Lord, Where can I hide from Your Love? (Diary: February 25, 2002)

Lord, where can I hide from your love?   You have allowed me to be lost in a beautiful human love, and you found me for your love is present there.   As a lost sheep looking for greener pastures, I have encountered you on my way, to be found again in your great love, ever more that I have ever experienced before.   Lord, where can I hide from your love?  When seeing and relating with my brothers and sisters, I found you in them, and I feel your love through them.   Lord, where can I hide from your love? When I feel that the world is really bad and I hide myself inside, there I found you loving me in the depths of my soul.   Lord, where can I hide from your love? When I drowned myself in my work, studies, apostolate, there I found you, even in stress and tiredness.   Lord, where can I hide from your love?  When I go to the depths of sin, there I encounter you still forgiving and loving me.   You have always looked and searched for me and placed me over your shoulders and I feel that you love me ever more.   Where can I hide from your love? When I go out to see your creation, there I found You again loving me.   Where can I hide from your love? In the depths and width of my soul, you are always there, loving me.   Lord, please teach me not to hide from your love and bless all those who have given me your love.

---

Design your own exclusive Pingbox today!
It's easy to create your personal chat space on your blogs

Diary: April 29, 2009 - Tagaytay

I know and I felt the love of those who wanted to love me.  I could only thank God for them. I feel complete since they express the love of God for me.  Everything else is extra, affections, human friendships, etc.   There is only one thing which is necessary – the love of God: everything else is secondary.  This leads to ethics based on this love.  Ethics that leads to freedom in loving God and also to the locus of that freedom which is the church, the Body of Christ, though not linked to a place, is in reality also a place of the presence of the Risen Lord; though in time, it is beyond time. I believe everybody needs this relationship, in space and time but at the same time this kind of relationship transcends time and space.  No wonder after the resurrection, Jesus appeared many times to his disciples, not perhaps only of the doctrinal teaching He wanted to impart, but also perhaps to universalize His presence and at the same time concretize it. Only those whose life is based on love could be citizens of this concrete space and time which at the same time transcends them.  Since love is both universal and concrete in time and space: in the same time.  What a great mystery! So real yet unreal since it escapes the boundaries of real space and time.

---

Design your own exclusive Pingbox today!
It's easy to create your personal chat space on your blogs

Reflections on the two Stations of the Cross, April 10, 2009

Two realities strucked me while doing the stations of the cross yesterday on Fatima Hills of the Penitent Sisters, a diocesan Congregation whose community is perched on the hills of southern Aklan, Philippines:

1. The hurting whip that Christ received while raising up from his fall, (3rd dtation) and
2. The helplessness of Jesus when He was nailed on the cross. (11th station)

Judas betrayed our Lord only in less that 48 hours before and this caused Him to be arrested and condemned to death. Accused falsely, of course, due to his love to the will of the Father, He has to face the consequence of revealing to us who He is as being one with the Father, God Himself, who is love. All the others come as a consewquence including the three falls.

In my life, in one way or another, I experienced also betrayal even from my closest collaborators and I might say that I felt hurt, battered by harsh judgments and I tried to continue to love and forgive, In forgiving I rise again, but still the continued “whipping” hurts. I don't blame anybody. They perhaps have their own reasons.

I asked, why would they not allow me just to rise up and continue to forgive and love. The reality is, I still received whipping, slander un-love from my neighbors. This was present in my memory when I passed to meditate on the fall of Jesus, or rather when Jesus is rising from every fall.

The second striking idea was when I was faced with sin which could not, it appeared to me, cannot be avoided through human weakness, Included are the many social sin around especially in our country. I felt, in front of these, I could not do anything as if I am letting go of grace, of love which really hides, or good being overcome by evil. Helpless and immobile, paralyzed, I felt like being nailed to the cross. I could not even defend myself in the evil inside and outside of me. Terrible. But this nailing of our Lord to the cross consoled me. He too was helpless of the evil around Him, in fact, He assumed it to Himself, without being a sinner.

Experts say that owning is the beginning of healing so at that very moment I own my incapacity, my helplessness, my powerlessness, it is as if Jesus also own them in me, of which I am grateful to Jesus, my Lord.

What was strong when I continued the stations was a very strong realization that death does not exist, love conquers death, even sinful death. Everything leads from death to the resurrection.

The Eucharist: A Mystery that leads to Communio and Mission

To write something about the Eucharist is just to scratch the surface of the mystery who is God Himself, the infinite. Any treatise or article about it, including mine will only be an aspect of a multifaceted reality. The Eucharist is like a diamond which has many sides. One side of a diamond is as beautiful as the other. For how can we exhaust totally the reality of God's love? How can we fathom his divine mystery? We cannot but be humble and ask forgiveness of our daring to write about Him.

Let me begin with a little experience of this immense mystery.

It was a Sunday and due to the nature of my work in the seminary, and treasurer of a certain college, there are occasions, albeit rare, that I have no schedule for a Sunday mass. Sometimes this is indispensable because during week days we conduct classes then stay in the office. This occasion, humanly speaking is a favorable event - a day off. As a priest however, one longs always to have a congregation withwhom one could celebrate the mass. I was thinking that a weekday private mass may be tolerable perhaps, but, in this case it was a Sunday, and there was no congregation.

In this little discouragement about a certain exercise of the priestly ministry expecially on a Sunday, a certain thought came: Was it not that Christ was alone of the cross when he celebrated His mass and it is precisely in that bloody sacrifice of the cross that He saved us?

So I celebrated the mass in private.

I realized that mass was one of my most beautiful masses I have experienced.

Later, great was my joy when I scan the documents of the Church which says:

In the mystery of the eucharistic sacrifice, in which priests fulfill their principal function, the work of our redemption is continually carried out. For this reason, the daily celebration of it is earnestly recommended. This celebration is an act of Christ and the Church even if it is impossible for the faithful to be present.[1]

So in every mass, the "work of redemption is continually carried out" and even this suffering of being alone acquires a redemptive value.

