MATHILDE BECKERS
 (Homily delivered by His
Excellency Gaudencio B. Rosales, Archbishop of
Manila during the Funeral Mass for Mathilde Beckers
on April 7, 2004 at the chapel of the Notre Dame
de Vie Institute in Novaliches.)
“If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” (John 11:40)
These words were addressed to Martha and Mary, not
just to console them, but to assure them that they
can look beyond their sorrow and at the loss of their
loved one. The glory of God is far greater than the
life of their brother Lazarus. And Jesus is inviting
the sisters to look beyond the familiar face of a cherished
one.
This morning we already are looking farther than the
familiar figure, for us, too small to be German, and
very Filipina-like (in the Twenties) with her hair
perpetually fixed in a bun. Our faith has taught us
to see, after the passing away of this woman, that
Mathilde is more than what she has always appeared
to be.
For those who believe the glory of
God is seen in this woman.
For us who know her only as a friend and collaborator
in the vineyard of innumerable ministries in the Philippines
and for those who sat in many of her classroom lectures,
we see only the other end of Ms. Beckers’ Christian
life. We see her as “in mission” for the
Church of Jesus Christ right here in our country. As
a committed member of the Institute of Notre Dame de
Vie, she was sent to the Philippines in 1963 by no
less than the founder of the same Institute, the Reverend
Fr. Marie Eugene of the Child Jesus.
Forty-one years in mission “ad extra” from
her native Aachen in Germany, forty-one years in the
Philippines, so very long years that she became almost
like a native Filipina in her love for the local Church
and her dedication to train teachers and catechists.
A story was told of Ms. Beckers organizing young students
from MLQU (Manuel L. Quezon University ) in the Sixties,
getting them to attend a session where the young can
listen to the word of God, pray and share among themselves
the fruits of their reflections. “If only the
young can hear of and love the one God” she would
mumble to herself.
Such a zeal for the word of God and for the young
can only grow into something that should reach out
to more young people and more experienced teachers
trained to become well informed, better prepared, zealous
and contemplative (praying) catechists. MOTHER OF LIFE
CENTER, attached --- more than just academically ---
to Notre dame de Vie, became an important and influential
Catechetical School. The spirit, the character, the
professionalism and the prayer imbibed in the institute
are like “brand names” that more than 1,200
MOLians take with them wherever they go and wherever
they serve as “re-echoers” of the Word
that is Jesus the Christ.
Mother of Life is MS. Mathilde Beckers
We say this because for more than a generation MOTHER
OF LIFE CENTER is MS. MATHILDE BECKERS. We say nothing
more of her pioneering efforts to supervise, teach,
administer, write those letters to benefactors, and
as the saying goes, “bring home the bacon” for
Mother of Life.
But all these are only Mathilde Beckers in mission.
We never saw her moment of call, her first years in
the Christian commitment and her “calling to
the desert” in the midst of the world that was
trying to grow up from the rubbles of war, then the
world of Mathilde in West Germany. She saw the cruelty
and the insanity of war right where it started. And
already amidst all these insanities Mathilde was already
a servant for the Youth Movement in Germany during
the Nazi occupation. And in between that attraction
and call to help the young and her mission, there intervened
a critically important stage for Mathilde, a condition
she brought with her from that moment of call in Germany
to her mission here. It is a way of silence converted
into a way of life. It is a presence before whom she
was always present. It is a way of communing with the
Lord wherein she is always a receiver.
Only an apostle can say “love
the church”
In many of this wordless communion, exposed powerless
before the love of God, Mathilde, the disciple and
learner, became an apostle. These countless intervening
quiet moments made the difference between Mathilde
Beckers’ simple call in Aachen and the mission
that the good Lord Jesus has now crowned in heaven,
even with her moral remains here with us in the NDV
Chapel in Barrio San Agustin, Novaliches, Quezon City.
When she said—and we were told that in her last
conscious though weak moments she made a plea—“Tell
the catechists to love the Church,” Miss Beckers
was not only re-echoing the words of NDV’s founder. “We
must have a deep love for the Church”, or merely
restating “I am a daughter of the Church” as
the words of St. Teresa of Avila.
No!
Mathilde Beckers was not only a catechist. Prayer
and contemplation made her an apostle. She served Jesus
as one sent to teach. And as one who had done this
work for Jesus Christ in the Church, Ms. Mathilde Beckers,
like any apostle, could more than say…”Serve
the Church .” To all of us she has now the right
to say “Love the Church.”
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