Important messages

As we bid farewell to “Papa Francisco” today, there is a mixed feeling of joy and sorrow in our hearts. We are happy because his presence has undoubtedly re-energized our faith and our love for God and for one another. During his short stay of four days, he has touched our lives with his simplicity, humility, truthfulness and humaneness. People who saw him or just had a glimpse of him somehow felt as if they have seen the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is certainly living-up to his role as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Hence, we are somehow likewise saddened by his departure because we will sorely miss him and feel orphaned when he leaves us.

But even as he leaves us, we are still hoping and praying that his messages have been heard by all of us, loud and clear and that we will be able to take them to heart and comply with them. Perhaps this is one way we can turn our sorrow into joy. From the three main speeches he made during his visit, these messages can be summed up into: compassion for the poor, protection of the family and respect for life.

Pope Francis indeed wasted no time in reminding our government during the welcoming ceremonies in Malacañang the day after his arrival, that the best way to help our poor and marginalized people in our society is to eliminate greed and corruption especially in our government. He urged officials to work for the ending of “scandalous poverty and social inequities.” Admittedly this is more of a political matter, but it is a truth that has been repeatedly ignored, denied and /or concealed by every administration that has taken power. It is about time, there is an honest to goodness, all encompassing move to eventually eliminate them.

 At the same welcoming ceremonies and more especially at the meeting with families on the second day of his visit Pope Francis staunchly defended the Church teaching opposing artificial conception. He said that Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II made this teaching well known and firmly upheld it. Then he asked the families to “be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death.” He even deviated from his prepared speech and praised Pope Paul VI for “having courageously resisted calls for an opening in the Church   teaching embodied in the 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae.”

Clearly therefore, when it comes to the protection of the family and respect for life, the position of the Church has not change at all. Indeed the Pope’s message is an all out support for the unwavering stand of the Filipino Catholic clergies’ and the laity against the RH law which this government has passed and portions of which the Supreme Court has already declared unconstitutional.

In this connection, to avoid being misquoted and further controversy regarding this point in Pope Francis’ message, let me just quote salient portions of his speech at the meeting with the families held at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“The family is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life. I think of Blessed Paul VI in a moment on the challenge of that growth of populations, he had the strength to defend openness to life. He knew the difficulties that families experience, and that’s why in his encyclical, he expressed compassion for particular cases. And he taught professors to be particularly compassionate with particular cases.

But he went further. He went to the peoples beyond. He saw the lack and the problem it could cause families in the future. Paul VI was courageous. He was a good pastor and he warned his sheep of the wolves that were approaching. And from the heavens, he blesses us today.

Our world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats! The Philippines needs holy and loving families to protect the beauty and truth of the family in God’s plan and to be a support and example for other families. Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself. The future of humanity, as Saint John Paul II often said, passes through the family. The future passes through the family.

 So protect your families! Protect your families. See in them your country’s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments. Families will always have their trials, but may you never add to them! Instead, be living examples of love, forgiveness, and care.

 Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death. What a gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation! So rise with Jesus and Mary, and set out on the path the Lord traces for each of you.

  When families bring children into the world, train them in faith and sound values, and teach them to contribute to society, they become a blessing in our world. Family can begin a blessing to the world.

 I was very moved after the mass today when I visited that shelter, that home for children who have no parents. How many people in the Church so that house is a home or family? This is what it means to take forward prophetically the meaning of a family.

 You may be poor yourselves in material ways, but you have an abundance of gifts to offer when you offer Christ and the community of his Church. Do not hide your faith. Do not hide Jesus, but carry him into the world and offer the witness of your family life!

Dear friends in Christ, know that I pray for you always! I pray for you today, for the family.I pray that the Lord may continue to deepen your love for him, and that this love may manifest itself in your love for one another and for the Church.

Don’t forget Jesus, Philippines. Don’t forget Joseph, Philippines. Jesus slept under the protection of Joseph. Don’t forget prayer for the family.”

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