Nov

28

GOING FORWARD BEGINS WITH A DESIRE

Posted By reynor | Filed Under Quotes & Excerpts 

GOING FORWARD BEGINS WITH A DESIRE
+G.B. Rosales
(Homily delivered by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales at the Mass at the 2nd Manila Archdiocesan General Pastoral Assembly on October 20, 2007 at the La Salle Greenhills Gym at 8:30 a.m.)

Your excellencies Bishops Bernard Cortez, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary bishops in the Arch of Manila, Rev. Monsignori, My dear brother priests, my dear religious brothers and sisters, and the many, many, delegates coming from parishes, institutions all part of the local Church of God in Manila.

Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat.

Before anything, well allow me first to invite you to include in this Eucharist the victims of that terrorist, whatever it is, attack in Makati yesterday. Let’s pray for the souls of the departed, and in our way in prayers and kindness assist in consoling and praying for the families of the wounded victims.

We meet today in this De La Salle gym coliseum and even as we start allow me in your name and the Archdiocese to thank the La Salle brothers and the De La Salle Greenhills for allowing us again and again to use the De La Salle Greenhills gym coliseum free of charge. Brother Felipe Villeza you must be around please accept our thanks and let Brother Dodo Fernandez your provincial superior together with the rest of the La Salle Brothers Community and Family accept our thanks and gratitude. You truly make yourselves part and parcel of the Local Church. Salamat Po.

Everything is grace from God. Who would ever thought that now MAGPAS, the Manila Archdiocesan General Pastoral Assembly, is now two years old. And who would ever think that coming back after two years we will then on be able to hold on to, I don’t say it’s a piece of paper, but something that is slowly becoming part of yourself and myself. The Church is slowly becoming alive in you. Not out there in the crowds of people but in each and every one of us. Two years afterwards, we are now here more than 3000 they said, at least convinced, if not totally believing that there is that vision we can hold on to and this is the reason why this morning we are going together to make a reflection on our two-year old articulated, and now being assimilated, vision.

Talaga bang kailangan ang pananaw na ito? Talaga bagang kailangan? Do we really need a vision? And I start the reflection with you. And I entitled this reflection as, “Going Forward Begins with a Desire.” Kung ikaw ay maglalakbay, kung gusto mong sumulong kapatid, magsimula ka sa pagnananasa.

In the Chinese Proverb, the journey of ten thousand miles begins with the first step. For a person headed for destiny, going forward begins with a single desire. We can immediately begin to see the difference. Journey begins with a step. Destiny is ushered by a desire. That desire is a longing and it serves as a guide. That desire, that each and everyone has in this room contains an inspiration and a bond to a life that is headed towards its fullness. Awhile ago while you were being welcomed by Bishop Bernard, the question was, “Where are we headed for? Let’s not debate it. That’s what you and I and that’s what Jesus wants. We are all headed towards fullness of life. We call it a vision. However, even if a vision gives the human person a direction, an inspiration and a norm with which to measure self against its desire, a vision cannot remain a general ownership of a crowd. A good vision has to be owned and ingested by the person.

Ibig sabihin nito, ang pananaw ay dapat bahagi ng iyong pagkatao. You can go on like this forever and go from MAGPAS to MAGPAS counting MAGPAS 2, 3, 4, MAGPAS 10, MAGPAS 15, but if it is not owned by a person, it will lead anywhere.

Give a person a vision and you actually give him or her, the power over the future and you entrust an authority in life to partner with destiny.

MAGPAS-II VISION!

We are now MAGPAS 2. The Local Church in Manila today celebrates MAGPAS-II (The SECOND MANILA ARCHDIOCESAN GENERAL PASTORAL ASSEMBLY). This is the second year since we officially articulated, in compendious form, the desire, which, for many centuries, has always been there since our fathers in the Faith, the earliest Christian missionaries, baptized and taught the first local converts about Jesus, Son of God, Lord, Teacher and Savior. Different times and needs have somehow helped to shape what we now call the nine (9) verses of the vision, approaching the different moments and expressions of “fullness of life,” but always desiring it, like Jesus desired it for us, with humility, truth, hope, patience, love, forgiveness and the absence of hatred.