Pope Paul VI reiterated that,

the Mass, even though it is celebrated privately is still not private, but is the act of Christ and the Church. The Church, in the sacrifice which she offers, learns to offer herself as a universal sacrifice and applies the unique and infinite redemptive power of the sacrifice of the cross to the whole world for its salvation. For every mass that is celebrated is offered not merely for the salvation of some souls but for that of the whole world. . . therefore, we recommend . . . to priests. . . that . . they celebrate Mass worthily and devoutly every day.[2]

When this occasion is repeated therefore, it becomes a welcome event because it seems that God in His wisdom really create occasions in which I could be disposed to be with Him on the cross.


1. Salvation is communion between God and Man and Man with Man


Now, you may ask, what is the meaning of that salvific action of Christ? In what does it consist? The Church as Mother and Teacher (Mater et Magistra) always teaches us about the mass. She teaches, however, with a certain caution not to give pearls to the dogs.

The liturgy including the mass, according to her document, the Constitution on the Liturgy, "is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed; it is also the fount from which from which all her powers flows."[3]

The other sacraments, as indeed every ministry of the Church and every work of the apostolate, are linked with the Eucharist and are directed towards it. For the Eucharist contains the entire spiritual good of the Church, namely, Christ himself, our Passover an living bread, offering through his flesh, living and life-giving in the Spirit, life to men who are thus invited and led on to offer themselves, their labors and all created things together with him.[4]

So the Eucharist is the apex and fountain of Christian life. In as much as the mass, as we know, is to make a past event of Christ's action present, it is usually called a memorial. "Do this in memory of me," Christ said in the last supper, but the term "memorial" in the biblical language is not only a memory of the past but to make again present, with the same intensity and reality, the event of the past. It is a sacrament: signs of bread and wine which signifies the reality of the body and blood of Christ are present again as that same reality of the past.
So in the mass, the priest, does not only celebrate the event of the past but he makes present the event which happened in the past: the passion, death, resurrection of Christ.

But what is this reality of the past? What is this salvific event? In short, it is the event in which through the passion, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, the unity between God and man is restored which was destroyed by original sin. Through the merits of Christ, it is again possible to make "communio" between God and man; the distance between the Creator and the created which has become unsurpassable by the sin of Adam and Eve, was converted into an immediate closeness between God and man.

In the Eucharist which generates the Church, we all find the greatest Christian unity between God and man, and in that unity we find our fundamental human unity, which sin had destroyed, scattering the children of God in the world.[5] To live the reality of the Eucharist, i.e., the Church and with the Church, is to live in communion and unity, as children of God and children of man. It is meeting and walking together in participation in the one reality of love, Christ living within us, in the spiritual depths where the communion of saints has its origin.[6]

The Eucharist therefore makes God and man united in communion and man with one another. This is one aspect which I would like to emphasize. Pope John Paul II in his message to all young people of the world on the occassion of the World Youth Day '97, said: “Around the Eucharistic table the harmonious unity of the Church is realized and made manifest. . .”[7]

This is true because in the Eucharist and by partaking of the Body of Christ, we become united with Christ and if all of us are united with Christ who is only one we are all united in His mystical Body the Church.

St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, wrote: “Is not the cup of blessing we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” He continues by describing the effect that this mysterious bread works in the persons who receive it: “Because the loaf of bread is one we, many though we are, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”[8] And St. John Chrysostom said: “We are that selfsame body. For what is the bread? The Body of Christ. And what do they become who partake of it? The Body of Christ; not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consisting of many grains is made one, so that the grains nowhere appear, so are we conjoined both with each other and with Christ.”[9] In other words we become one and united.

Between the faithful who receives communion and Jesus, there is a mystical assimilation, spiritual but real, which allows one precisely to use the term body, one body. In an amazing statement St. Thomas affirms: “The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God”: his divinization.[10] Also St. Cyril of Jerusalem said: “In the figure of bread his body is given to you, and in the figure of wine his blood, that by partaking of the body and blood of Christ you may become one body and one blood in him. For when his body and blood become absorbed into the members of our bodies, we become Christ-bearers, so that, as St. Peter said, we become ‘sharers of the divine nature' (2 Pt 1:4).”[11]

We can speak of one body and blood not because a physical union is brought about, but because of the union of our persons with the glorified body of Christ which is present in the Eucharist and is vivified by the Holy Spirit. We are, therefore, really one body, but in a new and mystical sense.[12]

We become one body in Christ, resulting in the communion between God and man; and among brothers, members of one divine family.

So it is a memorial of the past. But what precisely is this past in the life of Jesus? It is the very life of communio which he has with His Father and the Holy Spirit in Heaven. That is why the Eucharist has to produce this effect of communio. What does it prefigure? It prefigures also the life of communio in heaven which is the life of the Holy Trinity.



2. Communion Leads to Mission


As a reality of communio, by its very nature it necessarily announces this same reality in the present. So, it is not only a memorial of the past but an announcement, a proclamation for the present time. It is a mission for those who become this reality. But what does it announce in the present? It cannot but announce itself: the life of unity and communion.

Following the letter of the Pope to the youth, he says that the Eucharist is not only communion but he qualified with the term "missionary." It is “the mystery of missionary communion, in which all feel that they are children, sisters and brothers, without any exclusion or difference from race, language, age, social situation or culture.”[13]

We have seen that the Eucharist produces communion among people. This is logical, since, if two persons are similar to a third: that is Christ, they are similar to each other. Logically, the Eucharist gives rise to communion among brothers. This is an extraordinary thing! If all of us take it seriously, this would have enormous and unimaginable consequences. If we understand that the Eucharist makes us one with each other, it becomes logical to treat all men as brothers; that “all feel that they are children, sisters and brothers, without any exclusion or difference from race, language, age, social situation or culture.”[14]

This then becomes the mission of those who become one with Christ.

The Eucharist forms the family of the children of God, all brothers and sisters of Jesus and of each other. This is what makes the Eucharist and its effects, “missionary.” Its constant partaking makes us all see that everybody are children of God to be loved. Moreover, the natural family has its laws. If these were extended to a supernatural level and applied on a vast scale, we would change the world. In the family, everything is shared: life itself, the house, the money, etc. A good family has its own intimacy: its members know one another's joys and sorrows because they communicate them. When they go out into the world, they convey the warmth of their own home.

