(Homily delivered by Abp Luis Antonio G. Tagle, DD, Archbishop of Manila during the Eucharistic Celebration marking the Centennial of Good Shepherd Sisters in the Philippines, October 4, 2012.)
From where we are standing, I can see familiar faces, not only the faces of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, both the Active and the Contemplative, but many, many friends. All of us,somehow,are connected to the life andmission of the Religious of the Good Shepherd and we are happy to share with them the blessings of the past 100 years.
I’ll leave for Rome today. I have my bags there in the car so after the Mass I have to go.
Some people were asking me,“Then why don’t you just rest this morning?” I said,“How can you say NO to the Good Shepherd Sisters?”(applause) Before you clap your hands, you know, I think God can forgive me, but I don’t know whether the Sisters will be able to forgive me (laughter). I’m sure God will be able to forgive me… We’re thankful for the presence ofArchbishop Tony Ledesma, Bishop Ambo David here in our midst. Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and look at the great sacrifice that the Franciscan family has made for you today. There are many Franciscans here… happy feast! Happy feast! “Sisters ha, maramikayongpagbabayaran.”(laughter) Today is also the birthday of Ambassador Nida Vera…
It is good to be here. We are in a way put together here by a celebration focused on our Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd. I know that some people are getting more and more allergic to the image of Jesus as Shepherd especially when it is used by priests. They say, ifthe priestsare shepherds then what are we? Sheep?Goats?And they say,“Oh no, but we don’t want to become sheep!So remove that title—shepherd—from yourselves, you are reducing us to mindless creatures! We can be in ourselves! We can find the way! Sheep cannot! So we don’t need shepherds.” Well, it is Jesus who we need, and who can deny the human condition of neediness?
We all need God,and God sends us his shepherd, Jesus. And in the gospel we find Jesus’ self image, Jesus’ self understanding, I am the Good Shepherd. And He contrasts Himself with the many false shepherds that have come to destroy the flock. It is not shepherding itself perse that is the problem, the problem is what type of shepherds do we have? Some are true and good the way Jesus is, but some take the title of shepherd but they don’t really pasture the sheep. That is why in the gospel of St. John, Jesus says he is not a thief, a marauder. He is not a stranger, and he is not a hired worker. These are the false shepherds who are there with the sheep in order to kill, to steal, and to be strong. They are with the sheep but they do not own the sheep, they are not united in love with the sheep. They are with the sheep but they don’t care because they are there for the pay. The sheep don’t matter to them. These are the false shepherds that have destroyed humanity, the environmentand history.
The world is crying out to God for a true Shepherd who will mirror to us the love of Jesus. He will not steal or kill; he will offer his life. He is not a stranger; He knows the sheep and they know them. He is not a hired person who does not care for the flock, in fact, his caring reaches tothe point of giving them his life freely, “No one takes my life away from me, I lay it down freely and I am here so that they may have life,” but what life? The life that He gives us is His very life, life in its fullness, life in abundance because it is the life of the very summit. His way as Shepherd should be our way.
Sr. Tarcila proclaimed the second reading in an eloquent way,reminding the elders and the young ones that whether elder or young, whether presbyter or neophyte, it is the same, if you are called to serve, thendo not do it out of compulsion,dowith generosity. And do not serve out of sordid gain; serve in order to show to people the love of Jesus. It is the same lesson that we have to learn over and over again. This is the grace of the calling of the Religious of the Good Shepherd. “Naaawaakosainyo, this is a tall order,” –but of course it is God’s calling therefore God’s gift; to be the ever present manifestation of the true and only shepherd, Jesus; to love as he loves and to find the joy which is Jesus’ joy. For Jesus all of this shepherding is not a task! It is rooted in his relationship with the Father. “I know my own and my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father”, this is the root of the Shepherd’s solidarity with others. And I’m very happy that the Contemplatives and the Actives are now one in one mission. It is this intimate relationship with the Father that made Jesus the shepherd that he was, and it was that same intimacy that will make all of us especially the Good Shepherd Sisters be the mirror of Jesus. It is not a task against spirituality, it is always the two of them together. Without one, the other limps; without one, the other is fake. They always come together in Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
The theme that was chosen for the centennial celebration is beautiful. Weaving Compassion, Embracing Challenges, Forging Hope, a contemporary expression of the ministry, the spirituality of Jesus the Good Shepherd and very, very RGS/CGS. Why do I say that? Angtagalbagokomaintindihan eh,(laughter) at hanggangngayon di ko pasigurado kung yongpagkaintindiko ay yon ngaperoakonamanangnasamikropono kaya walanakayongmagagawa. But whoever concocted this theme probably is very creative. It mirrors for us and affirms for us the friends and the collaborators of the Good Shepherd Sisters, their expression through the hundred years of existence of the spirituality inherited from Jesus, the Good Shepherd and through Our Lady of Charity, St. Mary Euphrasia, and St. John Eudes.