Yun palang ating ipinapanaginip natin ngayon mga kapatid ay matagal nang ninanasa ng ating mga ninuno. Gaano katagal? Yung pagpapakabait. Yung pagpapakalinis. Yung pagpapakabuti. Yung pagdamay sa kapwa. Yung katapatan ng paglilingkod. Yun pala ay matagal ng ipinapanaginip ng ating mga ninuno. Simula pa ng dumating ang mga unang misyonero, yun na pala ang itinuro sa atin. Oo nga’t kinakatesismo tayo, ay okay, ay nuon iniakma sa pangangailangan ng una nating mga ninuno. Eto tayo ngayon, 2007. The needs are still there. We need to be compassionate still. We need to be kind, to be friendly, to be more just still. That is why we need a new catechesis, a new inspiration. Same assignment. Same crisis. Different ways of interpreting but the same Jesus who inspires us.

Alas, this is not what we read today as the manner of longing for that life Jesus wants us to live, as freed from sin and liberated from the greed, deceit and cruelty of humans. Leadership has ceased to inspire as its governance continues to grope from crisis to crisis, from anomalies to the divestment of moral values becoming less effective to a direct society that is more just, less wasteful of resources and ever compassionate to the poor.

But, this is the good thing with having a vision, we have hope, and there is hope for the Filipino in the vision that s/he can own in Jesus, in whom the call to community, “fullness of life” and belonging to the Father’s Kingdom is made possible in the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit! All the things that are in our Vision, will only be real through the Holy Spirit. That’s why before coming to this place, a little afraid, that they might change the reading in today’s Gospel, I immediately told Fr. Regie, please call up the liturgist, don’t they ever try to change the liturgical reading as if trying to make adaptations. Today’s reading says, “All the sins that will be committed could be pardoned but if you sin against the Spirit, you sin against the very heart of God. And did you notice that in the articles of the Vision we always say, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why there is hope. We know now that the vision is both uplifting and enabling. The vision keeper is encouraged because its direction is also the finality that, with Jesus, it seeks. (John 10.10). Yun palang gusto natin ay gusto rin ni Jesus. Sino ba ang away ng kapayapaan? Gusto rin iyan ni Hesus. Sino ang ayaw magdamayan? Gusto rin iyan ni Hesus. Di ba’t tayo ay naliligalig pag ang ating mga kapatid or magulang ay nag-aaway? Naliligalig din si Hesus. Don’t you see now the coincidence of God’s will and our desire. Moreover, the humble person of the vision knows that s/he is empowered and ennobled to become what s/he longs to be, because the fundamental call to all humans, including us, Filipinos, is for us not to succumb to evil, not to surrender to the powerful and the greedy but for us to become “images and likenesses of God” in whatever we say and do.

Bago pa kayo at ako ay naging tao iyan na ang gusto ng Diyos, yung nilalaman ngayon ng ating pananaw. That’s the blueprint. Unfortunately we get into trouble once people think that we can improve on the plan of God and they make man and woman a little wiser politically, economically, socially, better than the image of God.

And if this is what the vision tells (us) as our call—to become vicegerents of God, His image of goodness in society—then the other forms of excessive having and consuming, dominating and exploiting others that we observe around us will never, never, never, unite any community. Society will become one on the basis of communion, the pattern for the fullness of life that God tells us in Jesus.

Magbigayan kayo. Magbahaginan kayo. Iyan ang nilalaman ng pag-ibig ng Diyos. Mapagiisa kayo.

“Fullness of Life” means we help, like Jesus Christ, even with very little resources. Parang contradiction iyon, ah. Kapunuan ng buhay ay katulad ni Jesus na nagbibigay kahit maliit lamang. Hindi ko matanggap iyon, pero totoo! Fullness of Life and you give little. And yet that is what Jesus is all about in the Gospel. And here we have leaders, and sometimes men of the cloth like myself, trying to improve on the ways of Jesus. Please pray the Lord to save you and me, especially myself, from such a mind.

A person of vision helps to build a future or to develop even just a single person towards fullness of life, aid for whom is measured and not by the cost, but by the eternal “how” a thing is achieved… “as by one who images God. Yun palang Fullness of Life, even if only directed to one person, it’s not what you do but how you do it, and you do it as image and agent of God’s goodness.” How can anyone who images God go wrong in helping others, inspiring he young or setting aside “a crumb” of time or something for others?

