by Abraham Dela Torre
ATE ELLA DOLLER, as was her wont as coordinator and emcee of every formation her one-(wo)man ministry undertakes, took to the podium, thanked the audience for coming to the seminar and introduced the untiring Parish Pastoral Council Chair, Ate Thelma Ponferrada, to present that Saturday morning’s guest speaker. Ate Thelma explained that the latter, having a hectic load of commitments crammed in his calendar, was only free on that day the council had to forego their scheduled monthly meeting to accommodate him.
It was the second part of his speech on Foundations of Our Faith, where Rev. Fr. Marlou Lemaire (French for “the mayor”) capped it with the theme “Church of the Poor: What it Means for Us.”
His talk, simultaneously enthusiastic and enriching, was like building another church. For it reopened insights either forgotten or lost like a renewal of sorts.
He commenced his address by a prayer-poem, “I was so Slow to Love You.”
Fr. Marlou acknowledged that, indeed, it was the Holy Spirit Parish’s second invite to him and, with his legendary irreverent wit, quipped, “Okey rin kayo ano? Kung kelan matatapos na ang Year of the Poor.” Which the audience appreciated with a coy chuckle.
Indeed, he continued, 2021 shall be the 500th year of Christianity and, in line with the new evangelization spearheaded by Pope Benedict, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has been preparing to launch and celebrate it. He said that in 2013, the year of the faith, some priests lost faith (but not their jobs), but because of the laity’s support, the mystery of the church continued to evolve. Which makes theology not hard to understand because it comes from God and Jesus inaugurated the church, the people of God. The church, which unites us, is hierarchical like an institution where there is order. In ecclesiology, it means that a diocesan church is a complete church independent of other dioceses with the bishop as the apostolic head. Each diocese is a corporate soul, where the laity’s role is powerful, if their skills are utilized, and the common vocation is a call to holiness.
He recalled a sadness in his priesthood when an old man asked him, “What is God’s way for me?” He was reminded of St. Therese of Avila (and deadpanned her description as the saint of “nangunguto,” which took time to sink in but elicited belated laughter when it did) whose religious role spawned different charisms to propagate the faith. For, unlike the old man who did not seem to know, we should be well aware of being a pilgrim church journeying towards God’s kingdom. We only have to look to Mary as the model of the church for Mariology is rooted in the bible, which describes Mary as the perfect disciple. (Here, I was reminded of a recent seminar I attended where Fr. Aris de Leon tackled her as mother and disciple of Christ, aptly linking the present topic to a prodigious past, creating a spiritual symmetry.)
The year of the poor, Fr. Marlou moved on, is a charism of the family. Why? he asked. No one could answer. So he disclosed (with mock chagrin) that Pope John Paul II, in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, outlined the mission of his pontificate. He stressed that Christ is the center of creation and of history, and that He redeemed all humankind. From this follows the need of the Church to draw all men to Christ, a task which can be furthered by ecumenism, by ensuring that the moral dimension of human life doesn’t get forgotten on the road to progress, and by defending human rights.
He invited the crowd to his church, St. Peter Parish Cathedral Shrine, on December 10 from 8 to 12 to a conference on “laudato si” before launching on man’s need to rediscover the Eucharist as rich in the sacraments, the three aspects of which are: the sacrifice of Jesus perpetuated from the blood of the lamb to His; Jesus’ communion with God where the Eucharist includes family among the faithful; and His presence, which proclaims that no one is ever alone.
Then he cited the upcoming activities in 2017, the year for the parish to reemerge as a communion of communities; 2019, for the youth; 2020, for ecumenism; and 2021, as “missio agentes” or the mission of parishes in the world, making it imperative for us to be world missionaries.
In his Papal Bull, Pope Francis indicted 2015-2016 as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. In the Philippines, it will be grandly observed on December 8, the Feast of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Which significantly coincides with the Feast of the Solemnity of Christ the King on November 20, eight days before the end of the liturgical year. How apt that the celebration culminates in honor of the face of the Father’s mercy, the Son Himself.
Why the emphasis on mercy was Fr. Marlou’s second question. And the second source of his chagrin. Patiently, however, he urged the audience that, if they read on, they will find out that mercy is the wellspring of joy, serenity and peace. And our salvation depends on it. And that, no matter how simple we are, God’s love does not change. And we do not move to meet His mercy; it comes to meet us.
