His Excellency, Most Rev. Socrates B. Villegas, CBCP
President and
Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan,
His Excellency, Most Rev. Vicente Navarra,
Bishop-Emeritus of Bacolod, my beloved
Predecessor the second time around,
My Brother Archbishops and Bishops,
Honorable Government Officials, both from the Province
and the Cities and Municipalities
of the Diocese,
Reverend Monsignori, Brother Priests, Deacons, Religious
Brothers and Sisters,
and Seminarians,
Beloved People of God,
Maayo nga aga sa tanan.
One of the first to call me on the
evening of my official announcement as new bishop of Bacolod was Ms. Carla
Gomez of the Visayan Daily Star. After some congratulatory words, she asked,
“What is your reaction about your appointment?” I paused for a few seconds and
then responded, “Humbled.” Indeed, many thoughts and feelings filled my heart
then but what prevailed was an uneasy sense of inadequacy. Knowing myself well,
I was overwhelmed by the thought that I was being assigned to a diocese of
priests and lay faithful of high intelligence, exceptional capacity and
enormous resources. I could only echo the words of Solomon when the Lord
appeared to him in a dream and make his prayer my own, “Yahweh, my God… give
your servant a heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern
good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern such a great people as yours?”
(1 Kgs 3:9)
In the same interview, Ms Gomez
followed her first question with another, “What are your plans for the
diocese?” This time my answer was quick. “None,” I said, “I have no plans. But
I do have one wish for our diocese - that God’s kingdom may come among us.”
That is why I have taken as my motto what Jesus asks of the Father in the
prayer he taught us: Adveniat Regnum Tuum, Thy Kingdom Come.
What is the kingdom of God? When we
hear the word kingdom, what immediately comes to our mind is all the glitter
and glamour of the court, with its riches and power. The kingdom of God
announced by Christ is anything but this. In fact, he tells us that the kingdom
of God belongs to the poor, the children and even sinners.
Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God
when he began his ministry. His message inspired many people to follow him in
the hope of a better life. After he multiplied bread to feed a crowd of 5,000,
the people wanted to make him king.
He did not deny that he is king but
his kingdom is not an earthly or political kingdom. He made this clear to Pilate,
“My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men
would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my
kingdom does not belong here.” (Jn 18:36)
The kingdom proclaimed by Jesus has
always been misunderstood from the beginning not only by the people who
followed him, but even by those closest to him, his apostles. No wonder there
was much bickering and arguing among themselves about who was the greatest. There
was much lobbying and positioning on who should sit at his right or at his
left. Right to the end, just as Jesus was about to return to the Father, they
still hoped for the return of the Davidic dynasty. “Lord, has the time come for
you to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (Acts 1:6)
This hope persists to this day. The
temptation to build a kingdom other than that of God has always been in the
Church. We see how throughout her long history the Church struggled with the
temptation to power and at times succumbed to it. And it was when she was most
powerful that she was most impoverished in her life of the Spirit and in her
ministry. Today, the same temptation continues to present itself to us.
That is why in the light of the
present events, many lament that the Church has lost its influence and
political clout. Many even question whether the Church is still relevant in the
post-EDSA society. Today we see not only a powerless Church, but a Church
humbled, even mocked.
Rightly does Archbishop Soc, our CBCP
President, describe our present situation as being “in the wilderness [where] the
temptation to change stone into bread is almost irresistible…But the wilderness
is for purification and prayer. It is also for returning to the basics...”
(Message of Abp. Socrates B. Villegas at the 113th CBCP Plenary
Assembly)
Some years ago in the wake of the
Hello Garci controversy, the nation was thrown into a political crisis. Politicians
were frantically jumping from one party to another as the Gloria Resign
Movement was fast gaining ground. Everyone believed that an EDSA IV was in the
offing. All that was needed was a tipping point for an imminent downfall of the
government. And their hope was that a Pastoral Statement from the bishops who
were then gathered at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center for their semi-annual
Plenary Assembly would provide such final game-changer.
