Gen. 2). But not all of us apreciate the gift that comes from being made in God’s image.
The gift of joy in RR Dato’s life are Junjun and Pinky and grandchildren, Aya and Bongkie. He played with them and loved them. This intensity grew even after his wife died. He confessed to the family last year, his last Christmas with them, that it was his happiest. He suffered a stroke in April 2007 and has been in hospital ever since. He was still jolly, even if he could no longer speak.
In my weekly visits, I would hold his hand in prayer, he would press my hand eagerly in response. Last night, as he labored for breath, we prayed with him, sang Amazing Grace, Great is Thy faithfulness, It is well with my Soul, He Hideth My Soul, etc.
It’s never easy parting with a precious gift. But lets comfort ourselves with the thought that God feels our loss. Jesus Himself cried with Mary and Martha in the loss of their brother. But Jesus assures us, “let not your heart be troubled, for you believe in God, then believe also in me.”
I have been asked — “if God is loving, why is there death.” I see it differently — because God is loving there is death. As Dr. Dato suffered last night, part of my prayer was, Lord, let him not suffer so. Take him into your loving arms.
What would it be like to have pain in our bodies forever, to live with a fragile body forever? Our physical bodies age. Dr. Dato died at 86. Death can be a blessing. The Bible encourages us in Psalm 90:12 (NIV) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The message of the Bible is not that life will be long but rather that we live everyday purposefully in Christ. RR Dato understood this. He gave his life as a gift to others. God’s gift is our life, our gift is our lives.
God has taken RR Dato away from us. God has allowed death in this world, not so much to frighten us, but to remind us of who we are, our limitations, and what is really important in life. God wants to walk closer with us than death ever could. God wants a close relationship with us, he gives us life, we give our lives to him.
Soon it will be Christmas and we will singing Christmas songs… John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God so loved, he gave a gift of His Son. Through Jesus Christ, we receive the gift of forgiveness.
To receive it, we simply acknowledge, yes God I know that I have sinned and deserve death . I ask your forgiveness and I accept the work that Jesus Christ has done on my behalf. I give my life to serve Him in appreciation of the work He has done for me.
And the gift of forgiveness is the gift of eternal life. Going to heaven is not based on a score card, good things minus bad things you have done. None of us will ever live lives so good that God takes notice and says, that one deserves to go to heaven. Going to heaven is once again just a gift of God through Christ.
We live by his grace and mercy and we know this through the lives of people like R.R. Dato given to us as a gift. Vigils are times we are reminded that we too will stand before God. Dr. Dato has gone before God to give an account for the life he lived and for what he chose to do with Jesus Christ. Tonight we think of our own mortality. For we know only what’s done for Christ is going to last.
Death is never the end for those who die in the Lord. It is a sad time, but it is not without hope. For we who die in Christ, know that a day is coming when we shall all be united once again. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. ”Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Heb. 9:28). Let us receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ and let us give ourselves as a gift to one another.
