Cardinal Tagle's Opening Mass Homily at the 2018 Mid-Atlantic Congress

my dear brothers sisters in Christ I bring you warm greetings from the Philippines it's very warm there and I would like to thank Archbishop Laurie the other bishops and the whole Archdiocese of Baltimore and the organizers of this Congress for their kind invitation I'm very happy to be here and we should thank the Lord for gathering us as one community of faith so that we could be bearers of hope in our society in our families in our history this particular moment of history I know that this homily serves also as a keynote address I don't know how to blend the two so I suppose it will sound more like a homily than a keynote address and then we have workshops and other facilitators who could expound on the theme of the Congress which is hope spur alpha hope is there anyone here who's name is hope no Esperanza no oh beautiful words not used anymore as names we use other names non-biblical they come from the world of celebrity and everything but the biblical words that could define who I am and my mission so at least today all the women are all hope or Esperanza today or maybe until Saturday and all the males well speranza I don't know maybe for a name is not just label it is about identity and mission hope even in our spoken English we say there is a difference between wish wishing and hoping I wish that complete the sentence but you say I hope in the psalm says that happy are they who hope in God in scriptures and in the tradition of Christianity hope is a virtue that comes from God it is Grace we cannot produce hope by ourselves but it is called a theological virtue because the object of hope is God not anything I don't say at least if I am in my right mind and spirituality I don't say and I should not say I hope money I should not say I hope in power I hope in a businessman for it to be a theological virtue if it's directed at God I hope in God in the same way that faith is focused on God I believe in God and the theological virtue of love also is directed at God love God with all your mind with all your heart with all your soul and if hope true hope is in God then you live Pope Francis says do not rob me of life by rubbing me of Hope those who hope in God find a reason to live and also hope in God find the energy to live sir am I going too fast nobody's fighting where am i yes some people might say oh it is difficult to hope in God when life is miserable when we have violence left and right when we see many people without jobs without homes and I guess all of you are saddened by what happened in Florida children who go to school and what do they get violence so some question hope because there is so much negativity but when we look at the Scriptures especially the Scriptures we realize that the theological virtue of Hope blooms in the midst of darkness in absurdity in obscurity or what I often call the dilemmas of life very often we don't encounter only problems what we encounter daily our dilemmas for problems we find solutions but if you are wondering why some of your problems have not been solved maybe they are not problems maybe they are dilemmas and the dilemma is a problem that does not disappear and so you do not look for solution to dilemmas you look for people who's who have stories of hope the wives here may I know who are wives when you look at your husband what do you see a problem or a dilemma if he is a problem find the solution but if he is a dilemma you need hope [Applause] husbands ahahaha spies what do you see in your wives huh priests what do you see in your bishops okay very often our stands to the realities of life is problem-solving finding a solution and for all the genius and the advancing knowledge and technology problems remain maybe it is not so much solutions that we need we need hope we need hope so that we could live in the midst of the adversities of life Abraham he was told by God leave your homeland and he was advanced in age and then he was promised by God you will have many descendants absurd he could not even have a son with Sarah but abraham believed even what was absurd he believed not so much in the words but he believed in the one who made the promise he hoped in God and when Isaac was born God said okay sacrifice him if I were Abraham I would have said hey is you promised me countless descendants and they would all start with Isaac and now you want me to sacrifice him but thank God I am NOT Abraham abraham believed in the one who made the promise and the future happened the future which was the promise of god believing in the one who made the promise and god will have a future for you the blessed mother already quite secure in her engagement to joseph again you will bear assad I don't have I don't have a husband don't worry the holy spirit and she believed how absurd she trusted and she gave birth to the savior of the world and the future of humanity has been changed since so we find in scriptures the context were hope blossoms hope in God in the midst of distress where you can account on human wisdom you can account on human promises but we have God happy are they who hope in God this is the life that Moses talks about in the first reading before these relights Moses presented the choice life or death but where do they find life they find life if they will be faithful to God so if there is a profound relationship covenant relationship with God hope in God as they travel through the desert in their suffering if they hope in God they are choosing life but if they disobey God if they separate themselves from God if they worship other gods then they have actually chosen death so to hope in God is to live no wonder many people are experiencing death even when they are all still physically and biologically alive because they have chosen other gods idols and they have put their hope in idols then they don't experience fullness of life the choices be before us life or death in one conformation I explained to the candidates the young people that after confirmation they should show to the world that they have already chosen to live in Christ's life in Christ and so I gave them a test I'd ask them what is more important watching a TV show or praying and they said praying Osama there is hope and then I asked them or what will is your priority attending to video games or going to the Blessed Sacrament going to the Blessed Sacrament ha ha and then I asked them which is more valuable the Eucharist or three million dollars three million dollars yeah choosing life hope in God is quite difficult because that is not what our prevailing cultures teach especially the young in the gospel Jesus shows to us how that life is found he is the example his hope in God the God the Father who had sent him enabled him to integrate suffering to his mission he will be rejected by the elders the chief priests and the scribes and be killed but hope in God on the third day he will be raised again and he invites his disciples if you want to follow me if you want to come after me put your hope in God for me and my sake and the sake of the gospel are you ready to suffer to deny yourself lose yourself but you will gain life but if its life in Jesus again the choice is before us life or death hope or