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Three
Secrets
Excerpt
from the homily delivered by His Excellency, Most Rev.
Socrates Villegas, DD during the Eucharistic Celebration
on the first day of ECCCE’s National Catechetical
Convention held on January 10-12, 2007 at St. Michael
Retreat House, Antipolo City.
Reflecting
on the gospel text, in the context of our gathering
annually to celebrate our communio in the catechetical
ministry, the Lord gives to us a few secrets that we
hope would be helpful for our ministry in the Church.
The
first secret, the secret of power of Jesus. The secret
power of Jesus is PRAYER. The secret power of Jesus
is communio with the Holy Spirit. On the day he was
baptized by St. John at the Jordan, a voice was heard
and the Holy Spirit was seen hovering over Jesus and
throughout his life. Among all the men and women who
ever walked this earth, it was Jesus who did not have
to pray because He is God. And yet among all the men
and women who ever walked this earth, it is Jesus who
prayed the most ...
My
dear brothers and sisters, our first power in the catechetical
ministry is prayer. Not techniques, not materials but
prayer. Not connections with the malakas in the government
but prayer. Not pastoral plans and projects but prayer.
We may be influential in society but if we have lost
the taste, the fervor for prayer, we are actually miserably
powerless in our ministry.
The
second secret of Jesus is his secret LOVE. His secret
love is the poor. That is why he cured the sick, that
is why he raised the dead, that is why he consoled
the confused. Because the poor are the secret love
of Jesus. Unfortunately, my dear brothers and sisters,
the poor will not always come to us naked, dirty and
hungry. Sometimes the poor comes to us well-dressed
and fragrant because St. Teresa of Calcutta says, "there
is a new poverty that is arising in the world, it is
the poverty of the affluents. People have something
to eat, people have clothes for the body, but they
are poor.
My
dear sisters and brothers let that be a secret love
of everyone in the catechetical ministry, the poor.
Secret love because we are ready and willing to die
for them, to lay for them.
The
third secret of Jesus is secret mission.
His secret mission is healing. He came so that sins
may be forgiven. In the gospel, he healed people left
and right, front and back, everybody who touched Jesus
received healing. Our ministry is not only a ministry
of the Word, our ministry is not only a ministry of
formation. You and I have experienced being entrusted
with young people, who cannot seem to assimilate or
digest what we teach. Then later on we discover they
are so wounded in childhood, so wounded in their life,
so wounded in the family, that they cannot assimilate
the Good News anymore.
The
secret mission that we have is not just that we increase
the statistics of first communicants and pre-sacramental
catechesis. At the end of the day, our catechesis must
lead to the healing of all.
Secrets
for us: Our secret power is prayer, our secret love
is the poor and our secret mission is the healing
of all in everything that we do in the catechetical
ministry, in our various regions, in our various centers.
Pray, my dear sisters and brothers, that we may keep
as the priority of our hearts: the primacy of
prayer, the preference to the poor and the mission
of healing because these are the priorities, these
are the preferences of the Lord Jesus himself.
I
invite you to enter into silence and in the secrecy
of our hearts may we find these three secrets ready
for living out in our lives.
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