“Weaving Compassion”, very feminine, weaving… In my youth as a seminarian, I used to watch weavers in Cavite and later on in Baguio. They’re very particular and also quite focused. You cannot be unfocused when you are weaving. What is marvellous is you see them taking different strands,different colors, and with their focus—they are almost in a prayer stance, really focused. They know the patterns but you do not know it bywatching them, until the pattern really emerges. And these different strands form one piece of cloth and you marvel at how together these strands form a beautiful stole or a beautiful blanket.
What weaves according to the theme compassion? The sisters, following the Good Shepherd, pick up the unwanted strands, those that nobody will mind,those that people will not make out of whatever they are weavings—the lost, the wounded, the discriminated upon. But out of compassion you see this thread is Good Shepherd; this thread has a place in this whole project and in compassion they are weavingit into the general society. They find their place again in society and they find their place again in the community of the Church. We just have to hear the stories of those unwanted and thrown pieces of thread. They were picked up by compassionate hands, they were sewn… and before they knew it they are already part of a beautiful work of art.
But this weaving involved a lot of integration. You embrace challenges... Those threads are not always easy to blend into the tapestry. I know that, as a seminarian I had my apostolate here, the Euphrasian. Some of those children are like thread that you want to chop and burn! You want to tell her, you have no place in whatever we are weaving! But this is one thing I cannot understand and I really admire about the Sisters, they just embrace…embrace… The more challenging they are the more they are loved and embraced.
I remember Father Thomas Green when he heard that I was assigned to the seminary as a spiritual director and the seminary is TahananngMabutingPastol, he said, “The most difficult seminarian is the one that you should love the most.” The seminarian that gives you a lot of headache is the seminarian that you must embrace and love. It is a shepherd’s role, every challenge is not to be eliminated, every challenge especially when you realized that they become challenges not because of their own fault but because they have been victimized by poverty, by ruthless society, by a world that does not care because greed, ambition are rules of the game and they are really wounded and they need to be embraced. They are not enemies; they are friends, and they are the presence of Jesus. So to be able to weave, you need to embrace.
Thank you Sisters for embracing those that others don’t want to embrace and I’m sure because of a shepherd’s embrace the challenges have become grace. How do you solve a problem like Maria? Embrace Maria and she does not become a problem anymore she becomes a dilemma… (laughter) As I age in ministry, I’m learning: don’t look at people as problem because problems are in search of solution how can you solve a person who is a mystery? They maybe dilemmas and a dilemma does not require a solution, a dilemma requires navigation. How do you navigate? You understand, you embrace, and let them be part of a bigger story. And by weaving and embracing these threads, the HOPE emerges. They realize that they could be part of the loving embrace of God, the creator and the Shepherd.
Compassion, Challenges, Hope, these are not ideals. These are persons; these are persons rendered not as persons by society and sometimes even by the Church. But the Shepherd is always there; the chief Shepherd is there, and whenever we commune with Him we hope to imbibe a bit of his heroic love. And even in our weariness and tiredness we go out and continue picking up those threads again and we say, “You will be part of the tapestry; you will not be thrown because you pose a challenge. And because you are a challenge, I take you in, I embrace you. And because you are embraced, you are Hope for the future.”
Dear Sisters, thank you very much for trying your best to make the impossible happen, to mirror to our broken world and neglected people the presence of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We pray for you and we want to share in your mission that we also make with you, to always turn to Him, learn from Him, be a SHEEP to Him, allowing Him to guide you. It is only when we experience His shepherding love, will we be able to know how to love others that are not loved by many.