I can still vividly remember the face
of Archbishop Franco, our Papal Nuncio then, as he gave his opening message.
Midway through his speech, he put aside his prepared text and extemporized
saying, “There is a perception that the Church in the Philippines is powerful,
that the bishops can make and unmake governments…” He paused, looked at us and
continued, “It’s a shame.”
The Church is not a power broker. She
has no power except the power of the cross. The more powerless the Church, the
more credible and effective she becomes in fulfilling her mission of
evangelization. The more powerless the Church, the freer She is in exercising
her prophetic role of standing up for what is right, of denouncing what is evil
and unjust, of defending life and family, of protecting the weak and the poor.
The Church has no power but the power of Christ on the cross. “And I, when I am
lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (Jn 12:32)
And so coming back to our original
question, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is where he is king,
where he rules, where he is obeyed. In the Lord’s prayer the petition thy
Kingdom come is immediately followed by the petition thy will be done. They are
the same petition. Thy kingdom come means thy will be done.
The older I grow, the more I realize
that in life there are really only two choices to make: life or death. (cf. Dt
30:19) We heard this in today’s first reading. Or to be more specific: God or myself, his
will or my will, his plan or my plan. I see this clearly in my own ministry
where I can do only two things – to preach Christ or myself, to build God’s
kingdom or my kingdom. If I decide to choose God, I must choose to die, to die
to myself. If I choose to allow God to enter and rule my life, I must empty my
heart of self and give up all control to him.
I said earlier that I have no plans
for the diocese. Any plan for the diocese will come from all of us. That is why
I intend to spend the first three months visiting all our parishes and talking
to everyone of our priests and lay leaders. Then we shall meet as a
presbyterium and as a diocese and together craft our plan. What plan will it
be? I don’t know; it will depend on us all.
But two things I know. I know where God
wants us to go and where he wants us to start. What God wants for our diocese is
the full coming of his kingdom, and the coming of his kingdom starts with our
conversion.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
close at hand.” (Mt 4:17) This is what we heard in the gospel just read to us. Jesus
precedes his proclamation of the coming of the kingdom with a call to
conversion. Interestingly, he also accompanies his preaching of the kingdom with
healing of the sick and casting out of demons. Healing and exorcism are
prerequisite for the coming of the kingdom; they are the unmistakable signs
that God is present and that he rules.
Healing is restoring wholeness in a
person, putting back in order the relationship between his body and spirit, as
well as his relationship with God and with his brethren. I’m struck by what
many of you expressed to me as your deepest hope for our diocese, namely,
healing within and among our clergy and our lay faithful. To build God’s
kingdom, we need to start with healing among ourselves.
We also need to exorcise our diocese. ® Pedro’s
wisdom
We need to exorcise our diocese not so
much of the devil, but of other occupants equally destructive and prohibitive of
God’s coming and reigning in our life. When our heart is full of ego and
self-interest, there is no space for God and his kingdom.
The call for self-emptying is a call for
all of us. For us in the leadership, myself and our priests, this means taking
our priestly commitment to configure our lives to Christ seriously and purging our
ministry of every trace of clericalism or entitlement. The arrogant culture of “ang
pari hari” has no place in the kingdom because God alone is king.
For our dear lay faithful, it means taking
your Christian vocation seriously and rooting out whatever is un-Christlike in
your life. Only then can there be space for God to reign in your homes, in your
workplaces, in business and in pubic office. In this regard the diocese counts
much on you. You make up 99.99% of the Church whose mission is to proclaim and
build God’s kingdom in a world that is fast becoming more and more secularized.
I have read the Acts and Decrees of your
Second Diocesan Synod. I was deeply impressed by the document’s strong sense of
the social realities. Several times it mentions the need for social renewal and
social transformation. There is even a whole chapter that deals with the Church
and its involvement in politics. All renewal and transformation start with
ourselves, our personal conversion. All your hopes and aspirations expressed in
the Synod are precisely what the kingdom of God is about. Your dreams are God’s
own dream for our diocese – “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness
and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” (Preface of the Solemnity of
Christ, the King)
Our Blessed Mother is the perfect embodiment
of the kingdom of God. When she learned from the angel the plan of God for her,
she responded, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to
according to thy word.” May she teach
and guide us how to welcome God’s kingdom in our life and in our diocese.
