THE ESSENCE OF APOSTOLICITY: THE PAPAL NUNCIO’S HOMILY

Maayong gabii ninyong lahat.. tanan.

I am very happy to be with you tonight to celebrate in this beautiful cathedral, with such a
beautiful congregation of people. And it is very moving to see your faith, your affection to your
bishop, to the Pope, to the clergy.

Your love for the church is a sign, very important for today’s world. And I am so grateful for the
invitation that I got from your bishop that I thank very much to visit this diocese – young diocese
but with a very long history. The first settlement was already in 1580 and this morning, we went
to see this place where everything started in this island.

I am so glad for the presence of the mayor, and the representative of the governor and the
congresswoman. I greet all the civil and military officials. It’s always good when church and
government go hand in hand for the good of the people in different capacity but for the same
people. And we are called to be good Christians and good citizens, so thank you very much for
your effort to promote the good of this city, of this region, and this country.

I’m so glad to see all these priests. Thank you very much for your numerous presence. It’s also a
sign of the love for the Holy Father. I’m so glad for so many sisters, religious women - some I’ve
met this morning, and religious men, historical congregation that arrived at the beginning and
they are still present here. I’m so glad to greet the deacons and the seminarians, the future priests
of tomorrow and all of you, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. How beautiful when we are
uphold together around the Lord.

And of course, this is a special occasion because today, in the church, we celebrate two apostles,
Simon and Jude who were among those called by Jesus as we heard in the gospel just right now.
And it is beautiful that you have also the representative here of the Holy Father, the successor of
St. Peter. And my presence tonight brings for sure the greetings of Pope Francis, the gratitude
because he still remembers the warm welcome that he received here in the Philippines four years
ago and he was touched by the devotion in the faith of you, the wonderful people of the
Philippines. And I bring also his blessing.

To remind you of this beautiful occasion, at the end of the mass, each one of you will receive an
image of Pope Francis so you can bring that at home and also, looking at this image, you will
think of this beautiful celebration but you have also to turn the image because on the back, there
is a prayer, prayer for the Holy Father. He always asks all people to pray for him to help, to
sustain his mission for the good of the church and the good of the world.

And tonight, since we are celebrating this feast of the apostles, I would like that we spend a
moment to think that in the creed, we profess “I believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic
church”.
What does it mean? ‘APOSTOLIC’?

I would try to answer together with you to this question - putting this ‘apostolic’ in three
dimensions – ‘apostolic’ looking back, the past, ‘apostolic’ looking now, the present, ‘apostolic’
looking the future.

What does it mean? ‘APOSTOLIC’?

It’s simple - comes from apostles and we heard tonight that Jesus, after having spent the whole
night in prayer, called all the disciples to him and chose twelve to whom he gave the name of
apostles. The first on the list, is Simon, that he called Peter. And in another passage, we know
that Jesus said to Simon, “You are Peter, the rock and on this rock, I will build my church.”

Apostolic means related to the apostles, the twelve whom we know all the names, who were
called by Jesus to stay with him, to journey with him, to listen to him, to share bread with him, to
look what he was doing with the people. They spend some years together and he sent them to
proclaim the good news. Apostolic means that we know Jesus through the witness of the
apostles.

How do we know what Jesus did? You say through the gospel. Yes, two of the evangelists were
apostles but all the witnesses that the other also collected were given by the apostles. They were
witness of what Jesus did – his life, his predication, his passion, his death, and mainly, his
resurrection. Apostolic means that we reach Jesus through the witness of these apostles, the
twelve. And through them, we know Jesus, son of God, the son of the living God. So, apostolic
goes back to this witness of the apostles. If they were not called by Jesus, sent by Jesus, how do
we know about Him? And this is the foundation of the church. At the center, there is the person
of Jesus, and there is not an idea or a philosophy, there is an experience with Jesus, a living
person that they met, that they heard with their own ears, that they saw with their own eyes, that
they touched with their own hands. So, the apostles and their witness bring us close to Jesus.
This is the past. Our faith is apostolic because of the witness of the twelve apostles. But the
twelve apostles goes back 2,000 years, more or less, and we come 2,000 years later.

