2021 LENTEN RECOLLECTION WITH CARDINAL TAGLE

we bring you warm greetings here from rome from the pontificio collegio filipino and i would like to thank our kabayan archbishop rolly for the kind invitation to be part of this recollection to tell you the truth my original outline was uh a bit focused on the archdiocese of caseres which is a very kind act on the part of the archdiocese of kasires so since this is a recollection i would just offer a few points and would urge you to really pray if there are helpful elements in the points that i will share thanks be to god if nothing in the recollection or in my points uh inspired you or will inspire you never mind the lord can communicate with you uh through the bible and through your heart the theme is a gifted to give mission today and beyond 500 years of christianity wow uh we need one year to reflect on this but this is not just a theme given to us i think it is a calling and especially for the church in the philippines the call to take seriously our missionary vocation in asia and now in other parts of the world evangelization sharing the good news of jesus christ i have here three points paul three points for our meditation the first is the first part of the theme gifted to give bimiya wow this part of the theme is is a reality it is a calling but you know it could pose a temptation some of us could be tempted to be proud wow i am a giver a s i have the gifts that you need i will come to you i will give you now let us reflect on that gifted the word gifted means that we have been given a gift or gifts and the gift comes from somebody else a gift is not self-produced a gift is not self-made when we talk of a gift there is somebody else outside of me who for many different reasons and hopefully out of graciousness gave me this gift in fact even our capacity to give is god's gift to us my dear brothers and sisters i have a question on this part of the reflection do we still have this consciousness of gift this consciousness of recognizing gifts from others and the consciousness of receiving a gift is it still present in us or even insulted to receive gifts are we tempted to feel insulted to ask to beg to knock and to receive i am asking this because there seems to be a prevailing attitude in our world right now which says everything should be my achievement nakayama so we work hard in order to achieve our goal is success and we rely only on ourselves but a person who relies only on oneself slowly loses appreciation for gifts but without the sense of gift and the humility to receive gifts there will be no gratitude in life we won't feel grateful to anyone imagine a world where there is no sense of gift just to ask you what did you eat this morning for breakfast well i had here in the collegial i had rice and scrambled eggs but i did not plant the rice i did not harvest the rice i didn't go out fishing i did not raise the the chicken that produced the egg everything that i ate this morning is a gift of god a gift of creation a gift of laborers imagine if i do not recognize gifts i will say oh [Music] i will not trust anymore i will be suspicious i will not appreciate when we lose the sense of gift and the humility of receiving gift we are not surprised anymore the bayou gifts part of of of receiving and opening a gift is wow surprise and that makes you uh joyful but without surprise there is no joy we will not trust anyone we will not pray to god we will not need god we will not need neighbors the only thing that we will do is to work work work for success i will work work work for self-fulfillment because i refuse to receive gifts i can do it by myself there is no room in my life for gifts i am strong gifts are only for the weak and the low achievers i can do it but if life is like that no sense of gift even my work is directed only to self-fulfillment and to whom will i become accountable to whom will i answer if i know and i recognize the giver of a gift i hopefully will use the gift according to the desire of the giver i am accountable to the giver but if i do not recognize gift and giver to whom will i be accountable to no one i will just satisfy my own desires in the end i am accountable only to myself i will not answer to anyone else neither to god neither to neighbor neither to creation i can do what i want my dear brothers and sisters i spent a bit of time on this because i always here gifted to give gifted to give gifted to give but my question is are we ready to receive gifts and this painful question have we already received the gift of faith self-achievement proving one's worth rather than appreciating gift is not the true spirit of mission the true spirit of mission comes from a humble grateful and joyful acceptance of a gift something that i did not produce and cannot produce but i rejoice i am humble before the gift and my joy my mission is motivated not by a desire to prove my worth or to prove myself but it is motivated by gratitude the joy of sharing the gift let us turn to the apostles our models in mission and evangelization for example in the acts of the apostles chapter 3 verse 6 peter and john went to the temple and there was a crippled man who was begging what did peter say he said i have neither silver nor gold but what i have i give you in the name of jesus christ the nazarean walk now peter says in the name of jesus christ he recognizes that it is not his name it is not the name of simon peter that has the authority the power to effect a healing it is jesus who shared his power with his disciples and that must be part of our mission and our pastoral life whatever authority we exercise whatever responsibility we exercise is the gift of the lord i cannot baptize validly on a sunday or every day by saying i baptize you in the name of louise antonio tagle that's not true baptism no i must recognize the gift of the grace that comes only from the trinity another example acts 14 8 to 18 saint paul was able to perform a healing ministry a miracle in the name of jesus and the people who saw the miracle thought that he was a god and they wanted to offer him sacrifices as though he was a god now what did saint paul say he told the people we are only men human like you we are bringing you the good news we are not bringing ourselves we are not here to be recognized by you we are not here to be praised by you and definitely we are not here to be worshipped by you we are simple bringers of the good news of somebody else jesus christ not only the church in the philippines but even the original