(ZENIT News – Porta Luz & Trwajciewmilosci / Passau, 05.12.2023).- His father Enrique (Quique) abandoned him when he was three years old, leaving him alone with his mother and some other members of his maternal family. Headed by his grandfather, a stingy man who imposed order or gave vent to his frustrations by attacking compulsively. The whole family were Jehovah witnesses and his grandfather was in charge, with a firm hand, making them all go to prayer meetings, studies and reading of their Bible.
Quique, whose surname we won’t mention given his request for anonymity, lived with fear every day and God seemed too distant from what he was enduring in Mexico. “When I was beaten by my grandfather, I’d ask God to work a miracle and that my father come to defend me. Sadly, this never happened and so my relationship with God was affected. At 16, I began to live on the street and came in contact with evil. After two years, I moved to Puebla. I soon became a drug addict and had other addictions,” he said.
Although it was a brief stage, he began to experience moments of joy and hope the day he met his father again there in Puebla. They were reconciled and he accepted the invitation to go with him to Mass on Sunday, in the Parish of Saint Jude Thaddeus where, by the grace of God, he began to heal from his addictions. “I asked this Saint to help me to be a better person, and something amazing happened: from night to morning I was able to quit stimulants, without experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. I felt free and completely healthy.”
Accused and Imprisoned
Quique took up his studies again, was working and also met the person who in the future would be his wife. However, as he was already a youth of 19, he had to enter the army, receive formation and serve for a year, as established by the law in Mexico. It was a time when Quique was estranged from God and, after returning to civilian life, even committed some crimes. In those days, his paternal grandmother, who was like a mother to him, was hospitalized. He went to the Church to ask God for His help, committing himself to straighten his ways and work honestly.
Ten days later, on October 10, 2014, several police cars stopped in the evening in front of the house where he was living and arrested him, accusing him of taking part in a kidnapping, crime for which he could be sentenced to decades in prison. Quique pleaded innocence but he wasn’t listened to, and he was confined in the Saint Michael Penitential Center, in the capital of Puebla, one more of the close to 5,000 prisoners of that place.
“They put me in an isolation cell, without light, without a blanket, without anything. At 3:00 am I saw my grandmother. She came to tell me that she had just died. She wanted to say goodbye to me.” A few days later on receiving a visit from his father, the latter confirmed that she had died that dawn in which he saw her. Quique only felt pain, anger and an unbearable sensation of being abandoned by God. He was the perfect victim to be trapped “in Satan’s claws, just as he now describes . . .
In Satan’s Claws
“There was a satanist in the same hall where my cell was. We called him the Witch. One day I told him about myself. I made an altar for myself with Satan’s image, before which I lit candles at three in the morning. I woke up every day at that time to pray to Satan and implore him. Then I became the right hand of this satanist. I also had my own dealings with Satan. I’d say to myself: “Satan will help me, he’ll get me out of the prison.” Thus I served the devils for two years, until finally Holy Thursday arrived. Then a Chapel was opened in our prison ward, where there was the possibility to adore the Most Blessed Sacrament.
When Sister Lupita visited us that day, I said to her rudely not to bother me and that she not even attempt to share her evangelizing stories. That day, however, when all were saying that the Most Holy Lord was coming, I began to get interested. As the Eucharist began, I felt a strong desire to go to Confession. I joined a long queue. During my confession I cried like a small child. I confessed all my sins and asked God for forgiveness. And a miracle happened. It was my complete transformation, deliverance and joy. I realized that there is only freedom where Jesus is. It was as if someone had turned around a piece of paper and began a new chapter. I heard: “From today on, God is with you all the time, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Facing the Consequences of “Having Negotiated with the Devil”
After having received conversion as a grace of the Sacrament, some unfortunate things happened, which Quique interpreted as a consequence of “having negotiated with the Devil.” A woman he had known a few years earlier and whom he had married by Civil Law, had a spontaneous abortion in the third month of pregnancy. And Quique debated with his feelings of pain and the question if this was a consequence of his past as a satanist. “However, I didn’t get discouraged; I handed my pain over to Jesus and continued to follow Him,” he said.
Shortly after, he found out that a choir had been formed in the prison’s Adoration Chapel and the desire was born in him “to sing for the Lord.” Two days later, he entered the Chapel and, adoring, he asked Him: “Help me, I want to sing for You, I want to praise You, Lord!
So the weeks and months went by, and the hours of the day became tense while waiting to be called to the courts to learn the resolution of his case. The day arrived and before leaving, he ran to the Chapel to pray. “I won’t ask you for anything now. If You don’t want to give me my freedom, don’t give it to me. Only give me faith. But if You want to free me, I’ll be very grateful to You,” were Quique’s words, as he recalls.
It was September of 2017. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison and he cried only knowing that, although he had committed some offenses in his life, he was altogether innocent of having taken part in the kidnapping imputed to him. And time went on . . .
“He had been in jail from almost four years until one afternoon, in the Chapel, I said to God that, if it was His Will that I spend 70 years in prison, I would accept it, so long as He took care of my family. Suddenly a guard appeared and said to me that I was going to be released! I asked him not to make fun of me and he repeated seriously that I would be leaving. I couldn’t believe it because, after all, I’d been sentenced to 70 years! I came out free on October 23, 2017 [the absence of proofs made possible a new look at his case and consequent release]. On October 27, my daughter was going to make her First Communion. Not even in my best dreams did I imagine that I could take part in that ceremony. The Sacrament was administered by Monsignor “Philip.” God showed He was great. I suffered a lot, but through it all I had a wonderful experience with God. I returned to a normal life. I pray to God every day. And although I often fall and have many defects, many things have changed in my life. Thanks be to God, I have my own business, which gives me a decent living. God has taken care of me and has given me many things. I’ve discovered that there is no freedom without Christ, that I’m only free when I am with Christ, that is, when I remain in a state of sanctifying grace.”