If the family is one of the creator's most beautiful works, what must the family of God's children like? In the Acts of the Apostles, we see how the Eucharist immediately helped Christians to become aware of being a single body: “The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything of his own; rather, everything was held in common.” (Acts 4:32) For St. Albert: “As the bread, the matter of this sacrament, is made into one loaf out of many grains which share their entire makeup, compenetrating each other, so the true body of Christ is put together from many drops of blood of our own nature . . . mixed together; and thus many believers . . . united in sentiment and communicating mystically with Christ their head, constitute the body of Christ. . . . That is why this sacrament lead us to effect a communion of all our goods temporal and spiritual.”[15]

This reality, if realized, is a very strong missionary witness. It could initiate a revolution, a revolution of love.



3. Charity, the unifying factor of communion


Let us dwell deeper on this mission which is also a mystery. The reality of communion or unity which is effected by the Eucharist is only possible because of charity among those who participate in the Eucharist. It is charity that makes us one. The Eucharist then, through charity makes us that one Body of Christ which is the church.

Hugh of St. Victor wrote: "Caritas unitas est Ecclesiae. Sive caritatem sive unitatem nomines, idem est, quia unitas est caritas, et caritas unitas."[16] (Charity is the unity of the Church. Where there is charity, there is unity, i.e., because unity is charity and charity is unity.)

For St. Augustine: "Corpus Christi Ecclesia est, quae vinculo stringitur caritatis."[17] (The Body of Christ is the Church which is tied up by the bond of charity).

When love dominates in the Christian heart, in the innermost depth of his spirit, which is conformed to Christ's heart, through the Eucharist, the sense of unity flourishes. He becomes a man who belongs more to Chirst and the Church than to his own family, his country, his environment, his mentality, his earthly preferences.[18] He is the man who has sold and forsaken everything for Christ[19] who has denied everything in love, even himself, and who has thus obtained the fullness of life. By a spontaneous movement he then feels the need to express the inner sense of unity in works of sociality, permeated with charity, above all on a level of the Church, as the spread of truth and love and the expansion of Christ's Kingdom. He then becomes a missionary of this communion.

He becomes a factor of unity in the world in which he lives, with the Church and as Church, and he works in the world so that it may find the unity it has lost with sin. From the supernatural and religious sphere the power of love radiates a unitary sense in all fields of human life. Also the whole world of nature is imbued with it: at least in the beginning, the kingdom of original innocence is recovered, characterized by the communion of thought and will, because there is one living centre in which all act and are incorporated: Christ.[20] He wants that all things will and the whole universe be restored in Christ.

Pope John Paul II exhorts the youth with these words: “Dear young people, make your generous and responsible contribution to the constant building up of the Church as a family, a place of dialogue and mutual acceptance, a space of peace, mercy and pardon.”[21]

This echoes the words of Pope Paul VI regarding the Eucharist:

The Eucharist . . . has been instituted to make us brothers; . . . so that from being strangers scattered far and wide and indifferent to one another, we become united, equal, and friends. It is given to change us from an apathetic and egoistic mass, from being people divided and hostile to each other, into a people, a real people, believing and loving, of one heart and of one soul.[22]
And St. Augustine,

while this heavenly city is a pilgrim on earth, it calls citizens from all nations and gathers a pilgrim society composed ol men of every tongue: disregarding what is different in customs, laws, institutions by which earthly peace is won or preserved; condemning and destroying nothing of all this, but instead preserving it and taking account of it. All this together, although different in different nations, is ordained to the one same goal of earthly peace, unless it obstructs religion, with which one is taught to worship the one, supreme and true God.[23]



4. Conclusion


Lastly, the mystery of the Eucharist is not only however to make present the reality of the past, (which is communio) nor an announcement of the present (missio) but it is also a prefiguration of the future, a prophecy of what is supposed to come in the parousia. The communio which is the reality of the Eucharist and which is effected by it is also the reality which exists as its end. At the end times, heaven and earth has to be new as according to God's plan. We call it heaven. In the Eucharist however, this reality is already prefigured as if it is already present. Here the past and the future meets because the reality of the Eucharist as a mystery is a transcendent reality.

The starting point, therefore, the terminus a quo of the Eucharist is communio and the terminus ad quem is also communio. This leads us to really adore and kneel in humility in front of this immense reality who is God himself.

Communion as past, present and future, makes me believe more in the reality of the Eucharist and the Church as a sign, a sacrament of the Kingdom of God here on earth. In it and through the Eucharist, time seems to be eternally present for if we have fullfilled all the conditions, in truly and actively participating in the mass, alone or with others, earth meets heaven in order for us to continue to become instruments in building the "new heavens and the new earth."[24]


[1]Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, n. 13.
[2]Paul VI, Encycl. Mysterium Fidei, Const. Sacrasanctum Concilium, on the Sacred Liturgy, 4 December 1963, nn. 26-27.
[3]Constitution on the Liturgy, n. 10.
[4]Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, n. 5.
[5]cf. Jn 11:52.
[6]cf. P. Raimondo Spiazzi, O.P. "The Catholicity of the Church and the Unity of the World," Omnis Terra, n. 257, Feb. 1997, p. 70.
[7]Message of Pope John Paul II, WYD '97 n. 7.
[8]1 Cor 10:16-17.
[9]John Chrysostom, In 1 Cor., hom. 24, 2.
[10]Thomas Aquinas, In Sent. IV, D. 12, q. 2, a. 1.
[11]Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. Myst., 4, 3.
[12]Chiara Lubich, The Eucharist, New City Press, New York, 1978, p. 54.
[13]Message of Pope John Paul II, WYD '97, n. 9.
[14]ibid.
[15]Albert the Great, In Jo. 6, 64.
[16]De sacramentis, L. II, q. 13, c. 11: PL 176, 544.
[17]In Psalm. 43, n. 17.
[18]For St. Francis this man is called "vir catholicus."
[19]cf. Mt 19:21; Mk 10:21; Lk 12:33; Lk 18:22.
[20]P. Raimondo Spiazzi, O.P. "The Catholicity of the Church and the Unity of the World," Omnis Terra, n. 257, Feb. 1997, p. 70.
[21]Message of Pope John Paul II, WYD '97, n. 9.
[22]Teachings of Paul VI, Vol. III, p. 358.
[23]De Civ. Dei, L. 19, c. 17: PL 41, 646.
[24]Rev. 21:1.