apostles they had the sense of gift and the moment they lose that sense of gift it is no longer mission it is self-promoting it is simply work in order to prove myself this year and beyond beyond the 500th anniversary let us preserve the true sense of mission the true sense of evangelization by avoiding pride self-adulation self-praise let us avoid the temptation to do things in order to be noticed to be praised like what we heard from jesus in matthew 6 that just uh last ash wednesday when you pray when you give alms when you fast do not do all of these things for people to notice you for people to praise you no that's not mission today and tomorrow mission rests on the humility the humility to receive the gift and the gift is not something the gift is jesus jesus himself his gospel his kingdom jesus is the father's gift to us jesus was even though he's the son of god jesus was very much aware that he received everything from the father there's nothing that he said or did that he did not receive from the father and now the gift that he has received from the father first the word of god he gives to us he says in matthew 28 teach them to carry out everything i have commanded you so my dear brothers and sisters from today onwards receive again the word of god not our word let us not uh write a new a new uh a new gospel the gospel is jesus and his gift to us and we teach as a gift what he has commanded us another thing the sacraments especially the eucharist in matthew 26 verse 21 jesus said take this eat of this this is my body this is my blood the blood of the covenant to be poured poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins his body his blood is his gift to us and in the version of saint john the last supper he washed the feet of his disciples that's a eucharistic action service of neighbor and what did jesus say do this in remembrance of me you have received the gift now do it but not not according to your terms but do it in remembrance of me in memory of me so receiving jesus's jesus as a living memory and then after the washing of defeat he said as i have done so you should do okay let us receive jesus's washing of defeat his service and then we give it also as a gift to others charity service jesus said as the father has loved me so i loved you live on in my love so even the love that we should give to others is a gift from jesus and this love he has received from the father so it's gift upon gift grace upon grace and even mission jesus says as the father has sent me so i send you my dear brothers and sisters crucial today and tomorrow is our ability our humility to receive the gift jesus his word his presence his eucharist his justice his service his charity the question is do we consider him as a gift is he a gift to us i see a sister doing the sign language sister am i talking too fast should i slow down so that you can catch up or is it okay okay okay i go now to the second point after looking at this important element of receiving the gift with jesus now our growth in humble mission we said that receiving a gift requires humility and sharing the gift should remain an act of humility uh you know when we go out of our homes of our parishes and especially those who have had experience of going to places where christians are a minority you know or countries that are not considered uh predominantly christian like the philippines now we we are the third largest christian country in the world in terms of numbers of christians the third in the world and the largest uh christian population in asia but when we go out we see that some people who are not baptized some who have not heard the gospel some of them live out the qualities that the lord expects of his disciples because of my work with caritas and also with the with the present congregation for evangelization of peoples i have visited what we call young churches or mission territories i've been to a district in nepal in nepal where not a single christian is found not a single christian in that area but they were so good they were so loving they were respectful they embraced us like we were kings and queens you find in some places that are labeled as non-christians people who are just people who are righteous people who think of others people who are honest people who admit their faults and whereas in so-called christian countries including our own beloved philippines we see attitudes behaviors structures systems ways of doing things that are counter witness to the gospel we see corruption we see infidelities see abortion and in some so-called christian countries we see an open attack on christian teaching they would rather side with new ways of thinking and philosophies etc you know and ridicule christian teaching this is a reality this is a reality and i guess it is part of the gift the gift as saint paul says we are earthen vessels and this brokenness that we have this fragility that we have is to make us aware that the power the gift does not come from us of our missionary engagement is to encounter people who will make us realize that we need continuing evangelization no missioner no gifted should ever claim i am already a christian i am already evangelized there is nothing more that i could receive because i am already a full perfect christian anyone who says that does not live in the truth we should admit that there is always an unbeliever there is always a sinner in each one of us in each one of us there is always a spot that needs to be evangelized over and over again we need to receive the gift over and over again and part of god's ways of making us humble and dynamic in receiving ourselves evangelization to be open to be evangelized is the mysterious witness that the non-believers could give to us but this is not surprising he didn't he didn't bargo even jesus during his time look jesus praised many outsiders those who did not belong to the faith of the jewish people no he praised this syrophoenician woman for her faith jesus conversed with a samaritan woman jesus praised a centurion these were people who were considered outsiders or even pagan but jesus saw true faith in them the faith that he did not see in the temple officials in the scribes in the pharisees jesus is teaching us in our evangelized evangelizing mission our eyes must be open to the ways by which god continues to evangelize us by saying this then we realize mission evangelization is not a proud imposition on enforcing forcing the gift i mean is destroying the gift and that's what we call proselytism