Contemplative Catechists
Homily on Wednesday, 22nd Week in OT, 6 September 2023
Yesterday I was in Lawaan to concelebrate in the graduation Mass of twenty-one (21) of our graduates who received the “Missio Canonica” from Bp Midyphil Billones, Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu. Thirteen (13) of them finished the Evangelium program (a two-year diploma course on Catechetics and Youth Ministry) while the rest of the eight finished the four-year college degree in AB Religious Education and Pastoral Communication. What is remarkable about these graduates is that despite the difficulties and trials caused by the pandemic lockdown they pursued their studies and persevered until the end.
In his homily Bishop Dodong exhorted our new catechists and Re-Ed teachers to be committed in teaching and spreading the Catholic faith notwithstanding the trials they will meet along the way. But more importantly he emphasized the primacy of spending time to pray and contemplate on God’s Word before sharing it with others. In a way he was telling everyone that catechists must first of all be contemplatives.
In today’ gospel we see Jesus working out a very surprising miracle in Capernaum, the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law who had been sick with a severe fever. Jesus must have known all the while that his disciple’s mother-in-law was seriously ill. And so upon entering the room, he approached her, grasped her hand, and helped her get up from the bed. Amazingly she was healed instantly and started preparing some food for her healer and honored guest.
But the most exciting part of the gospel story is when people heard what happened to Simon’s mother-in-law, they started bringing to Jesus all the sick and those possessed by demons. And amazingly they too were all cured. Where did Jesus get his power to teach and to heal? The last part of the today’s narrative reveals his secret. Jesus left the crowd and withdrew to a deserted place to pray.
Brothers and sisters Jesus is inviting us to continue following him in order to learn from him the way to do ministry. By his example he is teaching us the importance of being firmly united with him in prayer, of listening reflectively on his Word and of contemplating on it before we share it with others. We believe and are convinced that only by doing so can we truly become abundantly fruitful in the Lord’s vineyard, especially in our ministry of educating and evangelizing the young.
May this Eucharist unite us more closely to Jesus and empower us to do our ministry in the way he wants us to. GiGsss!
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