SEARCH FOR MANY IDEAS HIDDEN IN THE VISION

This Christ-like frame of mind is what people look for in our leaders and, yes, even in us. We also know that it is what is dear to every Filipino. Ideals like this are contained in the MAGPAS VISION and everyone treasures them and desires them for one’s self. Hanapin niyo nga yung yaman ng ating pananaw. Please. May mga nagtatagong yaman sa ating pananaw. Alas the opposite idea today in the market and political arena is this: “What is there for me?” Through many generations that selfish search has never changed with leadership; it has only refined the ways and reasons for being even more self-seeking.

The second edition of the MAGPAS VISION is given to all of you today. We make this edition as our special study text, the second bible, sort of, parang ating maliit na bibliya. It will be our little “road map” to fullness of life; a personal catechesis. Hidden somewhere in the Vision is a catchword in the way you were created. Hinahamon kayo ngayon nitong pananaw na ito, may nakatago diyan ng mina, ginto. And the challenge is to look for that catchword, pregnant with meaning about how God loves and created you. Meron diyan! Even deeply imbedded in it is a byword on redemption. Elsewhere there are also mentions of models, ends, etc. Look for the ways of proceeding. Explore the rich deposit and treasure that the vision is. Mine it, if you wish. Minahin ninyo. Listen to it. Hanapin niyo. Why, you can even ask, “Where do you feel you are most loved in the vision’s wordings?” Saan mo nararamdaman na mahal na mahal ka ng Diyos? Sa minahang iyan. That is inspiration! And when you say, “inspired ako!” kapatid, the Spirit is there waiting for you.

This is your vision! And the theme of our coming together: Know the vision. Desire the vision. Value the vision. Live the vision. Share the vision with others.

We must work and pray to the degree that what we desire is also how we intend to live. Maybe the question to ask is this: Is the vision, with the desire it awakens, cogent enough to inspire me? Inspirado ba ako sa Vision? Here, if you entertain these kinds of questions, then the vision elevates you to a different level; it is now not a matter of satisfaction, but of inspiration. Hindi sapagkat satisfied ako, but sapagkat inspirado ako. Two different things. A person of vision moves on, never being completely satisfied, but is always inspired. S/he is not a mere owner of a thing or mere consumer. Partnering with God “like an agent/actor”, as His image and likeness, an envisioned person has the “touch” of a creator and the reverence of an inventor. Para bagang nakatuklas ako. Para bang may kapangyarihan ako. Kapatid sa totoo, lumilikha ka ng bagong tao pag ikaw ay may pananaw.

Assured of what “fullness of life” means, the man or woman of vision sees father (that) “at the end of the road” and beyond, there are things s/he could no longer use. S/he no longer discards or throws things like flotsam in a crash or an accident, instead, in compassion s/he shares the resources with others who have less. Yun daw palang taong may vision malayo ang paningin. Kita na niya pagdating sa dulo madami siyang daladalang hindi na niya mailalampas sa kabila. Ni hindi niya makakain. Ni hindi niya maisusuot at alalaungbaga, ang taong may vision, ang layo ng paningin. Alam niya na ang kanyang iniimpok ay walang saysay sa katapusan. Hindi naman, pagnalalapit na ang boundary line, niya itapon itong parang lumulubog na barko o magka-crash na eroplano. Ano ang ginagawa ng taong may vision? Malayo pa ang hangganan, hindi niya itinatapon, kanyang ipinamamahagi.

No law, no legislation, or ordinance dictates to a person with a vision. From hereon in the life of a man or woman with a vision, love operates, not law, inspires and leads the person.

HOW TO LIVE THE VISION

But precisely how does vision translate to life? Before anything, a vision must first inspire. Spirituality lies always underneath any movement, just as the Spirit is present in every creation and in all visitations. Hindi pala maaaring pumuwesto kung walang inspiration. At ang inspirasyon ay spiritualidad. People’s movement will call it a cause, but for the Church, that active agent is the Holy Spirit, ” who acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by him… who impels each individual to proclaim the gospel … who in depths of consciences causes the word of salvation to be accepted and understood.” ( EN, 75: AG, 4). Aktibong-aktibo pala ang Espiritu Santo. Basta ang isang tao–layko, pare, religioso, madre– at magsalita ukol kay Jesus, hindi pala ito trabaho ng pare, ito pala ay trabaho ng Espiritu Santo. You cannot just tamper with the Holy Spirit. If you sin against the Spirit, wala kang kapatawaran, walang liwanag, walang pag-asa, walang buhay, walang kinabukasan.