Surviving typhoon “Frank”

 

"Be calm! Don't panic!!" were my words to our high school seminarians while they were rushing to the second floor carrying their mattresses, "maletas" and belongings. I was afraid there will be a stampede or some accident might occur in the hurried, unexpected rush due rising of flood waters. The feeling was instinctive: to save what was salvable and my words seemed to fall on deaf hears since the danger of the rising muddy brackish serpentine liquid, with some floating debris and leaves was very real. It was an exercise of futility.

 

But I felt very calm. I saw that even the waters entered in the seminarian's dormitory, there was also water exiting towards the other door thus, I was hoping that the equation would be maintained. I was wrong! The waters continued to rise and after a certain order in the flow of our seminarians going up and coming down from the second floor was regulated in the least, I went to my room. Alas, water which seeks its own level flowed inside and I have found my bed floating. In a certain corner, freshly ironed clothes were submerged in water while others were floating. There was not time and suddenly there was no use! I went out without knowing that our college seminarians already coordinated their efforts in an organized manner, thanks to the priests in another building, saved all the documents, files, computers and other equipments in all the offices. I saw in the corridor other seminarians, offering help and the common room besides became the object of our help, at least some were saved. All the furniture, however, we are in wet disarray.

 

Our seminarians survived Frank since many, if not all, lived after the first rush of water, not for themselves but for others. To survive literally means to live "above" "beyond" one's own life. Even if we were underwater we have lived beyond ourselves and see the needs of our neighbors inside our two hectare area seminary which later was full of mud. I was edified by our college seminarians who tried to organized the sleeping and resting of their young brothers by subdividing them and assigning them in their rooms and even sharing their beds while they deprived themselves with sleep by acting the watchout for the "thieves" of the night. Some welcomed and entertained our evacuees, since we had several by sharing some of their clothings and food. Some continued to pray and faster. We did not realize we were in fact surviving "Frank".

 

That night one of our priests told me, what is important father is we survive this night. With all my conviction a replied we will survive this night. The next day we found ourselves cleaning organizing the moving away the mud. Then when the roads were passable, the seminarians went home to help their families. The priests who remained rolled their sleeves to hold bolos to cut tries, mop and pales to clean, took tools for the submerged cars, used everything to clean with the help of the boys. What was important was when the first aid of dried rice from Antique came, thanks to the bishop, the priests where the first ones to repack and hurriedly distributed them to our chapel coordinators.

 

After more than a week, our college seminarians came. Yes they came to help to offer their youthful hands and able bodies without being instructed. They themselves organized priorities, and set to work: repack relief aids, continue to remove muds, help distribute the goods that trickled in, clean chapels in the baranggays and more.

 

We survived Frank. I am very sure of this even until now. Frank has been weeks gone but we could say, we survived it since we did not think of our selves. We tried to live for others and while thinking of the others who suffered more, our suffering and loss seems to be very small. We went beyond ourselves, we have tried our suffering brothers! Till now, I could say, we survived Frank.

Homily, Silver Anniversary of Fr. Boyet, May 13, 2008: Moonwalk Paranaque, Metro Manila

Twenty five years ago, the family of Fr. Boyet received a gift from God: the gift of the priesthood which was conferred to him by the late Cardinal Sin. His parents, his sister and brother in effect gave Fr. Boyet as the family's gift to God. That event is the one we are celebrating today: to be one with Fr. Boyet in thanking God for the faithfulness God has shown to him and at the same time the faithfulness of Fr. Boyet to God. This reciprocal self giving between God and the person of Fr. Boyet is a grace but is based on the freedom of God, "You did not choose me but I chose you" and the constant yes'es of our silver jubilarian which, in the final analysis is also a grace and a gift of God reinforced by the freedom of man.

12 years before Boyet's ordination, I was also graced to be his classmate when we first entered the seminary as young high school students of 12 years old, together with some. . .

And I could say, being consistently always the first in our class he has been always my inspiration, and I dare say even until now. He was our high school valedictorian, and when I was again privileged to be with him when in the University of Santo Tomas to take our philosophical studies, he was consistent to be receiving summa cum laude, with highest honors, became the rector's awardee. Perhaps this is the reason why, almost immediately after his ordination, his bishop, the late Jaime cardinal L. Sin sent him to study in Rome to be a professor in the archdiocesan seminary. In Rome, again he graduated Summa Cum Laude with his Doctoral Thesis about Pope John Paul's Philosophy on the Acting Person. He would later say about the Pope who has "profoundly touched and influenced my life, and continues to be my philosophical and spiritual mentor and guide." How could I be not inspired by this classmate of mine who does not only excel academically but is nourished spiritually and guided by a man who has also guided the unfolding of the post modernistic history of the world and who could rightly be called Pope John Paul II the Great.

For nine years, he was professor and Dean of Studies at the Philosophy Department of San Carlos Seminary. He has taught philosophy at the UST Graduate School and the Fr. Hannibal Center of Studies of the Rogationist Father. He published "The Church and Workers, Philosophy of God, The Popes Speaks on Peace, Short Reflections on the Eucharist, Him: Called to Heal and has published articles on the personalist philosophy of Pope John Paul II on many journals. He has just finished publishing a three volume book on John Paul's Theology of the Body. It is no wonder that Fr. Boyet was nominated as a possible recipient of Catholic Book Awards.

These are some of Fr. Boyet's ways of saying yes to God, in loving Him with all his mind. I remembered that after teaching in San Carlos, he wanted to give more. He went to Fordham University in the states to study further.

But his life is not limited to intellectual pursuits. He has also been a pastor of San Antonio Abad parish in Maybunga, Pasig, Our Lady of Beautiful Love Parish in Merville, Jesus the Divine Healer in Tahanan Village and served as chancellor of the Diocese of Paranaque. These are his way of loving God with all his strength and with all his heart.