Before closing, allow me to express my
deep and sincere thanks to all of you:
·To
our beloved Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his trust in assigning me to this
great Diocese of Bacolod,
·To
our Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, for being instrumental in my
appointment,
·To
my dear predecessor, Bishop Vicente Navarra, for the great legacy of a vibrant diocese
you are now passing on to me,
·To
our dynamic President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Thank you Archbishop Soc for your kind and uplifting words. Thank you
installing me to the seat of the Diocese of Bacolod.
·To
my brother Archbishops and Bishops of the Philippines. Thank you, dear
brothers, for your fraternal presence and support. It means a lot to me.
·To
all the priests, religious and seminarians who have come from different
dioceses,
·To
the Salesians and the Salesian Family from both the North and South Provinces,
·To
my family, relatives, friends and former students who have come from near and
far,
·And
to all of you who have come to attend my installation and to pray for me
In a special way, I would like to
thank my former diocese, the Diocese of Kabankalan for lovingly accepting me as
your bishop and father for the past 13 years. As I said in my last letter, I
began my ministry with a sincere desire to bring God’s love to you, as
expressed in my motto (Amorem Dei Ferens). In the end, it was you who brought the
love of God to me and in great abundance. In particular, I thank our dear
priests of Kabankalan. You have taught me how to be human and how to be a
bishop.
Finally, I thank the whole Diocese of
Bacolod for your exceedingly warm welcome and kind acceptance of me. At the
start of the preparations, I asked that my installation be kept simple. I was
told that the diocese wants to give me the best welcome and that Bishop Navarra
personally oversees through the preparations. I would like therefore to express
my deepest appreciation and sincerest thanks to Bishop Navarra and the preparations
committee for all the work and love they put in preparing for my arrival and
organizing my installation.
And to all our priests and lay faithful,
I eagerly look forward to meeting you and journeying with you towards the full
coming of God’s kingdom in our beloved Diocese of Bacolod.
Canonical Installation
9 August 2016
His Excellency, Most Rev. Socrates B. Villegas, CBCP President and
Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan,
His Excellency, Most Rev. Vicente Navarra, Bishop-Emeritus of Bacolod, my beloved
Predecessor the second time around,
My Brother Archbishops and Bishops,
Honorable Government Officials, both from the Province and the Cities and Municipalities
of the Diocese,
Reverend Monsignori, Brother Priests, Deacons, Religious Brothers and Sisters,
and Seminarians,
Beloved People of God,
Maayo nga aga sa tanan.
One of the first to call me on the evening of my official announcement as new bishop of Bacolod was Ms. Carla Gomez of the Visayan Daily Star. After some congratulatory words, she asked, “What is your reaction about your appointment?” I paused for a few seconds and then responded, “Humbled.” Indeed, many thoughts and feelings filled my heart then but what prevailed was an uneasy sense of inadequacy. Knowing myself well, I was overwhelmed by the thought that I was being assigned to a diocese of priests and lay faithful of high intelligence, exceptional capacity and enormous resources. I could only echo the words of Solomon when the Lord appeared to him in a dream and make his prayer my own, “Yahweh, my God… give your servant a heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern such a great people as yours?” (1 Kgs 3:9)
In the same interview, Ms Gomez followed her first question with another, “What are your plans for the diocese?” This time my answer was quick. “None,” I said, “I have no plans. But I do have one wish for our diocese - that God’s kingdom may come among us.” That is why I have taken as my motto what Jesus asks of the Father in the prayer he taught us: Adveniat Regnum Tuum, Thy Kingdom Come.
What is the kingdom of God? When we hear the word kingdom, what immediately comes to our mind is all the glitter and glamour of the court, with its riches and power. The kingdom of God announced by Christ is anything but this. In fact, he tells us that the kingdom of God belongs to the poor, the children and even sinners.
Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God when he began his ministry. His message inspired many people to follow him in the hope of a better life. After he multiplied bread to feed a crowd of 5,000, the people wanted to make him king.
He did not deny that he is king but his kingdom is not an earthly or political kingdom. He made this clear to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.” (Jn 18:36)
The kingdom proclaimed by Jesus has always been misunderstood from the beginning not only by the people who followed him, but even by those closest to him, his apostles. No wonder there was much bickering and arguing among themselves about who was the greatest. There was much lobbying and positioning on who should sit at his right or at his left. Right to the end, just as Jesus was about to return to the Father, they still hoped for the return of the Davidic dynasty. “Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (Acts 1:6)
This hope persists to this day. The temptation to build a kingdom other than that of God has always been in the Church. We see how throughout her long history the Church struggled with the temptation to power and at times succumbed to it. And it was when she was most powerful that she was most impoverished in her life of the Spirit and in her ministry. Today, the same temptation continues to present itself to us.
That is why in the light of the present events, many lament that the Church has lost its influence and political clout. Many even question whether the Church is still relevant in the post-EDSA society. Today we see not only a powerless Church, but a Church humbled, even mocked.
Rightly does Archbishop Soc, our CBCP President, describe our present situation as being “in the wilderness [where] the temptation to change stone into bread is almost irresistible…But the wilderness is for purification and prayer. It is also for returning to the basics...” (Message of Abp. Socrates B. Villegas at the 113th CBCP Plenary Assembly)
Some years ago in the wake of the Hello Garci controversy, the nation was thrown into a political crisis. Politicians were frantically jumping from one party to another as the Gloria Resign Movement was fast gaining ground. Everyone believed that an EDSA IV was in the offing. All that was needed was a tipping point for an imminent downfall of the government. And their hope was that a Pastoral Statement from the bishops who were then gathered at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center for their semi-annual Plenary Assembly would provide such final game-changer.
I can still vividly remember the face of Archbishop Franco, our Papal Nuncio then, as he gave his opening message. Midway through his speech, he put aside his prepared text and extemporized saying, “There is a perception that the Church in the Philippines is powerful, that the bishops can make and unmake governments…” He paused, looked at us and continued, “It’s a shame.”
The Church is not a power broker. She has no power except the power of the cross. The more powerless the Church, the more credible and effective she becomes in fulfilling her mission of evangelization. The more powerless the Church, the freer She is in exercising her prophetic role of standing up for what is right, of denouncing what is evil and unjust, of defending life and family, of protecting the weak and the poor. The Church has no power but the power of Christ on the cross. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (Jn 12:32)
And so coming back to our original question, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is where he is king, where he rules, where he is obeyed. In the Lord’s prayer the petition thy Kingdom come is immediately followed by the petition thy will be done. They are the same petition. Thy kingdom come means thy will be done.
The older I grow, the more I realize that in life there are really only two choices to make: life or death. (cf. Dt 30:19) We heard this in today’s first reading. Or to be more specific: God or myself, his will or my will, his plan or my plan. I see this clearly in my own ministry where I can do only two things – to preach Christ or myself, to build God’s kingdom or my kingdom. If I decide to choose God, I must choose to die, to die to myself. If I choose to allow God to enter and rule my life, I must empty my heart of self and give up all control to him.
I said earlier that I have no plans for the diocese. Any plan for the diocese will come from all of us. That is why I intend to spend the first three months visiting all our parishes and talking to everyone of our priests and lay leaders. Then we shall meet as a presbyterium and as a diocese and together craft our plan. What plan will it be? I don’t know; it will depend on us all.
But two things I know. I know where God wants us to go and where he wants us to start. What God wants for our diocese is the full coming of his kingdom, and the coming of his kingdom starts with our conversion.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” (Mt 4:17) This is what we heard in the gospel just read to us. Jesus precedes his proclamation of the coming of the kingdom with a call to conversion. Interestingly, he also accompanies his preaching of the kingdom with healing of the sick and casting out of demons. Healing and exorcism are prerequisite for the coming of the kingdom; they are the unmistakable signs that God is present and that he rules.