mission is not judging others while pretending to be perfect humble mission is the joyful and grateful conviction that jesus the gift of the father must be shared must be shared needs to be shared he is the good news and i need to see the good news which the holy spirit shares with me even through surprising agents we go on mission not to force people not to coerce not to bend their wills that is violence we engage in mission simply because we have good news and out of love we want to share the good news every good news deserves to be shared [Music] graduates share the good news good news good news that is shared is bad news unfortunately we easily share bad news we easily share fake news evangelization and the motive is not to force anyone but just to share and if they've reached faith in the lord that is god's gift it is not a product of my achievement i should not say i was the one who made a christian out of that person no no it is a gift of god his or her faith that's not my success story like saint paul in 1 corinthians 9 19-23 he just said i made myself the slave of all to the jew i became a jew to the greek i became greek why so that the good news could be shared in the hope that some of them would be saved but who will save them the lord jesus christ not saint paul in philippians chapter 1 15 uh and following even up to uh verse 18 you know uh the enemies of saint paul were preaching christ but the christ which is uh i mean their approach is quite different from saint paul's approach but saint paul says all that matters is that christ is being proclaimed that is what brings me joy even if my enemy preaches christ okay as long as christ is preached that is my joy he does not say abba evangelist the credit comes to me no that's not mission that's ambition for saint paul even his enemies could be proclaimers of the gospel and for him as long as jesus is preached he is happy so our role is to continuously receive jesus be transformed by jesus we need to be evangelized we need to receive the gift over and over again and our mission is to share the gift through a credible witness of life through service and charity and when needed with words we need those words but nowadays nowadays it is by the living word by a credible and consistent way of life and in some parts of the world were saying the word is even illegal no do not stop sharing the word share it through your actions share it with your love share it through the surprise that your service uh renders to you i remember when i visited a refugee camp in uh in lebanon uh and they were all non-christians in the refugee camp when we arrived the head of the refugee camp he looked like the patriarch now of the group approached me and asked you are not one of us you you are not of this islamic faith or religion but why why do you why do you care for us why do you feed us why do you show us love and concern why and i thought he was opening the door for me to proclaim the gift that we have received i told him our lord and master jesus christ told us to love everyone everyone and uh he gave me the opportunity to evangelize he looked at us and wanted to know the secret of our joy of our love we did not have to force the gift he asked for the gift and then we shared the gift but i tell you i learned a lot from him too in a way he was used by the holy spirit you know to uh show me what true caring means we need to be evangelized over and over again the bishops of asia said that evangelization in asia where we are a minority should be done through a dialogue of life we proclaim jesus in the form of dialogue we do not proclaim with pride or proselytism we proclaim in the mode of humble dialogue of life and we hope that today up to uh the second coming of christ we filipinos would be humble in continuing uh need for evangelization the need for continuing evangelization the openness to be evangelized and also to learn how to dialogue debate club we are always talking about sending people to missions evangelization debaters rather than dialogue partners and it is when we say we defend our faith it doesn't mean we have to be cruel no that we need to be like the people who are hurting us we are sending you as uh lambs or doves in the midst of wolves so uh let us learn that now i go to my third and last point nepal third and last point uh from i think since vatican 2 19 the late 1960s the success different popes from saint paul vi up to uh today pope francis they have been reminding the church in the philippines of our missionary vocation in asia and the rest of the world we have been gifted with the gospel now share the gospel in a dialogue of life in the dialogue of life in continuing conversion but sharing the gift now some people might say why will we send missionaries priests religious or even lay missionaries we also have our needs here ediba charity begins at home why will we think of others a home and that means nothing needs nothing nothing needs and the response that i always hear is yes charity begins at home but it should not end at home and besides besides we're talking of mission sharing the good news sharing the gift and the desire to share gifts to others is not blocked by one's needs if we wait for the time when all of our needs have been met before we share with others that time will not come up i will wait for all my needs to be met first before i attend to the needs of others that is another way of saying i will not go on mission i will not share the gift sharing even in our poverty that's mission sharing even in our need that's mission mission should not be done only by those who have an abundance and then they send because the gift must be shared we share and our model is jesus christ in philippians chapter 2 he freely lovingly emptied himself of his glory order to become a simple human being to be one of us becoming poor saint paul in the second letter to the corinthians chapter 8 he says that jesus though he was rich became poor so that we may become rich in his poverty and so it is this dynamics you know if you want to give a gift be ready to be poorer but that is not your your you don't calculate you don't calculate you just want to share the gift this is the practice of the early church in acts 2 42-47 and acts 4 32-35 the christian community shared their gifts with one another such that there was no one in need among them in 1 corinthians 16 1-4 and in 2 corinthians 8 1 and following we find saint paul begging the christians in corinth in macedonia and everywhere to take up a collection