But we here today to thank God for the gift of Fr. Boyet to the Church. The Church, the Body of Christ, Christ himself present with his People, has given him the opportunity to serve since Fr. Boyet knows that without this sincere gift of oneself, man cannot become what he is supposed to be. This self giving of Fr. Boyet reflects that Supreme gift of Christ to the Church. I could always see his heart's desire to make the Church he loves to be what it is supposed to be. Since Fr. Boyet has a certain facility to grasp the "ideal" the what should be of things due to his keen intelligence, this very same deep understand of things makes him sometimes impatient to what is happening because he knows kung ano ang dapat. "Sana ganito ang sa mind palagi ni Fr. Boyet. His advance knowledge, sometimes is prophetic, contrasted with the harsh realities within and outside the church, makes him feel in an intense way a kind of eschatological tension and this makes a toll on his body. We could compare him as a lighthouse who gives light to us wayfarers but this lighthouse is situated at the edge of hope, sometimes battered by strong waves of the sea of confusion of the world. Fr. Boyet, you are that lighthouse, while giving light, you could be exposed to the storms and the toss of waves as Pope Benedict would allude: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth.. . .
Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, . . . looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. . . which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires." (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily at the Mass pro eligendo romano pontefice, April 18, 2005. )

The more the confusion, the more your suffering as a priest who loves Christ, his Body, the Church. I am reminded of what Bishop Soc told to us 4,000 priests gathered together for the first time about a certain tree called the sandal wood. When this wood is hit by a sharp axe, it emits a beautiful aroma. The more is it axed, the more its perfume is given to the atmosphere. Like wine, when aged, it more evident is its flavor. Twenty five years are not very long but it more than enough to thank God for this priest that we honor today and in so doing give honor to God.

When were in high school Fr. Boyet used to sing: "In the morning, when the moon as it its rest, you will find me, at the time the time I love the best, watching rainbows play on sunlight, pools of water . . . In the day time, you will find as before, in the tone lights and colors of the ceiling in my room. . . Please be patient, with your life, its only morning and you have to live with it. . . . " Yes, if life begins at 40, our jubilarian is not yet a teenager.

But let us allow Fr. Boyet to speak from what he wrote about the Eucharist and Priesthood recently, which shows his humility, simplicity and truthfulness: "They are not the best of men and they themselves wonder why God chose them and called them to the priesthood. They are not necessarily the holiest or the brightest of men, though they know they are expected to guide people in their difficult spiritual journeys through the trials and vicissitudes of life. . . But God in his infinite goodness and wisdom, chose them to be his priests. . . .How do we regard them, how do we relate to them, these priests of God? Do we expect too much from them? Do we expect them to have all the answers of our problems? . . Do we know that they too need us [the laity] in their search for and longing for God's presence (in their lives?) They too need us [the laity] to mirror to them God's infinite love and forgiveness. . . Let us not forget one thing: when priests stand on the altar, let us be reminded that behind them is Jesus in Most Holy Sacrament. Let's look beyond them then, beyond their shortcomings, weaknesses and even sinfulness, not to condone them, but so we can see Jesus who embraces us all, priests and lay people, with his forgiving and infinite love. . ."

In this Eucharistic celebration, Jesus embraces us all in his immense and personal love. Let us thank God that this love is made visible to us by God through the gift of the person of Fr. Boyet who for 25 years have been faithful to this love. May our hearts to be one with him for as he invites all of us in thanking him but we could surely say: Thank you Fr. Boyet, for your friendship, your generosity, your love. Thank you! Ad multos annos!

"Do not be afraid, it is I"

For one year now, after staying in Tagaytay for three year to live together with priests and seminarians who wanted to live and go deeper in the life of unity, I have been assigned in our diocesan seminary. Believing that Jesus is present in unity when two or three are gathered in His name, what entered first in my heart is to make unity and establish this presence with my bishop, with the popi in the zone and with my other fellow priests. For me it is a priority. With this assured, I need not be afraid.

This was put into the test before the passing of Chiara, when we had a lot of meetings in Cebu. These meetings were very important to me since they were few occasions that I could assure together our mutual love so with the permission of my bishop I went to these meetings. At these times, one seminarian, since he is good, without informing us run as a candidate for the office of SK leader in their barrio. In our diocesan Synod, anybody who run for public office should resign from his religious obligations including being a seminarian so that he could serve better the people outside the seminary. This was also the line of thinking of the bishop even though some of my priests colleagues seem not to agree. In any case, I explained to the seminarian about the consequence, but he continued to present himself and he won. When he was advised that he should leave the seminary, he reacted since he wanted to avail himself of the good formation, according to him. When his parents knew about it, they threatened that they would bring the case to court. Inside me, since Jesus was in unity with the policies of the diocese and with my bishop, I was not afraid and was ready to face them in court. I believe that it was Jesus telling me to make more unity with the bishop – the presence of Jesus – who seems to tell me do not be afraid! Some days later I found it that the seminarian concerned is willing to take a leave of absence from his elected office so that he could continue in our seminary. Last week, we saw him graduate and when I met his parents, we are all very happy and become closer together in deeper understanding and reconciliation. This event also gave the priests of the seminary to be closer to one another in making ourselves one with the policies of the bishop.

Another event that happened that gave me courage because I believe that it is the Lord whose presence is in unity with the bishop. One seminarian shouted bad words to a priest and we found out that he came from dysfunctional family, a son of an abducted marriage and was left when he was young. It was found out that he projects his hatred to his father directing to a priest formator. Believing in unity, I consulted the bishop and he told me to help him. So against the advice of many priests to kick out this seminarian, I decided to let him stay and explain to his classmates and the community his psychological state. Again, the priests-formators were not very happy and I felt that our relationship was affected. I could understand them since in the rules that seminarian deserved to be kicked out. I just tried to love and believe in the presence of Christ in my unity with the bishop and Jesus seems to assure me telling me: courage, it is I! A special arrangement was done for him later with his mother so that he could stay more time with her in her home and just report for classes. Finally he was able to graduate and he expressed his intention to become a priest. Since his father came back from the states, he was advised to stay with both parents for at least a year so that he could heal the wounds that his absentee father created in his heart. More so, a deep understanding of helping in service was acquired by our priests-formators who became for collaborators in fomenting a formation to the priesthood based on servant-leadership of Christ.

Talk to the Regional Convention of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate

We are all Missionaries

Communion and Mission

The theme that is given to us this hour involves all of us.

As baptized Christians and as member of the DMI, we all can intuit that all of us are missionaries, that we have to do something for the good of our country, for the good of your own family, your organization and also for the good of your own being. This has been suggested by your main theme for these days.

