Homily on Tuesday, 10th Week in OT, 13 June 2023, the Memorial of St. Anthony de Padua
Once there was a priest who went out to preach the Gospel to a certain village located by the sea. He spoke so well that he held his audience captive by his words. However when he started preaching about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, his listeners suddenly started walking away until the priest was left alone preaching to no one. Most of the people there were actually heretics. So the priest being so disappointed turned around and faced the sea and continued preaching with even much more zeal, so much so that suddenly the fishes started jumping out of the water one by one, and forming a line on dry ground, they began listening to him, to the amazement of those watching from a distance.
Would you know the name of that amazing preacher? Yes, he was St. Anthony of Padua (Italy). Saint Anthony is well known today for his being the patron of people who are losing things, or who have misplaced things elsewhere and could not find them: eyeglasses, car keys, cell phones, etc. On a personal note he is one of my favourite saints in as much as I often forget where I put my things and sometimes even lose them. But almost every time I pray to St Anthony, saying “Sant’Antonio, pray for me. Tulungan mo po akong mahanap ang nawawala ko” I would get to retrieve what I have lost.
More important than that, St. Anthony is widely known as a Doctor of the Church. Coming from a noble family, and being a son of a knight of the court of King Alfonso II of Portugal, he had the opportunity to study. And so he became a learned and educated man. Later he became an Augustinian, but only for a short while, because after having been inspired by five Franciscan Friars who were martyred in Morocco in 1221, he changed his mind, joined the Franciscans and eventually went to the missions in Morocco, North Africa, to preach the Gospel there. But after becoming sick he had to be sent back to Italy, where he would spend the rest of his life preaching, writing and performing wondrous deeds in Jesus’ name.
Dear brothers and sisters, as we gather here to celebrate the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, we as a PIL (Paul VI Institute of Liturgy) community pray that the Holy Spirit may be our light and strength during these days of our stay here in this beautiful monastery. May St. Anthony, who is a great devotee of the Eucharist and a staunch defender of the Church’s doctrine on the real presence of Jesus in the consecrated host, inspire us to take our liturgical formation seriously but also joyfully so that the Lord may make use of us as his instruments in spreading the Good News, especially the good news about the beautiful Liturgy of Vatican II. And consequently, we will truly become the light of the world and the salt of the earth for all the people we serve. GiGsss!
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