ANGELS USHERED HIM INTO THE GRAND REUNION

By: Norberto Betita 

Bonifacio Miole Subang

Today the veil to the other side of eternity parts as the spirit of one pure in heart, while sleeping beneath the consuming pains of a lingering illness, was quietly ushered by angels into the open doors of death to a grand reunion with his loved ones and friends in the world of waiting spirits, while his physical body was left cold and dead at his home.

Brother BONIFACIO MIOLE SUBANG died at about 8:00AM, January 31, 2019, peacefully at a ripened age of 82. He is now rested from all the intensifying stings and anguish of mortality and is now "received into a state of happiness...a state of rest, a state of peace, where [he] shall rest from all [his] troubles and from all care, and sorrow." (Alma 40:12.) He is survived by his beloved wife Isabelita and sons Renato and Reynado and grandchildren.

We will be missing him. He's been an example of righteousness and virtue. A faithful husband and father. A good neighbor. A diligent Priesthood leader, serving as branch president twice and in several other different voluntary callings from God. Tears streamed as I reminisced in quiet reverie the goodness of the man whose enduring faith had invariably shunned the loss rocks of life which the adversary dumped along his way while he tried to climb the mountains to find the solid stones of spiritual safety---the truths and the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He lived a pattern of life that eschew the common rubbish that the world enjoys. He tried not to listen to the soft, enticing, and pleasant voice of the adversary that tempt him to pollute his mind with lies. Notwithstanding the sinful nature of man, he tried to spurn evil, anger, hatred, bitterness and offensive behavior that demeans the spirit in him, yet he was not perfect.

While submerged in a suffocating and diminishing physical condition, down the abyss of an excruciating battle with a haunting serious infirmity, he submitted everything to the care of the Lord Jesus Christ and leave all his sufferings to Him. He tried to cover up all his discomforts with the tender smile from his humors and even ostensibly acted as though he was not in a critical health condition. He trusted the Lord Jesus Christ to attend to him and just leave his anguish and final destiny to His will. The soreness may have lingered, but the fear of slipping into the other side of the veil was no longer in his stressed soul.

I was spiritually impressed by the way the Lord has called him to the other side of the veil. While his unchained soul was soundly asleep, his spirit, in purity, willingly and silently abided the last summon that the angels served for him to finally part the veil. Such was a wonderful and glorious transition from mortality to the spirit world and into the marvels of immortality. 

 

With wife - Isabelita Subang

             
Surely it will be very painful to his dearly beloved wife---Sister Isabelita Subang. They had been very close to each other while walking the plains of mortality. Their love for each other was sealed in the House of the Lord for time and all eternity. They had been such an exemplary couple. Even in their difficult circumstances they had been so generous of their little resources to others. They both served in the church together. The emptiness of having lost a dearly beloved and lifelong partner by her side is such a depressing ran off. But life has to move on and Sister Subang will yet have to wait for the time when the Lord will call her to follow her beloved partner into eternity. President Russel M. Nelson said: “We can’t fully appreciated joyful reunions later without tearful separations now. The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”

His paragon of fatherhood and paternal examples of the virtues of patience and perseverance; of long suffering; of gentleness and meekness; and of love unfeigned, will assuredly remain a beacon for his sons to emulate and remember as they move farther into the private realization and recognition of their failings, and the reconciliation of their individual life back into the covenant path.

President Dallin H. Oaks said: “Death is not the conclusion of our identity but merely a necessary step in our Heavenly Father’s merciful plan for the salvation of His children.” Therefore, brother Subang will be remembered as he is and all the realities of his life in mortality will remain to be a living memory for those who loved him. At this time, all that he wanted would be for us to accept his present reality. 

In his long wrestle with his lingering affliction, brother Subang was in fact taking the stretch of the shadow of death, best prepared to stand before the judgment bar of the righteous judge of all, even the Lord Jesus Christ. President Russel M. Nelson said: "Death is only premature for those not prepared to meet God." 

Even in his weaknesses and imperfections, he lived his life ready in ways that is most acceptable as to warrant the promises which the Lord himself has declared: “For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

“Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

“For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory…” (D & C 58:2-4.)

Indeed, as President Thomas S. Monson had said: "Death is not the end. It is putting out the candle because the dawn has come." Perhaps, before brother Subang finally held the guiding hands of angels and put out the candle to be welcomed to the new dawn of his eternal journey, he must have tried first to take a final look and left his bidding of inaudible sad goodbyes to his dearly beloved Isabelita and his sons---Renato and Reynaldo---and his dear daughter-in-law---Emily---and beloved grandchildren, in grateful acknowledgement of the joy and gladness they have provided and shared together in family life while yet in mortality.

His physical body will soon be delivered back to the dust from where it came, while angels ushered him into the grand reunion in the spirit world, a state between death and resurrection. There he will continue his eternal journey and progressive work of perfection to attain the final point of his eternal destination into the indescribably magnificent and glorious realms of the celestial kingdom of God.

A message of sympathy for the bereaved family from a friend across continents and oceans was sent, "A loving bond lives on forever, in memories of all that was shared together. May the beautiful and loving memories of all precious moments that were shared, and the happy times that were known, bring comfort to you and help ease your sorrow at this difficult time.”

We express our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of our dear BONIFACIO MIOLE SUBANG. May we all be comforted by the thought as has been expressed by President Gordon B. Hinckley that, “The pain of death is swallowed up in the peace of eternal life.”