Recently, on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of my ordination, I am reminded of an old Italian priest who is going to be 84 years old. He said, when I was ordained, at about twenty four years of age, I wanted to change the world and bring it to Christ, 10 years later, when I was 34, I realized that the world was still the same, so I decided to change not the world but my country. After 10 years, when I was 44, my country was still the same, so I decided to change my region. After ten years, when I was 54, my region was still the same, so I just tried to change my province. After ten years, when I was 64, my province is still the same. So I decided to change my town, but after ten years, when I was 74 my town was still the same, so I decided to change my family. After 10 years, when I am now 84 my family is still the same – so now, I just decided to change myself. I think is he has started other way round, he could have achieved something.

The mission of the Church flows from her own nature. Christ has willed according to Lumen Gentium of the Vatican II, that the Church be a "sign and instrument of unity between God and man of all the human race." (LG, 1) Such a mission has the purposed of making everyone know and live the "new" communion that the Son of God made man introduced into the history of the world. It is in this context, i.e., the nature of the Church, that her mission flows to which the Lord entrusts a great part of the responsibility to the lay faithful, in communion with all other members of the People of God. In a sense, the Church does not have a mission that is something added to it as an appendix, but by her very nature: she is mission! And the more we become church, the sign of unity between God and man, the more we become missionaries!

In fact, the whole of the New Testament affirms that the project of God on the humanity is to recognize that all are and should live as a single family: the universal mission of the church.

Before he died, Jesus prayed: "That all are one: as you, Father, you are in me and me in you that they are also one in us, so that the world believes that you sent me. " (Jn. 17, 21-23).

To carry out the unity between God and man and man, with one another, has been the reason of the life and death of Jesus:

"Jesus should die... to gather in unity all the children of God that were dispersed" (Jn. 11, 51-52)

"... and there will be a single flock and a single Shepherd" (Jn. l0, 16)

The first Christian had captured the novelty and centrality of the commandment of the love, of which the unity is consequence. For that reason:

"The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common." (Acts 4, 32)

At the same time, like in all human coexistence, the conflicts never lacked in the Christendom, Paul reiterately exhorts to the concord, the harmony and the peace:

"Don't the jealousies and discords among you, maybe prove that you are still in the flesh and do you behave in a purely human way?. ' (1 Cor. 3,3)

"Proceed in everything without gossips nor discussions. ' (Phil. 2, 14)

"Live in harmony with one other." (Rom. 12,16)

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you." (2 Cor. 12, 20)

'Love each other, live in harmony and in peace. ' (2 Cor. 13, 11)

"Don't have divisions among you, live in perfect harmony, having the same way of thinking and of feeling... Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor. 1, l0.13)

The necessity of unity has its foundation in the same life of God, and in its project on the Church and on humanity who is called to be a one in Christ:

'All of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3, 28)

"And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body." (Col. 3, 15)

"With diverse functions all of us form a single Body in Christ" (Rom. 12, 5)

'We all have been baptized in one Spirit to form one Body" (1 Cor. 12, 13)

As you see, the permanent tension toward the unity is, for the Christian, a demand of the Will of God. It arises from the center of the Christian message.

In his encyclical, John Paul II wrote: The prayer of Jesus in the Upper Room _ "as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us" (Jn 17:21) _ is both revelation and invocation. It reveals to us the unity of Christ with the Father as the wellspring of the Church's unity and as the gift which in him she will constantly receive until its mysterious fulfillment the end of time” through our cooperation. If it is a gift, the Pope said that: “Christ's prayer reminds us that this gift needs to be received and developed ever more profoundly.” (no. 49)

So, what is important in mission is that we should be first what we should be, a community of disciples – to be church. Evangelization is first of all to do something but to be, to be one with God and with one another. From our being, then flows our mission. We cannot give what we do not. We could never bring people closer to God if we are not with God ourselves and with one another. As Cardinal Sin once said when we were seminarians in UST, one cannot talk about God if he is not talking to God. Communion with God gives rise to mission, it is the source of our mission.

So we need to think what Vatican II said: “Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion.”(AA, 32)

Cardinal Francis Van Thuan when he was imprisoned realized that evangelization and his mission is to be one with God rather than do the works of God. One thing is the work of God, that is, our mission, another thing is to God Himself.

Without this oneness with God and with one another, which is the basic form of evangelization (which is itself the prime form of charity), the proclamation of the Gospel risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today's society of mass communications. " (Ut unum sint, no. 50). St. Peter said: “Ante omnia mutuam in vosmet ipsos caritatem continuam habentes.” Above everything, love one another earnestly. (1Pe 4:8)

Situation of the Word Today

If we consider the state of the world today, we will see that it really looks like Pope Benedict XVI – highly qualified to give this analysis – described it while still a Cardinal.

In his homily at the conclave’s opening Mass, he said:

“How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. ... The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves – thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what St. Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw people into error (cf. Eph 4:14). Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.”[1] This was all Cardinal Ratzinger.

John Paul II, in addition, did not hesitate to draw a parallel between the dark night of John of the Cross and the darkness of our times, which, as a sort of collective night, has progressively fallen over humanity, especially in the West.

In fact, we no longer turn to God to resolve our problems and find answers to our deepest questions. He is no longer part of our daily lives.

We note with concern that Christian values are increasingly losing their hold and that people only rarely declare themselves Christians.

Therefore, we live in a world in which God stands out for his absence and the Gospel is no longer considered the source of ethical standards. In fact, few people view the Church as “mater et magistra”.

The feast days prescribed by the Church continue to be celebrated with the same names, but they are losing their religious significance.

John Paul II observed that our world is becoming increasingly fatherless, considering that many families never had a father figure, or that the father disappeared at a certain point, with consequent insecurities and disorientation in the children.

There is division between the rich and the poor, between politicians, between the north and the south, between political and economic ideologies, there are many dysfunctional families due to migration. But we don’t need to go far, there is division within among Christians, among catholics: between the priests and bishops, between parishioners and parish priests, between lay organizations and movements, and son on.

Moreover, according to the Pope Benedict XVI, today’s advancements in scientific and technological discoveries, so rapid and limitless, are such that ethics can no longer keep up with them, thus creating a dichotomy between common sense and wisdom, the mind and the heart, as in the invention of the atomic bomb or with genetic engineering. Consequently, humanity runs the risk of losing control over them.[2]

Thus the lament of the philosopher Maria Zambrano is still painfully true: we are living “one of the darkest nights ever seen.”[3]

This is a challenge for all of us in the church, priests and lay alike.

