03/02/2024
LIBERATING EVANGELIZATION
Today, the whole Archdiocese of Caceres is celebrating the feast of St Peter Baptist. He is the patron saint of our 429 year-old Diocese and 73 year-old Archdiocese. Yes, we are that old, and in this journey, St. Peter Baptist has always been our guide and model.
He came to the country as a missionary. He went all over Luzon in the name of evangelization. And he carried it out by first organizing communities. These communities of faith known today as basic ecclesial communities or Saradit na Kristyanong Komunidad (SKK) would later on become towns and parishes. Based on historical records, St. Peter Baptist established the towns and parishes of Baao, Buhi, Quipayo and Libmanan in Camarines Sur as well as Cagsawa, Oas and Ligao in Albay.
Building communities like SKK is the first step towards efficient evangeliztion. In agriculture, the farmer begins with land preparation. He makes a plot, a seed bed. There he plants the seed and nurtures it with a well fertilized soil. In evangelization, this seedbed is the community. It would not be efficient to evangelize when people are not organized, when they do not gather for a prayer meeting. It would be like fertilizing the wilderness.
For the past two days, parish priests and lay leaders attended a seminar on Stewardship. Stewardship begins with community organizing from the Barangay down to the Zone or Sitio level. The Parish is like an agricultural land, and the best way to cultivate it is through land preparation, making plots and seedbeds to nurture the seeds and the seedlings.
Stewarship is not only about donations. In our culture, after giving the donation, we say ‘bahala ka na po dyan Father.’ This is parallel to our citizenship. After casting our votes, we tell ourselves ‘bahala ka na dyan Mayor.’ In both cases, we do not participate. Stewardship is participating in the pastoral work of the parish. As parishioners, we must be involved in the different ministries in the Parish, in works of praise and worship, evangelization and catechesis, and in the social services of the parish. Stewardship is citizenship both of the earthly and heavenly kingdoms.
Yes, we are an old Diocese. In everything about stewardship, we must be a model to our suffragan dioceses.
According to Pope Francis, ‘Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor.’ Going to the peripheries, reaching out to the vulnerable, is the first step of an empowering evangelization.
May our Ina, whose image was crowned 100 years ago, continue to nourish our Saradit na Kristyanong Komunidad, so they may become powerful instruments of liberating evangelization.