Healing is restoring wholeness in a person, putting back in order the relationship between his body and spirit, as well as his relationship with God and with his brethren. I’m struck by what many of you expressed to me as your deepest hope for our diocese, namely, healing within and among our clergy and our lay faithful. To build God’s kingdom, we need to start with healing among ourselves.
We also need to exorcise our diocese. ® Pedro’s wisdom
We need to exorcise our diocese not so much of the devil, but of other occupants equally destructive and prohibitive of God’s coming and reigning in our life. When our heart is full of ego and self-interest, there is no space for God and his kingdom.
The call for self-emptying is a call for all of us. For us in the leadership, myself and our priests, this means taking our priestly commitment to configure our lives to Christ seriously and purging our ministry of every trace of clericalism or entitlement. The arrogant culture of “ang pari hari” has no place in the kingdom because God alone is king.
For our dear lay faithful, it means taking your Christian vocation seriously and rooting out whatever is un-Christlike in your life. Only then can there be space for God to reign in your homes, in your workplaces, in business and in pubic office. In this regard the diocese counts much on you. You make up 99.99% of the Church whose mission is to proclaim and build God’s kingdom in a world that is fast becoming more and more secularized.
I have read the Acts and Decrees of your Second Diocesan Synod. I was deeply impressed by the document’s strong sense of the social realities. Several times it mentions the need for social renewal and social transformation. There is even a whole chapter that deals with the Church and its involvement in politics. All renewal and transformation start with ourselves, our personal conversion. All your hopes and aspirations expressed in the Synod are precisely what the kingdom of God is about. Your dreams are God’s own dream for our diocese – “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” (Preface of the Solemnity of Christ, the King)
Our Blessed Mother is the perfect embodiment of the kingdom of God. When she learned from the angel the plan of God for her, she responded, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to according to thy word.” May she teach and guide us how to welcome God’s kingdom in our life and in our diocese.
Before closing, allow me to express my deep and sincere thanks to all of you:
· To our beloved Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his trust in assigning me to this great Diocese of Bacolod,
· To our Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, for being instrumental in my appointment,
· To my dear predecessor, Bishop Vicente Navarra, for the great legacy of a vibrant diocese you are now passing on to me,
· To our dynamic President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. Thank you Archbishop Soc for your kind and uplifting words. Thank you installing me to the seat of the Diocese of Bacolod.
· To my brother Archbishops and Bishops of the Philippines. Thank you, dear brothers, for your fraternal presence and support. It means a lot to me.
· To all the priests, religious and seminarians who have come from different dioceses,
· To the Salesians and the Salesian Family from both the North and South Provinces,
· To my family, relatives, friends and former students who have come from near and far,
· And to all of you who have come to attend my installation and to pray for me
In a special way, I would like to thank my former diocese, the Diocese of Kabankalan for lovingly accepting me as your bishop and father for the past 13 years. As I said in my last letter, I began my ministry with a sincere desire to bring God’s love to you, as expressed in my motto (Amorem Dei Ferens). In the end, it was you who brought the love of God to me and in great abundance. In particular, I thank our dear priests of Kabankalan. You have taught me how to be human and how to be a bishop.
Finally, I thank the whole Diocese of Bacolod for your exceedingly warm welcome and kind acceptance of me. At the start of the preparations, I asked that my installation be kept simple. I was told that the diocese wants to give me the best welcome and that Bishop Navarra personally oversees through the preparations. I would like therefore to express my deepest appreciation and sincerest thanks to Bishop Navarra and the preparations committee for all the work and love they put in preparing for my arrival and organizing my installation.
And to all our priests and lay faithful, I eagerly look forward to meeting you and journeying with you towards the full coming of God’s kingdom in our beloved Diocese of Bacolod.
Thank you, and God bless us all.