Towards a new understanding of our mission

A priest asked Benedict XVI's last July 24 in a question-and-answer session with priests from the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso, Italy, during the Pope's vacation:

Holy Father, one sentence you wrote in your book made a deep impression on me: "[But] what did Jesus actually bring if not world peace, universal prosperity and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: "God. He has brought God'" (Jesus of Nazareth, English edition, p. 44); I find the clarity and truth of this citation disarming. . . but what should we do so that this God, the one treasure brought by Jesus and who all too often appears hazy to many, shines forth anew in our homes and becomes the water that quenches even the thirst of the many who seem no longer to be thirsting?

The Pope answered:

I think that we should always be mindful of two things: on the one hand, the Christian proclamation. Christianity is not a highly complicated collection of so many dogmas that it is impossible for anyone to know them all; it is not something exclusively for academicians who can study these things, but it is something simple: God exists and God is close in Jesus Christ. . . . Jesus Christ himself said that the Kingdom of God had arrived. Basically, what we preach is one, simple thing. . . . But in practice what should be done? . . . to continue in this direction, bringing God implies above all, on the one hand, love, and on the other, hope and faith. Thus, the dimension of life lived, bearing the best witness for Christ, the best proclamation, is always the life of true Christians. If we see that families nourished by faith live in joy, that they also experience suffering in profound and fundamental joy, that they help others, loving God and their neighbour, in my opinion this is the most beautiful proclamation today. . . . [by] personalities who are penetrated by faith: the presence of God truly shines out in them and they bring the "living water" . . . . The fundamental proclamation is, therefore, precisely that of the actual life of Christians.” That is how our present Pope explains our mission in proclaiming God.

Yes, Jesus said: “Men will know that you are my disciples, not because we are members of DMI but if we love one another.” This comes from the commandment which is coming from the heart of Jesus and He has called His: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Love makes us one, it builds communion and this communion among the disciples of Jesus is the source of mission. In fact, John Paul II his document Novo Millennio Ineunte said: “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's deepest yearnings.” “. . . We need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed, wherever ministers of the altar, consecrated persons, and pastoral workers are trained. . .” (NMI, 43.)[4] To live communion is to live mutual love.

"A communitarian or collective spirituality”, said the Pope to a group of bishops last Feb. 16, 1996 (...) [is] a constitutive aspect of the Christian vocation. The Lord Jesus, in fact, did not call the disciples to an individual calling, but to one which is inseparably personal and communitarian. If this is true for all the baptized, it is true in particular for those who He has chosen "to be his companions and to be sent out to preach" ( Mk. 3:14-15 ), that is, for the apostles and their successors, the bishops.

“The Church, icon of the Holy Trinity, is the mystery of communion and sacrament of unity ( cf. Lumen Gentium. 1). The communion between its members is the primary and principal sign which it offers so that the world may believe in Christ (cf. Jn. 17:21). To be one in Christ is, so to speak, the first and permanent form of evangelisation which comes from the Christian community.

How do we make ourselves as a community? When Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us,

From the greatest commandment of “love of God and love of neighbor” to the “new commandment” there is a step forward in its content and mode of application which can be called new. In the occasion that he gave it, before He died, during the Last Supper, He no longer tells to love God or to love our neighbor; he no longer merely commands us to see him in our neighbor especially the suffering or to treat every stranger and even enemies our neighbor. When it comes to specifying what his love is, and how he wants Christian love to be, he says: “This is my commandment: love one another.”

In the rabbinical schools at that time, every teacher in Israel, gave his own particular theological, ascetical, spiritual and moral synthesis. From these characteristic norm one could distinguish the disciples of the various teachers. It is quite important, therefore, for Jesus' disciples to know which was the key point of their spiritual and moral life. They needed to know what way of life would make it clear to others that Jesus' disciples were followers of the one and Triune God who Christ had made known to them.

The new element is that Jesus not only states that love of neighbor is the greatest commandment - as he had declared before - but he says that it is his commandment. Here, other persons are no longer considered only as objects of our love, but as subjects capable of loving in return.

In the Last Supper Jesus makes all this clear to us by giving us his commandment and adding, “By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” (Jn. 13:35)

This sentence shed still more light on what Jesus means by love of neighbor. He wants us to love as He loves. It is not enough to be merely loving and polite or pleasantly agreeable, or to show signs of affection. Even a compassionate concern for others which leads to the giving of material goods is not sufficient. Human love, in all its fullness with all humaneness that it takes, is not enough. We must love as Jesus loves, with a heart both human and divine. That is why this is his commandment: because in order to carry it out we have to become God's children, “fellow citizen” of Christ, we must be taken into the life of the Trinity. It must become mutual, reciprocal.

Bringing it to its last consequence, “to love as Christ loves” means to consider the word “as”. “As” is only a two-letter word but it reveals the fullness of what should our love be towards one another. Christ loves us till the point of death, i.e., He loved us by offering His life for us. Christian love, therefore is no ordinary love. It is called “charity” not in the sense of works of mercy as giving alms, but as the love of God for man made manifest by Jesus who loved us till the end. This is the kind of love that is required in our love for one another - a love without measure, till the point of death. This means that I am willing to offer my life for my neighbor; and the other is also willing to offer his life for me. This is the apex of charity, this is the charity that exists in the trinity. It is also called agape.

Therefore, Jesus' commandment also contains the idea of reciprocity. Our love for our neighbor will not be full and perfect if it does not become reciprocal with other disciples of Jesus. If the other party who is also a subject of love does not also love which makes your love reciprocal, it would appear that both are not practicing the “new commandment.” When charity becomes mutual, both enter into the real apex of Christian life - truly we become Christ's disciples and He becomes present in them.

Seen in this perspective, human nature appears in a completely new light. It becomes much clearer that a bond exists between myself and my neighbor, that I need my neighbor, my fellow DMI to become a true witness. Alone I can never carry out this typically Christian commandment. Only in the context of a community or a group can I carry it out fully and completely.