And what about the ‘apostolic’ today, in our time? Well, the Pope is the successor of St. Peter.
The bishops are the successors of all the other apostles. And through this succession, from
generation to generation, we can reach today, Jesus. Because Jesus is yes, the person who lived
2,000 years ago. But Jesus is the living God. Christus is alive. As the Pope reminded us recently,
Jesus is present now. How? Well, we have just heard the gospel and at the end, the priest said,
“the word of the Lord”. Listening to the witness of these successors of the apostles, we hear the
voice of Jesus. The bishop, the priest, on the altar, they say, “this is my body, this is my blood” –
the blood and body of Jesus, Jesus who is present among us in the sign of the bread and wine but
is the living Jesus that through the witness of the apostles and their successors today is present
with us. Jesus is present in his body.
Who is the body of Jesus today? You. Us. The church. You know, when Paul, before his
conversion, was persecuting the Christians, was killing the disciple of Jesus, then, Jesus appeared
to him on the way to Damascus, and said, “Saul, Saul”, (that was the name before becoming
Christian) “why are you persecuting me?” But Paul was not persecuting Jesus. Jesus was already
dead and risen. He was persecuting the disciples but in the apparition, in the vision, Jesus told
him, “why are you persecuting me?”

The church is the living body of Christ today, and half of the church is Christ, himself, and we
are the body of Christ. And the church is holy not because of us, who are all sinners, but because
of the presence of Jesus who is without sin. By the working of the holy spirit, the church is holy
in spite the fact that this is made up of all of us, sinners.

Apostolic today means that through this succession, we receive the word of Jesus, the word of
God, we receive the sacraments, the life in the baptism, the forgiveness in the confession, the
living body of Jesus in the Eucharist, and all the other sacraments. Jesus is alive. Jesus is with us.

And what is apostolic in the future? Apostolic in the future means are we ready to give to others
what we have received? Jesus called the twelve to stay with him, and he sent them. Jesus has
called all of us to know him, to stay with him, like tonight, but he’s not finished. He sent them
and he sent us. Are we ready to pass to people around us in our family, in the place where we
work, in the society at large? Are we ready to pass the message of Jesus, the good news that God
loves us? Because if we are not ready to announce and to give what we have received, the story
will finish. No one will give witness to Jesus. And this is a great responsibility.

We are in the month of mission. We are baptized to be with Jesus, and do you know how much
the world today needs the word of Jesus, the forgiveness of Jesus, the love of Jesus, how much?
If we keep quiet, if we don’t say anything, how will the world know that God loves each one of
us, each person, that each has a very unique dignity in the eyes of God? For him, everyone is
important – men, women, elderly, young, children, sick, healthy, everyone. For each one of us,
Jesus gave his life. And we are so called to bring to others, to give what we have received.

So tonight we want to say thank you Jesus because you found it – your church on the witnesses
of the twelve apostles. Thank you because you called them, you trust in them, you gave yourself
to them. We say thank you Jesus because through the witness of mothers, fathers, parents,
grandparents, priests, bishops, sisters, we have received this gift of yours and we came to know
you. You are our life. You are our light. You are our strength. You are our shepherd. You are our
friend. You are the one who heals us, the one who show mercy to us. Thank you, Jesus. But give
us the strength to bring you to the others as the apostles did, as Mary did. She conceived Jesus
and she gave Him to the world.

We are called to receive Jesus, to know Him, to love him, to be loved by Him, but we are also
called to give Jesus to our people. So let us pray tonight that the intercession of the same
apostles, Simon and Jude, and all the other apostles, the prayers of all those who came before us
may give us the light of faith, can make of us witness, able to pass the treasure of the gospel, to
new generations, to other people, fulfilling our mission to love Jesus and to give Jesus.

In two years, the church in the Philippines will celebrate 500 years since the arrival of
Christianity. And the theme is ‘Gifted, (We have received a gift), to give (Any gift we have
received is to be shared)’. Let us ask by the intercession of Mary and the apostles that each one
of us can enjoy being a Christian, being a disciple of Jesus, and feel the duty, the responsibility,
and the confidence that Jesus gave us to show in words, in thoughts, and in deeds the love of
Jesus to all other people.

AMEN.