despair false hope we Christians are asked to make a powerful testimony to the world that even if we are worried concerned even if we suffer even if we know we will be rejected or be persecuted we have a reason to live because we have hope in God and this is not wishful thinking we can point to Jesus who had experienced it and without his hope he would not have carried the cross he would not have embraced death but it was the promise of God the one whom he called Abba Father that made him strong and he shares that life with us there are many people who are experiencing dilemmas and we don't need to go far we ourselves suffer almost daily but there are people who are suffering more than we do probably we think of victims of human trafficking the victims of human smuggling of exploitation specially online exploitation we have people who have no family to claim them we have people who are dispersed because of conflicts Wars that they do not understand but they are the first victims even as we speak there are 65 million refugees are forced migrants roaming around the world I have met many of them in my capacity as president of Caritas international they don't understand the national and international politics that have brought disaster and wars to their streets the only thing they know is that their houses are bombed and they had to escape for the sake of their families the forced migrants the refugees the victims of violence children like that 19 year old boy who lost his parents adoptive parents and probably had a lot of despair in his heart expressed in violence Jesus is asking us if you wish to come after me be a bearer of life show Hope showed the power of hope in God life in God to them and they will embrace it for that is what they need but will we open our eyes open our hearts will be open our hands to journey with them so that it will be a common journey of hope in God let me end with some stories and I promise you I'm ending now I visited the refugee camp in Greece that portion of Greece with a border the border near the border with the ex the former Yugoslavia of Macedonia and yeah that they according to Caritas Greece that day was quite slow because in one hour only only 1,500 refugees came that hour so it was a slow day I said slow they came from Syria Iraq Afghanistan there was even a family from Sudan so we helped distribute food medicine and it was noticeable that they came only with her clothing the clothing that they had on and the most precious to them their families and so unaccompanied minors really would catch your attention because they were walking alone and there was one boy a teenage boy I interviewed him and said where are you from and he understood some English and he said Syria Syria Syria that your parents where are they he said in Syria why are you alone why are they in area he said parents said go go when when I think of him I ask myself where is he now will he meet his parents again will they be reunited are his parents still alive and after the distribution of a food I went to the tent where they were held before they were allowed to cross the border and I saw him again and asked him the same questions and then he it was his turn to ask me are you a Muslim I said no I am a Christian he said she asked why do you take care of us why are you showing this caring this love for us his question opened the space for us to name Jesus taught us to love everyone and we know we know that action of feeding of warmth gave him a taste of hope that there must be some some mystery that cares for us and that makes us walk to life and when it was time to leave the camp I I did not know where the exit was as I was going around talking with people and there and I said oh wow I might get left behind so I asked people said so where where is the exit to the parking area and and the person said oh you're standing right at the exit and he pointed to a sign see that sign of course you're in Greece so it was in Greek and for the first time in my life I thanked my Greek professor my professor in biblical Greek as I saw the sign it said X adios Exodus the way out and I said oh whoa I'm standing beneath this sign so I sent a text message to the secretary-general of Caritas who was in Rome at that time I said Michelle you would not believe this I am standing in this camp beneath the sign that says Exodus and he responded then God must be there God must be there journeying with them I said yes God is here and finally I was in the summer camp for you the youth know every I'm sure it happens here during summer you have some activities for the young people so that particular year a camp focused on discovering one's purpose in life it was really a vocation campaign but we did not want to all it vocation camp nobody might come so so discovering the purpose of life etc so we got thousands of them so I gave a short talk about no it was more of a sharing and then we open the floor to questions the first question that I got was from a young girl and this was the question Bishop will you sing for us and I said nobody told me to that I would be required to sing I said please ask sensible questions related to the topic related to the topic of the of the year of the Congress you know so serious questions came then one young boy raised his hand and asked so Bishop will you sing for us so I said okay we will sing together I will start singing a popular song then join me so with the song finished you know in good Filipino tradition the young people flocked to the stage they asked for blessing you know like that or they asked for selfies or photos you know some as for autographs on their Bibles their notebooks and some as for autographs on their shirts no yeah one girl even said here I wanted here I said no no no no turn around people will wonder how did the signature of the of the British upland as I know no turn around here though the sleeves and but as this was going on this circus was going on I was I was asking myself what's happening here what what do they see in me do they see a bishop am i carrying myself like a bishop or am i a movie star what am i why are they asking me to sing and all of these things no why are they asking for autographs and but I just let it go the answer came a year later in a similar summer camp one boy approached me and said last year bishop you signed you you autographed my shirt I said oh yes yes I remember that he said I have not washed it since so he one year he the he said but every night I fold it I put it under my pillow I have not seen my father in years but with that t-shirt with your signature I know I belong to a family and I know I have a father in the priest in the darkness there is a reason to live if hope in God is manifested it could be through food shared or even through an autograph on a t-shirt Jesus invites us if you want to follow me then for God in God share life share life let us pause for a reflection on the readings and the beautiful theme of hoping in God so that there might be life and light in the world

Channel: Mid-Atlantic Congress

Views: 39,027

Keywords: Cardinal Tagle, MAC, Mid-Atlantic Congress, Opening Mass, Homily, 2018 MAC

Id: oFJR_B8aDwY

Length: 33min 12sec (1992 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 28 2018