Jesus did not say simply: “Each of you should love the others,” or “Love another one and another one and another” but rather: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Jesus wants the Church to be a community of persons who love. An individual, personal love for God or for our neighbor is not full and complete until it becomes reciprocal. This reciprocity of our love makes us a community of believers and by this, the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples and this itself becomes our being and the source of our mission. This is true because Jesus said, when two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst. There is the presence of the Risen Lord, when there is a community of persons who love one another as Jesus loves. That is why Jesus sent his disciples, two by two so that they could maintain this mutual love.

Chiara Lubich once said: “At times there is a tendency to think that the Gospel cannot solve every human problem and is intended to bring about the Kingdom of God only in a religious sense. But this is not true.

This is done by Jesus in us and amongst us, Jesus in me, Jesus in you…. It is Jesus in a person, in a given person – when his grace lives in that person – who builds a bridge, who opens a way. Jesus is the truest, most profound personality of every person.

Every human being (every Christian) is, in fact, more a child of God (another Jesus) than an offspring of his own father. Every person gives his/her particular contribution in every field as another Christ, as a member of his Mystical Body, whether it is in science, the arts, politics, communications, or other areas. And each one will be more effective if he/she works together with others united in the name of Christ. “

When this Trinitarian communion is established through mutual love, they become a living cell of the Body of Christ, we become Church. This communion which in reality is the presence of Jesus amongst us, then gives rise to our mission with a solid foundation in Christ in transforming the various fields of civil or ecclesial endeavor

“This is the continuation of the incarnation, the complete incarnation which concerns every Jesus of the Mystical Body of Christ. This is precisely your role: to make God again present in the world, various fields of human knowledge and endeavor, such as politics, economics, sociology, the natural sciences, communications, education, philosophy, the arts, healthcare, ecology, law, and still others. “

Some practical applications

In the field of economics, for example, because of the strong presence of God that it brings to people’s lives and the mutual love that grows among all, we could give rise to a communion of goods among those who live it, a communion similar to that practiced by the first Christians about whom it is said that “there was no needy person among them” (Acts 4:34).

The firms and businesses that could adhere to the project seek to apply the principles of Christian social doctrine, but especially to bring about the presence of Jesus in the midst of all those who work in the company.

When Christ takes hold of the reins of the economic world – and this will happen as an always greater number of people wisely place their life at his disposal – we can then hope to see the blossoming of justice and to witness the massive mobilization of goods that the world urgently needs.

“The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:53).

This could be social revolution and bridge the gap between the rich and poor. If the first Christian communities had realized this why not in this contemporary world where the richer becomes richer and the poor poorer?

As for the field of communications, we have always seen the powerful development of the means of social communications today as a sign of God’s providence because they facilitate the unity of the human family.

At the same time, it is obvious – and the facts confirm this – that these means alone cannot unite peoples and individuals, or improve their quality of life. They need to be means at the service of the common good and those who use them need to be inspired by love.

We have much to offer in this regard. The field of communication could nourish true love in people’s hearts, and consequently a real interest for each person and for all that concerns humanity. It teaches people to build lasting, constructive and creative relationships. It especially encourages the art of communicating, which is the art of “not existing,” so as to receive (to welcome the other, to be interested in what concerns him/her, in everything) and also to give (to speak, to write in the most opportune moment and way), by being love.

All of this ensures not only an authentic communication and consequently an appreciation for the means that make it possible, but also and above all for the fruits: sharing, participation and communion.

When an increasing number of professional communicators silence their ego in order to make room for the Spirit of God within them, then the mass media will show their capacity to infinitely multiply good, the voice of God will be more resonate in everyone and communication experts will carry out their vocation to be instruments of unity at the service of all humanity.

And then there is the world of politics. We could shed light on this field as in no other since it appears that it is always plagued by certain darkness.

Isn’t it the task of politics to compose into unity, into one sole harmonious design, the multiplicity, the legitimate aspirations of the different components of society? And given its role as mediator among the various social players, shouldn’t politics excel in the art of dialogue and of becoming one with everyone?

If politicians who make it their own, whatever party they belong to, (I know that there are some politicians among you) choose to put their love for one another before any personal commitment or interest and, because they do so, they are able to establish – not without sacrifice – the presence of Jesus in their midst, perhaps many things could be achieved in this field because of that light that comes from Jesus trough mutual love. In the atmosphere of mutual love which his presence requires and increases, the common good becomes evident.

Jesus who is light for the world enhances the elements of truth that can be present in the different viewpoints; he enlightens them.

But the good that will emerge if many politicians have the courage to put themselves and the powers conferred on them at the service of the ultimate goal, which is God.

Then we can really hope to see the realization of that mutual love among peoples which brings peace and the solution to the many problems that still trouble humanity.

In the field of education, if in every school there would be a community of educators who could witness love, not only mutual love amongst themselves but also towards their pupils and students, then many schools and classrooms would be filled with light of Jesus.

This is true to other fields, even in our ecclesial field. If we only start to truly love another even the members of other lay organizations or movements as our own, then a new springtime will continue to bloom in the church.

Allow me to say another story. This year I have celebrated the 25^th year of my priestly ministry. I recall with special memory a senior priest who told me, father when I was young, I wanted the world will believe and I worked for it. Now after many years, I realized that Jesus prayed “that all may be one so that the world will believe”. It came to me that belief, conversion, transformation of the world is a consequence of unity. To be one: Unity realized through mutual love, is first and prior. It is really the source of “so that the world will believe” and not other way round.

If we continue to journey along these ways with Jesus in our communion, then we will truly be able to say with Lawrence, a Roman deacon of the third century: “My night has no darkness, and all things are full of light to me.[5] In this way, we are really all missionaries! Thank you!

---

[1]. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily at the Mass pro eligendo romano pontefice, April 18, 2005.

[2]. See John Paul II, Homily on the occasion of the celebration in honor of St. John of the Cross, Segovia, 4 November 1982; Speech to the Carmelite General Chapter, Rome, 29 September 1989.

[3]. Maria Zambrano, Persona e democrazia, vers. It., Milano 2000, p. 2.

[4]. John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43.

[5]. St. Lawrence, Roman deacon, martyred in 258: “Mea nox obscurum non habet, sed omnia in luce clarescunt.”

September 1, 2007
Sampaguita Gardens
New Washington, Aklan