Introduction
We have a Tagalog saying: “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa kanyang paroroonan”.
As we celebrate the 21st Foundation Anniversary and Canonical Establishment of our Diocese, we are asked to look back to our roots and beginnings. Needless to say, we are rooted in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are rooted in the same Church He established on the Apostles. And with this, we thank the Lord for calling us and making us His Church.
We thank the lord for the gifts which we use to build up the Church, to serve God and our fellowmen, and to make our life fruitful. He has called us to be “A City set on a Hill” that people may come to know the presence of the Kingdom through us, in us and with us.
As we prepare for Jubilee 2025, we journey as Pilgrims of Hope emphasizing Communion, Participation and Mission— a synodal pilgrimage here on earth. Pope Francis declared this year 2024 as a “Year of Prayer.” This gives us the opportunity to reflect and thank the Lord as well for the progress we have been doing as a diocese.
Gratitude
We thank the Lord for guiding us by His Spirit so that we may respond generously to Pope Francis’ call for a Synod on Synodality. I thank you all for your generous response in forming circles of discernment and promoting religious conversation in our diocese. In two national consultations, we were the first to submit to the CBCP after long discussions on what people expect from the Church and her ministers, articulating the mission of the Church. We are blessed to have the most number of priests, religious men and women and consecrated people in the diocese. We thank God for the collaboration of religious men and women and consecrated people with the lay faithful in building up the Church set on a hill. The Lord said that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. This is an appropriate description of our diocese. It is a city set on a hill that today is seen by all not only because of its strategic location but because of what our diocese has become today. We must always be a diocese set on a hill for others.
Gifts
The Holy Spirit distributes many gifts and we have put them in common as the Christians did in the Acts of the Apostles. Gifts received are generously given in return by way of ministries. I am glad to see how you have used your Spirit given-gifts in the service of the Lord. You have not withheld them from the Church. Inasmuch as you recognized that whatever you have comes from the Lord, you give them back to Him willingly and generously in the form of service to His Church. And the Diocese is richly blessed because of this.
Pope Francis said: “Only on the basis of God’s gift, freely accepted and humbly received, can we cooperate by our own efforts in our progressive transformation. We must first belong to God, offering ourselves to Him who was there first, and entrusting to Him our abilities, our efforts, our struggle against evil and our creativity, so that His free gift may grow and develop within us.” (Gaudete et Exultate,56.) The Lord chose us to belong to Him. Our cooperative response is our gift to Him. By our cooperation with His gift, we are transformed. We grow in grace. We increase in holiness. Thus, we increase in the generosity of self-giving. In self-giving, we become light that illumines the shadows. We become salt that deters a bitter world.
The Lord said: “You are the light of the world.” Our diocese is a well-lighted house because you have not kept your lamps under bushel baskets but rather you placed them on lamp stands for all to see. Good works cannot be kept hidden. The generosity of good men and women cannot go unnoticed. In your generous service to the Church, we see God at work as He continues to build up our local Church, our diocese. You, my dear lay people, priests and religious men and women of our diocese, the Santatlo… you are the joy of the Church. You are the joy of your bishop.
Grace
Just in a little while, we will relaunch the Casa Silencio fund raising campaign. Through your generosity we have laid the foundation of this important facility not just a retirement home for priests but also a center for ongoing formation for all. We hope and pray that with your support we will complete this important project.
I thank you once again for all the support you extend to us your priests as I witness this in many of our celebrations like the installation of our new parish priests and other occasions.
Let us continue to be generous in our response to the Lord. Let our generous cooperation to God’s gifts be like lamps on lampstands. Let us continue building this city set on a hill. Let us continue to beg the Lord to give us His grace to do so because unless the Lord builds the house, in vain will its builders labor.
Mabuhay ang Diocese of Cubao!
Mabuhay po tayong lahat!