In Christ, the Old Has Passed Away, All is New!
By Richard Martinez
My story is not an easy one to tell, but since God has worked wonders in my life, it is an important story to share. I am the youngest of four, born in Fremont, California. We were raised Catholic in that we went to Church every Sunday. I was very active in sports of all kinds: basketball, baseball, football and even some boxing.
Unfortunately, I got mixed up with the wrong crowd and it was at age 13 that I was first exposed to drugs. Smoking pot with friends became our form of recreation and soon I began drinking as well. By the time I reached high school my main interest was going to parties, girls, drinking and doing drugs. Cutting school became a regular pattern for me, as did coming home later and later from those parties and sometimes not coming home until well into the next day. In the crowd I hung out with I met older guys who introduced me to harder drugs. In those days, (60's &70's) drugs were everywhere and easy to obtain. At 16 I ran away from home and lived in what could be called a "party house." I lived there for about 2 months and all I did was party, smoke pot, and drink.
It was about this time that my mother attended a prayer meeting where the Lord touched her in a powerful way. As she was being prayed over, a prophecy was given to her. It was a promise from God that her children and her children's children would come back to the Lord. Shortly after that prayer meeting my car broke down and I realized I had no place to go. I felt a tug on my heart and decided to go home. My parents received me like the "prodigal son," they opened their arms to me, forgave me and welcomed me home. However, since I hadn't yet come to the Lord like they had, it didn't take me very long to get back off track. One night I went to a party with my older brother and after the party we decided to continue the fun in a large van. The police stopped us and arrested us and we spent the night in a holding cell. When we got home, the first thing my parents said to us was "get ready, we're going to church!" "Church" turned out to be a charismatic Mass. I noticed something different right away. There was joy in the people as they sang and praised God out loud, something I had never witnessed before. I felt out of place and awkward but I stayed anyway. After Mass my sister invited me to attend a worship service with her and her boyfriend at a Pentecostal Church. During this time the Holy Spirit started working in me. There was an altar call and the Holy Spirit reached into my heart as I gave my life to the Lord. I went outside and cried out to God and asked him to reveal himself to me.
The Lord began to make inroads into my life. I attended "Crusaders for Christ," which was a prayer group for young people. It was through this group that I began to feel closer to the Lord through reading scripture. The Bible took on new meaning for me as I studied the Gospels and began to know Jesus as a person. However, despite all of these gifts of grace, I lived a worldly life and I had yet to give my life fully over to the Lord. Eventually the prayer group broke up and I lacked the interior conviction and resources to continue in the Lord. I began going to nightclubs again and drinking more and using cocaine. I was heading rapidly downhill and I seemed helpless to stop it. One time during a drinking binge with a friend, I was introduced to "shooting up" cocaine. I began seeking out people who would support my habit. Eventually I became deeply depressed. My main goal in life was to score more drugs and have the high that came with it. During that time I began speed balling which is a combination of cocaine and heroin. My addiction was so full blown that I couldn't hold down any jobs so I started to rob stores to support my habit. I was constantly high on drugs and subsequently arrested several times. Many times I tried to kick the habit on my own, figuring I could do it my way but things only seemed to get worse. At one point I had a good job, which I thought would be the incentive to get off drugs and stay clean, but that didn't work either. I ended up living out of my truck in an area known as "heroin heaven". But heaven was far from this place.
The cycle continued: parties, drugs, arrests. I was arrested for possession of drugs plus other previous charges and was sentenced to a year in jail. Despite my downfall, my brother and his wife, my sister and brother-in-law and my parents ministered to me through visits and letters. Over time I realized how much I wanted to share in the blessings that I was seeing in my brother's life with his marriage and growing family. Being in jail forced me to remain clean from drugs and I began attending chapel services, including Mass. God began putting on my heart how much He loved me. I now had plenty of spare time on my hands so I again began reading the Bible, praying and reflecting on my past. I felt that God wanted to change my life and I had a deep longing to be changed.
Upon my release my brother invited me to come and live with him and his family. I knew that I needed the support that he offered because the urge to do drugs was still a part of my life. As I reflect back on this time, I realize that my family really didn't know the seriousness of my drug addiction. My failure to open up to them was an obstacle to the healing I so desperately needed. Despite the tug of war that continued to rule my life I began to pray the rosary and attend Mass. The Lord knew I would need these graces for what was yet to come. I reached a point where the pull on my life to resume my drug habit won me over yet again. I left my brother's home and went on a drug rampage that left me strung out for over two months. One night on my way to East Palo Alto to score drugs with a friend, I decided to go home instead. When I asked my friend to take me there he warned me that they wouldn't take me back, but I insisted. When I got home, my father, out of his own frustration with me, told me to leave, but my mother took me aside and told me that my brother-in-law Steve was looking for me because he had received a strong message from the Lord to "go get Richard." (At that time Steve had a ministry to drug addicts and the homeless.) That night he and an ex-drug user came to get me from my parents' home. They began to share with me about God's love for me. It seemed that they were literally pumping into me the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. I finally felt free enough to open up completely about the depth of my drug addiction.
Over time I began working in Steve's street ministry and saw others being healed of drug addictions. I became a member of their non-denominational church. Steve encouraged me to spend my time seeking the Lord and building a prayer life. I immersed myself in scripture, praise and worship, and prayer. The shackles of bondage finally began to fall away. About a year later I volunteered to enter a men's rehabilitation home to work with others who were in the same shape I had been. God was still working on me as well. I stayed in that home for a year.
Then God began to work deeper changes in my life. I got laid off from my job, but soon found one that allowed me to stay at my parents' home more often. My brother lent me some tapes about a former Protestant who converted to Catholicism. These tapes about Scott Hahn's conversion drew me back to the Catholic Church. I began to have a greater appreciation for the Mass and the Eucharist. Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist left me overcome with emotion as I experienced the truth of His real presence. I began to have a deep hunger to receive Him more and more. One time I was in church praying that God would send me a wife. I had mentioned this prayer to my mother who assured me that God had a plan for me and a wife was probably just around the corner. At that time God put a Scripture on my heart, Matt 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given you besides."
As my life in the Lord continued to grow I joined a Catholic prayer group, Mission San Jose Community, where I have learned how to deepen my prayer life, study scripture and join in fellowship with other members. I also learned to trust in the Lord that he would heal me of the destructive urges that were still tugging at me. I continued to pray that He would lead me to someone with whom I would share the rest of my life. I prayed that whoever she was, that she would be in love with Him before she fell in love with me. One evening I attended our prayer meeting and as I looked around I saw several new faces. After the meeting several of us went out to dinner and I became particularly aware of one young woman named Eva. A year later we were married. Eva became a source of tremendous support and encouragement for me. I began attending daily Mass with her. I am convinced that the key to my inner healing came about through daily Mass and time spent before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It was there that He started to restore me to grace. Participation in the community, time spent in praise and worship, studying Scripture and the rosary were also healing balms for my soul.
Eva and I have been married for five years now. God has poured out many blessings on our lives including three children aged three, two, fifteen months with another on the way, and a beautiful 15 year-old stepdaughter. We have been able to purchase our own home and I have a steady job with a growing company.
Through all of my experiences I have come to believe that God is always faithful to His promises, for as scripture tells us, "therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, all things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor 5:17).
Richard and Eva Martinez live in San Leandro, California.