to help the church in jerusalem now saint paul praised these churches because he knew they were also poor they were also in need but the calling of love the calling of brothers and sisters makes us share makes us compassionate and less calculating now i am very happy to see here in rome when i left the philippines now some people were saying oh uh you have a new mission okay thank you some say oh you are being promoted i say oh wait wait wait wait [Laughter] bucket promotion and in the egypt you know i said in one event i said now i will be an overseas filipino worker and i tell you in many parts of the world especially those being served by the propaganda feeder the greatest missioners of the philippine church no may be unplanned maybe unexpectedly no our great missioners our gifts are our overseas filipino workers they left our country they left families with much pain with with much uh sorrow and that does not disappear even when they have reached already their country of destination but they live in order to find a job so that they could support their families back home but you know in god's hand in god's mighty hand in god's gracious hand this search for job has become [Music] a missionary movement in many parts of the world especially in parts of the world where christians are a minority churches are are being filled up by filipino migrants they are our great missioners and we hope that today and in the future we will form form missioners the pandemic the pandemic no the kovid19 pandemic has caught us by surprise and we realized that we really need to form people to become missioners when restrictions happen like the families the families need to be formed as transmitters of the faith among themselves parents you know we thank our catechists unfortunately because there are some catechists already you know some parents say i will not teach catechism anymore to my and hopefully parents who are trained in the homes to be catechists if in the future they become ofw's or they they migrate no uh to other places they already are trained to transmit the faith our bec's our small christian communities that should be also a place like a school of missionary engagement begin in your locality reflection on the word of god gift of god the word of god prayer gift of god and then reflect and what does the word of god tell you that is already a missionary evangelizing preparation and then sharing joy [Music] we are bearers of good news our doctors our nurses we hope we could make them not only and we appreciate their medical uh heroism at this time but we i think could train them to be missionaries of god's compassion [Music] health worker he embraced the child as his own and you see that this is not just function it is not just work it is an evangelizing moment but do we offer this evangelizing formation to doctors nurses our teachers our schools how about our politicians how about our artists our actors actresses the young people look up to them can we train our actors and actresses to be missionaries of the good news of justice of fairness of love and service so that when young people look up to them they see a living gospel the world of sports the military the police the business sector now that everyone is experiencing some financial uh difficulties could we make the economy more of sharing of gift rather than working for profit alone the social teachings of the church the goods of the earth must be shared with everyone and the refugees who are inviting us to journey with them today and beyond 500 years we should be open to what the lord sends us but today whatever your state of life may be receive the gift and prepare yourself to be an evangelizer wherever you are in your life in your career be a recipient of the gift who is jesus and with joy share that gift let me end here this is a really a historic moment for us as we give thanks to the lord let us be filled with humility and let us continue receiving the gift we do not produce the faith we must receive it so that we have something to share with others for no other reason than the joy the sharing of the joy that we have experienced in jesus so that jesus joy may be full and so that the world may share in the justice the love the truth and the peace that he wants us to possess thank you very much to everyone please continue reflecting on this thank you your eminence for the powerful and encouraging reminder that because we are so blessed and gifted with so much we can share we can give and we can continue on the mission here in the philippines and beyond our borders and now let us listen to the message of our beloved archbishop of casares his grace most reverend rolando j triatirona ocd well it is very obvious that my message is a message of gratitude actually your eminence uh there are more than four thousand who are watching us now not just in casares but in so many dioceses no and as usual every time you share with us it's always a sharing of inspiration to our spirits it is always a refreshment refreshing our minds and especially very encouraging for us the different challenges you [Music] gave us to us though so thank you for challenging us to reawaken that sense of give being gifted by god you know and salama then for challenging us to continue growing now bacteria so to say bask in our laurels to say but we should continue in humility in everything humility you know evangelize and of course you can challenge that we should never tire and be afraid and be slow in sharing so maraming salamat your eminence for your wonderful sharing i'm sure so many are happy so many are awakened and so many are encouraged and challenged though sangalan put an office of the missions sargalam puerto rice of casares so we thank you so much graciabili and we can only say we will pray that god may bless you in the manner he knows best boy god [Laughter] regards and all your community there and father andrew is with us here yes yes yes thank you evidence god bless you for the blessing thank you god bless bishop thank you very much archbishop and for the final blessing may we call on cardinal taglia again please the lord be with you and with your may the lord bless you and keep you may the lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you may the lord look upon you kindly and grant you peace in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen before we go

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Id: l3zgMe3_2NA

Length: 60min 36sec (3636 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021