Vatican City, 16 January 2015 (VIS) –
The Holy Father made the five-kilometre journey from the Presidential
Palace to the Cathedral of Manila by car, arriving shortly before 11
a.m. The Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate
Conception, is considered the mother of all the churches of the
Philippines. The current structure dates from the 1950s when the
status of Minor Basilica was granted by St. John Paul II, but the
Cathedral has been rebuilt eight times since its initial construction
in 1581. It has been destroyed by a typhoon, a fire, various
earthquakes, and bombing during the Second World War. It was rebuilt
entirely as a result of private donations from major businesses and
from the faithful. Closed since 2012, it reopened in April 2014 with
a solemn celebration by Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, archbishop of
Manila, attended by senior state figures including the president of
the Republic, Benigno Aquino III.
The Pope celebrated Mass with the
bishops, priests, religious and seminarians of the Philippines,
during which he pronounced the following homily:
“'Do you love me? … Tend my
sheep'. Jesus’ words to Peter in today’s Gospel are the first
words I speak to you, dear brother bishops and priests, men and women
religious, and young seminarians. These words remind us of something
essential. All pastoral ministry is born of love. All pastoral
ministry is born of love! All consecrated life is a sign of Christ’s
reconciling love. Like St. Therese, in the variety of our vocations,
each of us is called, in some way, to be love in the heart of the
Church.
“I greet all of you with great
affection. And I ask you to bring my affection to all your elderly
and infirm brothers and sisters, and to all those who cannot join us
today. As the Church in the Philippines looks to the fifth centenary
of its evangelisation, we feel gratitude for the legacy left by so
many bishops, priests and religious of past generations. They
laboured not only to preach the Gospel and build up the Church in
this country, but also to forge a society inspired by the Gospel
message of charity, forgiveness and solidarity in the service of the
common good. Today you carry on that work of love. Like them, you are
called to build bridges, to pasture Christ’s flock, and to prepare
fresh paths for the Gospel in Asia at the dawn of a new age.
“'The love of Christ impels us'. In
today’s first reading Saint Paul tells us that the love we are
called to proclaim is a reconciling love, flowing from the heart of
the crucified Saviour. We are called to be 'ambassadors for Christ'.
Ours is a ministry of reconciliation. We proclaim the Good News of
God’s infinite love, mercy and compassion. We proclaim the joy of
the Gospel. For the Gospel is the promise of God’s grace, which
alone can bring wholeness and healing to our broken world. It can
inspire the building of a truly just and redeemed social order.
“To be an ambassador for Christ means
above all to invite everyone to a renewed personal encounter with the
Lord Jesus. Our personal encounter with Him. This invitation must be
at the core of your commemoration of the evangelisation of the
Philippines. But the Gospel is also a summons to conversion, to an
examination of our consciences, as individuals and as a people. As
the Bishops of the Philippines have rightly taught, the Church in the
Philippines is called to acknowledge and combat the causes of the
deeply rooted inequality and injustice which mar the face of Filipino
society, plainly contradicting the teaching of Christ. The Gospel
calls individual Christians to live lives of honesty, integrity and
concern for the common good. But it also calls Christian communities
to create 'circles of integrity', networks of solidarity which can
expand to embrace and transform society by their prophetic witness.
“The poor. The poor are at the centre
of the Gospel, are at heart of the Gospel, and if we take away the
poor from the Gospel we cannot understand the whole message of Jesus
Christ. As ambassadors for Christ, we, bishops, priests and
religious, ought to be the first to welcome his reconciling grace
into our hearts. St. Paul makes clear what this means. It means
rejecting worldly perspectives and seeing all things anew in the
light of Christ. It means being the first to examine our consciences,
to acknowledge our failings and sins, and to embrace the path of
constant conversion, every day conversion. How can we proclaim the
newness and liberating power of the Cross to others, if we ourselves
refuse to allow the word of God to shake our complacency, our fear of
change, our petty compromises with the ways of this world, our
'spiritual worldliness'?
“For us, priests and consecrated
persons, conversion to the newness of the Gospel entails a daily
encounter with the Lord in prayer. The saints teach us that this is
the source of all apostolic zeal. For religious, living the newness
of the Gospel also means finding ever anew in community life and
community apostolates the incentive for an ever closer union with the
Lord in perfect charity. For all of us, it means living lives that
reflect the poverty of Christ, whose entire life was focused on doing
the will of the Father and serving others. The great danger to this,
of course, is a certain materialism which can creep into our lives
and compromise the witness we offer. Only by becoming poor ourselves,
by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will
we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters. We
will see things in a new light and thus respond with honesty and
integrity to the challenge of proclaiming the radicalism of the
Gospel in a society which has grown comfortable with social
exclusion, polarisation and scandalous inequality.
“Here I would like to say address a
special word to the young priests, religious and seminarians among
us. I ask you to share the joy and enthusiasm of your love for Christ
and the Church with everyone, but especially with your peers. Be
present to young people who may be confused and despondent, yet
continue to see the Church as their friend on the journey and a
source of hope. Be present to those who, living in the midst of a
society burdened by poverty and corruption, are broken in spirit,
tempted to give up, to leave school and to live on the streets.
Proclaim the beauty and truth of the Christian message to a society
which is tempted by confusing presentations of sexuality, marriage
and the family. As you know, these realities are increasingly under
attack from powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God’s plan
for creation and betray the very values which have inspired and
shaped all that is best in your culture.
“Filipino culture has, in fact, been
shaped by the imagination of faith. Filipinos everywhere are known
for their love of God, their fervent piety and their warm devotion to
Our Lady and her rosary; their love of God, their fervent piety and
their warm devotion to Our Lady and her rosary! This great heritage
contains a powerful missionary potential. It is the way in which your
people has inculturated the Gospel and continues to embrace its
message. In your efforts to prepare for the fifth centenary, build
on this solid foundation.
“Christ died for all so that, having
died in him, we might live no longer for ourselves but for him. Dear
brother bishops, priests and religious: I ask Mary, Mother of the
Church, to obtain for all of you an outpouring of zeal, so that you
may spend yourselves in selfless service to our brothers and sisters.
In this way, may the reconciling love of Christ penetrate ever more
fully into the fabric of Filipino society and, through you, to the
farthest reaches of the world”.
Following the Mass Pope Francis visited
a house belonging to the Tulay ny Kabataan Foundation, which provides
assistance to street children. He conversed with around three hundred
of the children during his twenty-minute visit, during which he was
moved by their gifts and displays of affection. He then returned to
the apostolic nunciature to dine and to take an hour's rest.
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