But how?

First step. Befriend the Spirit. Maging kaibigan ka ng Espiritu Santo. Ano, lulutang lutang lang ba iyan sa ibabaw? Bakit hindi niyo pababain? Mag-landing kayo Spirit. He gives every inspiration and makes you love what you desire. Remember that it is by His power that Kingdom, Fullness of Life, Paschal Mystery, complete response to the Call of the Father is made possible. Laman na naman iyan ng ating pananaw. Do not be afraid of the Spirit. Magpatulong sa kanya. Makasalan ako? Okay! Ano? Balita ba sa langit iyon na ikaw ay makasalan? Baka sa lupa, pero sa langit, alam na iyan. Magpatulong ka. Iyan ang gustong ayusin ng Diyos yung mga taong magulo ang buhay. E pagnagtatago? No way! Pag tumatakas? No way! Pag lumalayo? No way! Pag nagdedepensa? No way! Di ba ang sabi, “Walang kaayusan” (Gen1:1). Chaos. Aba’y nilapatan ng Espiritu Santo.

Second step is a constant. Hindi maaaring palitan. Prayer. Walang pagbabago kung walang panalingin. Prayer lies in the heart and makes one wish the very will of God. Ang dasal ang panalingin ay hindi upang baliin ang kalooban ng Diyos na gustuhin ang gusto ko. It’s the other way around. It’s bending my will to desire what God wants. The best prayer is where the human will seeks only the will of God. John 10:10 (I have come that you may have fullness of life or life to its full); Matt. 6:10 (Your Kingdom come; your Will be done), are where God and humans, heaven and earth, desire and life, vision and life, agree to become one. So, after the Holy Spirit, the next step is Prayer.

Third step. To help one to approach a little closer to the desire of the vision, assign to self, give an assignment to yourself, a little step to take, regularly a little step, a little act to do, a new kind face to see, a little friendly word to say, “a little crumb of a smile” to give. These steps are what they call “missions,” tiny “objectives” that help to hasten the attainment of a goal and, for us, to arrive a little closer to our vision. What do you notice there in the third step? You are giving yourself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a little assignment. Don’t you ever notice, ang liliit? Isang hakbang. Isang maliit na gawain. Isang tapik sa balikat. Isang mabait ng mukha na titignan. Just look around, Kind face to see. A little friendly word to say. Salamat ha. Konting tapik, konting pisil. Hindi niyo ba nababanaag na ang taong may vision ay dahan-dahang sinasanay sa kabaitan ng Diyos? Yan ang mga hakbang. So little acts of goodness.

First Step. Befriend the Spirit. Second step: Prayer. Third step: little acts of goodness. That’s all.

Ang Himala ng Pagbabago. The Miracle of Change.

It’s a miracle. If it’s a miracle, wala tayong kinalaman. Basta sumuko ka at ang milagro’y hindi maaaring–o sige, gumawa tayo ng milagro, hindi po maaari.

The miracle for people with a vision is that change is taking place—with the discipline and sacrifice called Paschal Mystery, softened by the Love of God for you and me—yet with so few having to tell a neighbor that a transformation is taking place, without legislation, no adrenalin surge, sans hatred…only love as the driving (motor?) Spirit! Yan pala ang milagro. Magbabago ako. Huwag mo ng pagusapan. Hindi ko kayang ipaliwanag. If you try to explain it or try to repeat itk, it’s not a miracle. God will reveal it if he wishes.

It is like the miracle of the seed that has died in the furrow of the land; it returns to life after the rain and the sun; it lives. And the farmer does not know how.

To the many complaints to Yahweh about leaders who do not lead and leaders who do not care, Yahweh, God answered and instructed the prophet Habakkuk, “Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read. For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.” ( Habakkuk 2:2-3) The fulfillment of the vision is coming.

For us in MAGPAS, let us write the vision in our hearts. If we desire, value, live and share it with others the Vision will surely, certainly come, because together we are going for it.

Brothers and sisters, God love and bless us in the journey guided by His inspired Vision! Salamat po.

Source: http://www.rcam.org/Homilies/2007/carndinal_rosales/homily_magpas2.htm

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