Mercy, he continued, dwells in the heart of every person. There are two norms of morality: the objective which deals with the eternal law (he groaned when no one knew where to find it but smiled when one mousy lady venture “the bible” and placed his hand on her head in approbation) which is the 10 commandments; the subjective norm, he said, is the natural law’s first precept which is “Do good and avoid evil.” And cited the parable of the last judgment where the sheep would be separated from the goats.
Mercy is also the bridge that connects God and man, the emphasis being we may become more effective signs of the Father’s holiness in our lives. So that we won’t need to invent gods to justify our wrongs.
Since the universal door of mercy will be open during the jubilee year, Fr. Marlou disclosed his plan to open the doors of his church so that the multitude may freely visit the exposed Blessed Sacrament.
He also emphasized that the sacrament is to be called reconciliation, not confession, and translated the word as “pagbabalik-loob” because the reconciler who left is coming back with his essence, momentarily lost but found the mettle to reunite with God. He also announced, for the benefit of those who do not know, St. Peter’s schedules when their confessional is open daily: 11:30 am to 12 noon; 4:30 to 5 pm; 5 to 6 pm; and 6:30 to 7 pm.
Like the true-blue builder that he is, he enumerated the significant steps to a rewarding reconciliation with God: 1. recall sins and be sorry for them (here, he stressed that sin of omission is graver than commission (along with mine, there was a collective murmur); 2. confess and, by John’s chapter 13, be psychologically assured (he dovetailed it with “mas madaling magpatawad kaysa magpalakad;” and 3. promise to change and acknowledge that we cannot effect it unless God allows it through a deep relationship with Him by appropriating our values with Him.
Fr. Marlou shared that in the seminary, they went through the gauntlet of defending 72 theses. The Apostles Creed alone is broken down into several theses already. To further test their mettle in moral theology, three priests will confess to them with all sorts of sins, real and imagined, for them to apply the appropriate absolution.
The papal bull, he offered, challenges us to be merciful by sharing on two levels: through corporal works of mercy (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead, etc.). He paused here to hammer home the point through a joke. A family kept the ashes of a dead member in an urn which they placed on an altar. The maid, one cleaning day, discovered the ashes and, in her innocent mistaking it for rubbish, flushed it in the toilet. Leaving the bereaved paying their respects every November 1 in the you-know-where. Clearly caught, the joke was greeted with howls of laughter.
When the humor abated, Fr. Malou enumerated the spiritual works of mercy as comforting the afflicted, interceding in prayer for people who ask for and need it, putting up patiently with those who do us wrong, and so on.
He claimed confusion as to why, on the subject of the church of the poor, all the talks seem to say the poor are outside us and how we can materially help them,. Because, he enlightened, we are all poor on different levels and need to confront the poverty that we have by recognizing its faces: 1. the lost me is whoever is lost on a personal level. This pertains to people who are mired in stupidity and have very little recognition of God; 2. the lost powerless we are those lost on a political level because buried in power and wealth (and he made an example out of a popular pugilist); 3. the poor we are always in material want because they have no appreciation for “Deus caritas est.” God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him; and 4. the excluded we are those deep in socio-cultural spiritual poverty, who deem themselves cut above and far from their fellows, thereby excluding membership to them. Contrary to Christ’s gospel of inclusion.
Our imperative responses, therefore, should be: 1. let us return the dignified me by eschewing computer solidarity. He self-confessed that he would have no problem being poor because he was there before. But described as soft upstairs parents who do not want their children to go through the difficulties they have encountered. These parents, he ventured, are probably the people who spawned suicides and drug addicts. A family that respects poverty restores self-worth, he concluded; 2. the empowered we have a balance of power relations, participate in governance and decision making and have a church whose initiatives come from an in-the-know priest. Their own world cannot be worse than an autistic and they consider the absence of pro-poor projects as a mortal sin. They believe that the little help that goes to a small sector of the poor alleviates poverty, never mind the scope; 3. the blessed we achieve sustainable self-sufficiency by helping the poor; and 4. the communal we put emphasis on being one with the community and confronting division.
The open forum delved into furtherance of pastoral outreach efforts, confronting issues around the church with a biblical “Do what you have to do,” providing more catechists in public schools and supporting the parish priests through initiatives driven by conscience if the objectives fail. For conscience, he clarified, is the voice of God within all of us.
Fr. Marlou consummated his discourse with another prayer-poem, “Give Me the Strength to Seek You.” And rushed to another construction prospect.