(Last of a series)
27.
Who is the Center of our proclamation?
What we proclaim is not a revealed book
nor an ideology, not a doctrine nor a social cause, not some great human value
nor an idea. The center of our proclamation is “before all else a person with
the face and name of Jesus of Nazareth, the image of the invisible God” [John
Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 1990, no.
18; cf. CFC, nos. 216-17, 220-22, 464]. He is our Lord and our Savior. Through
his passion, death, and resurrection – the Paschal Mystery – he saved us from
sin. This is why the Cross is the symbol of our faith.
Unfortunately aggressive secularism ignores
our faith in Jesus and puts it aside to the margins of public life, or even
rejects the faith. That is why we have to tell the story of Jesus, proclaim him
as the Lord and Savior. We have to “Live Christ, Share Christ.” [CBCP Pastoral
Exhortation on the Era of New Evangelization, “Live Christ, Share Christ, July
23, 2012].
28.
How should we proclaim our faith?
We proclaim our faith in many ways. We
tell and teach others about our faith. Parents are the first teachers of the
faith for their children. By teaching their children who God is, how to pray to
God, what his commandments are, parents share their faith with them. Besides
cooperating with God in giving and nourishing the physical life of their
children, they also give and nourish their life of faith. We share our faith
with others by providing material and moral support to those whose main task is
to preach and teach the faith such as priests, religious, catechists,
missionaries and other collaborators in the Church’s mission. But most of all we
proclaim and share our faith with others by our life, by our witness of a good
Christian life. In the Acts of the Apostles [Acts 2:42-47] many were daily
attracted to the new faith by the faithful Christian life of the early
followers of Christ. Ordinary day to day fidelity to the Lord’s law of love –
ordinary holiness – is the most eloquent proclamation of our faith.
29.
What kind of new evangelizers should we be?
In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, new evangelizers
have to be: persons who have mature faith “because they have encountered Jesus
Christ, who has become the fundamental reference of their life; persons who know
Him because they love Him and they love Him because they have known Him;
persons capable of giving solid and credible reasons of life.” [Papal Address
to the 64th General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference,
May 24, 2012].
30.
Who are our models of faith?
In the first place is our Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, the Woman of Faith, always obedient to the
will of the Father and the constant faithful disciple of Jesus her Son [See
CFC, nos. 155-59]. Despite not fully understanding the profound mysteries of the
Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery, she gave her obedience of faith to God.
The “cloud of witnesses” of the faith is the multitude of Saints in heaven. Among
them are recent men and women of holiness such as Blessed Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, Blessed John Paul II, Padre Pio, our own San Lorenzo Ruiz and Blessed
Pedro Calungsod.
31.
What does the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod mean for us?
Pope Benedict XVI will declare Blessed
Pedro Calungsod as Saint in Rome on October 21, 2012 and will add yet another
Filipino to our models of faith. Like San Lorenzo Ruiz, San Pedro Calungsod is
a lay martyr who gave up his life in an ultimate witness of his faith in the
Lord Jesus. As a young catechist he was a teacher of the faith. He is a model
for all Filipinos, especially for our Filipino youth, to be faithful to Jesus with
love and courage till death.
32.
What event does the Year of Faith and the canonization recall to Filipinos?
San Pedro Calungsod was a Visayan youth martyred
in far away Guam 151 years after the Spaniards first brought the Christian
faith to people in the Visayas. The first Holy Mass was celebrated on the
island of Limasawa on March 31, 1521. San Pedro Calungsod is canonized in the
Year of Faith which is only nine years away from the 500th
anniversary of the faith of Filipino Christians. For this reason on the day of
San Pedro Calungsod’s canonization on October 21, the Church in the Philippines
“will embark on a nine year spiritual journey that will culminate with the
great jubilee of 2021. It is a grace-filled event of blessings for the Church
starting October 21, 2012 until March 16, 2021” [CBCP Pastoral Exhortation on
the Era of New Evangelization, 2012].
33.
How shall we prepare for this great event - the 500th anniversary of
our Filipino
faith?
The Catholic Bishops of the Philippines
exhorted us to prepare for the 5th centenary of our Christian faith
in the Philippines with a nine year “Era of New Evangelization.” The opening of
the Year of Faith and the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod take place during
the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Rome, October 7 to
28, 2012. The Synod of Bishops explores the theme of New Evangelization. In
view of the weaknesses of our faith and the negative influences of secularism
on our Filipino culture, a New Evangelization is necessary in the Philippines.
In fact 21 years ago PCP-II already envisioned a “new evangelization” or
“renewed integral evangelization” for the Philippines [see Message of the
Council to the People of God in the Philippines, in PCP-II Acts and Decrees, 1991,
p. xcviii; see esp. nos. 186 – 201].
34.
What is the New Evangelization?
