The Catholic singer-songwriter Martin Valverde shared his testimony of life and faith in the program Diálogos de Casiciaco, promoted by the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Under the title “Behind the cross, hope”, Valverde has told the audience deeply personal experiences crossed by pain, loss and grace but that, as he says, “reaffirm that the cross is not the end, but the starting point of a living hope”.
From his studio in Guadalajara (Mexico), accompanied virtually by the journalist and member of the communication team Victoria Montaner, the General Councilor in charge of the Augustinian Recollect Youth (JAR), Fr. Ismael Xuruc and the young singer Nancy Cervantes, the Costa Rican-Mexican artist has exposed the depth of his relationship with God.
“The cross cannot be explained from afar. It is from cross to cross that we look at each other.”
The dialogue began with a simple question about the link between the cross and hope: “I fully believe that to get to Resurrection Sunday you have to go through Passion Friday. But Friday plus Sunday add up to hope. And not just any hope, but a living hope,” he said, citing the first letter of Peter: “Let us give thanks to the Father that by raising Jesus Christ from the dead he has given us a new birth to a living hope “* (1 Pt 1:3).
Among the most touching moments was the memory of a car accident he suffered with his wife in which he lost his son Pablo: “I woke up two hospitals later. I had head injuries, vision problems… and I was trying to see if I could still sing”. And in that context, he experienced a revelation that, he says, he will never forget.
“I was singing ‘Look at the Cross’ when I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, ‘Martin, I’m serious. Look at the cross. Not from the stage, not from a pulpit, not from a distance. From cross to cross. It was as if Jesus was telling me: ‘My cross explains yours. My cross carries yours. My cross loves your cross. And here I am. I do not see you from afar.
“I am not a singer. I’m a communicator, and I use music as an excuse.”
Martín Valverde is not an ordinary musician. He defines himself as a “communicator” and sees music as a tool to reach the soul: “As Rubén Blades says: music is a pretext. But it is a beautiful pretext,” he confessed with a laugh. With more than 44 years of career and more than 30 albums published, the artist assured that he has never thought of leaving his vocation: “God did not hire me, he saved me. If they take Jesus away from me, I have nothing left”.
He also recalled that his vocation began even before he was born. His mother, when she was just a teenager, consecrated him to God when she found out she was pregnant. When she left the church, she saw the image of St. Martin de Porres and decided to name him that if he was born a boy. “That was the first brick,” Valverde confessed. “And God took it very seriously.”
Later, he added, “My sister gave me a New Testament and said, ‘Martin, Jesus loves you.’ That was my entrance. That’s when it all started.
“Every time I sing, my sister gains interest up there.”
Martín also shared painful memories, such as the death of his son Pablo and of his sister, who was key in his conversion: “Before she died, she told me: ‘Don’t stop singing’. I
promised him that I would. And he answered me: ‘It’s just that while you sing down here, I earn interest up there’. Since then, singing is also a way of honoring her.”
Throughout the meeting, both Nancy Cervantes and Fr. Ismael shared how Valverde’s songs marked their lives. Nancy, visibly moved, said that ‘Nadie te ama como yo’ was the song that led her to join a choir: “It was my gateway to religious music. It made me feel that I could also transmit that emotion,” she said.
For his part, Fr. Ismael recalled that ‘Vivir el hoy’ was a song he heard during his time in the seminary and that “it lights the flame of hope. It reminds us that wounds do not have the last word on us. Living today is a declaration of faith“.
In addition, Valverde revealed that this song was composed by a young Paraguayan girl, Zulma, when she was only 16 years old: “I heard it in a musicians’ workshop in Asunción. I was so moved that I asked her permission to take it with me. Today I sing it all over the world”.
“Hope is not expectation. Hope does not disappoint.”
Valverde stressed that “expectation leads to disappointment. But hope, true Christian hope, does not disappoint. It is to entrust your pain, your life, your cross, to the One who knows what to do with it”.
With the loss of his father still recent, Valverde acknowledged that hope does not erase the pain, but it illuminates it: “Grief is not denied. You live it. You cry. You embrace it. But it is not the end. And the cross is not a defeat. It is a bridge.
“If we can make someone who listens to us feel heard as well, then the music serves its purpose. Hope is contagious. It passes from one to another. Like a fire.”
A final song to young people: “You hold the key”.
To conclude the meeting, Valverde offered a live song dedicated to young people. A direct, sincere, unadorned message:
“I’m not asking you to believe in God.
I’m reminding you that, no matter your story,
God still believes in you.”
With his guitar in hand and his voice cracking with emotion, he reminded them:
“Be calm. Life is full of things to face. But still, it’s beautiful.
You have the key. You open or you will close.
“The tomb is still empty.”
Martin closed his participation with a message full of Easter faith: “Once, when I entered the Holy Sepulcher in the Holy Land, I came out and they asked me what I saw. I told them: ‘Nothing, there is no one there’. And that’s the beautiful thing. That the tomb is still empty. That is the true engine of our hope”.