The term New Evangelization “designates
pastoral outreach to those who no longer practice the Christian faith” [Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization,
December 3, 2007, 12], a situation which is due to the secular and materialist
spirit. Pope Benedict XVI said that this new cultural situation has signs of
excluding God from peoples’ lives and tries to marginalize the faith from
public life (Benedict the XVI, Address to the Pontifical Council for Promoting
the New Evangelization, May 30, 2011). We have already noted that our faith has
to be renewed. Our culture is now very much influenced by the secular and materialist
spirit. Therefore, a New Evangelization is necessary, “new in its ardor,
methods and expressions” [Pope John Paul II, Discourse to XIX Assembly of
CELAM, Post au Prince, 1983]. Such will surely renew both our faith and the
Church.
35.
What is our general plan for the Era of New Evangelization?
We need to intensify our efforts to
achieve the vision of renewal that PCP-II and the National Pastoral
Consultation on Church Renewal (NPCCR, 2001) drew up. It is a vision of renewed
integral evangelization towards a renewed Church. We may call it a vision of
New Evangelization in the Philippines. It calls for a multifaceted renewal of
faith, renewal of laity, clergy, religious, parishes, and renewal of mission.
For this purpose, the NPCCR identified nine major pastoral priorities. These
are: (1) Integral Faith Formation; (2) Renewal of the Laity; (3) Active
Participation of the Poor; (4) The Family as the Focal Point of Evangelization;
(5) The Parish as a Communion of Communities; (6) Renewal of the Clergy and
Religious; (7) Youth as Evangelized and Evangelizers; (8) Ecumenism and
Inter-Religious Dialogue; (9) Missio ad
gentes.
36.
How shall we address the Nine Major Pastoral Priorities of the Church in the
Philippines during the Era of Evangelization?
For the nine-year era of New
Evangelization to be fruitful, it is absolutely necessary to hold the Holy Eucharist as central so that the
grace of the Eucharist would accompany all our evangelizing efforts. Prayer must accompany the New
Evangelization. We need to realize that the journey of faith and discipleship
begins with conversion, metanoia, a change of mind and heart.
With these in mind, we shall dedicate each of the nine years of the Era of New
Evangelization to one of the nine-major pastoral priorities. Thus:
2013 – Integral Faith Formation;
2014 – Renewal of the Laity;
2015 – Active participation of the Poor
in Evangelization and
Social transformation;
2016 – The Eucharist and the Family –
this year the International Eucharistic
Congress will be held in Cebu;
2017 – Transforming the parish as a
Communion and Communities;
2018 – Renewal of Clergy and Religious;
2019 – Active Participation of the Youth;
2020 – Ecumenism and Inter-Religious
dialogue;
2021 -
Missio ad gentes.
37.
What is the significance of Mission ad
gentes for Filipino Catholics?
The final year, 2021, of the Era of New
Evangelization will be the 5th centenary of the Filipino Christian
faith. The focus will be on the mission of the Church ad gentes or the mission to those who do not yet know Christ.
Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the
Philippines, we are reminded that our faith is missionary. Recent Popes have
pointed out that the Church in the Philippines has a “special missionary
vocation” and is called in a special way to be a missionary “to the nations” – ad gentes, particularly to Asia [Pope
John Paul II, to the Philippine Bishops in 19981; at the World Youth Day in
1995; cited by the CBCP Pastoral Letter, Missions and the Church in the
Philippines, July 5, 2000]. This is so because the Philippines is the biggest
predominantly Catholic country in Asia. Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the
necessity of sharing our faith::
…faith in God is above all a gift and
mystery to be received in the heart and in life and for which we are to be
always grateful to the Lord. But faith is a gift that is given to us to be
shared; it is a talent received so that it will bear fruit; it is a light that
must not be kept hidden, but illumine the whole house. It is the most important
gift that has been given to us in our lives and we cannot keep it for
ourselves” [Benedict XVI, Message for World Mission Day to be celebrated on
October 21, 2012].
38.
Do the Year of Faith and the Era of New Evangelization address burning issues
confronting our society today?
Yes, they do. Our goal is a renewed faith
and a renewed Church. This is a vision of a faith and Church engaged in the mission
of integral evangelization. This mission includes the task of social
transformation. As a renewed Church we have to be actively involved, through a
renewed integral faith, in helping resolve the burning social issues of today
such as corruption, poverty, the destruction of the environment, threats
against human life and dignity, and other burning issues of our day. Most of
our problems are due to the dichotomy between faith and life. A renewed faith,
that includes the social implications of the Gospel, would certainly address
the problems directly.
39.
Prayer for the Year of Faith
According to Pope Benedict XVI
“Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the creed from
memory. It served them as a daily prayer not to forget the commitment they had
undertaken in Baptism” [PF, no. 9]. Therefore, following the example of the
early Christians we should recite everyday the Niceno-Constantinopolitan
profession of faith:
I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God,
Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial
with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our
salvation he came down from heaven,
(At
the words, up to and including “and became man,” all bow)
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of
the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third
day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at
the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living
and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,
the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father
and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look
forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Reciting often the short traditional Act
of Faith will also deepen our faith:
O my God, I firmly believe that you are
one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that
your divine Son became man, and died for our sins and that He will come again
to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the
Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them, who can neither
deceive nor be deceived. Amen.
+Orlando B. Quevedo, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Cotabato
October 1, 2012
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