Fr. Ted Kalaw, CRM
To my brother priests Adornos, to our seminarians in formation, to my beloved brother priest friends who are present, to our dear consecrated religious from various groups, including the Felician Sisters and the Sisters of Life from New York, to the members of the third Order of Carmelites, my dear supporters of the Adorno Fathers, our parishioners, my dear people of God, Good evening.
John the Baptist as described in the Scriptures as a bewildering and bedraggled wild man who says strange things, shows a different face in today’s reading. If I were a sculptor or a painter, it would be quite difficult to create an artwork based on his usual description. Perhaps, a solid rock would be a more fitting representation of John the Baptist. In today’s reading, John the Baptist was happy, smiling, and content because he has heard of the Messiah.
When a person smiles it only indicates happiness or fulfillment. Yes , John The Baptist was very happy because he heard of the Messiah.
John Bert, Bamboo as we often call you, today like John the Baptist we are happy for you, not because we made you the messiah but because through you Jesus will show his works to us through your selfless act of consecration to this religious family. Momentarily, you will kneel before this consecrated altar to profess and express your consent to fully consecrate your full life, your mind, your thoughts, your body, your being and every fiber of your humanity for the sake of the Gospel. This reminds me of John the Baptist who consecrated his life for this purpose, to make the Jesus, our messiah come to us through the words, works and self- denial.
Yes, John The Baptist can be an icon of religious life. He left a very promising worldly life that could have made him the high priest of the temple. We all know from scripture how self-serving the Pharisees are and how corrupted the temple was, for this reason John did not want to become part of any of these things. He left for the Desert and there his voice became loud and clear for there were no other disturbances. Yes we need to go to the desert at times so we can hear our voice blend with the voice of God.
Just like John the Baptist, Bamboo hailed from the humble and rustic town of Labo, Camarines Norte. This young man, could have chosen the road that other young man had chosen before –corporate life, entrepreneurship. However, he had chosen the road less travelled upon, the road towards Christ. The journey towards this road has not been easy. Bamboo had his fair share of challenges, walking through graveled paths after graveled paths during his formative years as a seminarian.
It did not become an easy journey for you. You had your own troubles before your seminary life, during, and you will have more to come, but God never fails you and never gets tired of calling you to be with him and to listen to him. Like our young Samuel in the first reading today, he heard God’s voice so many times and yet he became uncertain about whose voice was calling him. He needed to hear it a couple of times so as to understand whose voice it actually was.
Nevertheless, it may not be the actual experience for you and me now, like that of Samuel, our minds are filled with many wants and desire, Yes there are too many voices competing with the voice of God. There are voices of success, wealth, popularity, power, fame and lust, very loud and very clear. But these are strange voices, voices that do not care, voices that consume, voices that do not satisfy our inner self. He only realized that it was the voice of God through the help of Eli who helped him in his discernment. Eli is familiar with the voice of God, a voice very gentle and calming, a voice of love. Imitate Samuel and John the Baptist, discern always. Make sure you understand fully the voice that calls you to continually respond. It must be clear to you and you must be familiar with the voice of the only one who loves, who cares, who created and who died for you, the voice of the only living humble God, Jesus our true Shepherd. The voice must speak of love, mercy and service. You do not hear this voice alone, you hear it in the community that helps you be transformed to be the religious God called you to be. Always discern and listen with your community guided by your superior.
Our Founder St. Francis Caracciolo left us a very powerful practice, tradition and spirituality, ….the Eucharist. St. Francis Caracciolo consecrated himself before the Eucharistic Lord. He spent hours and hours in Adoration, just being there because he knew and he listened to the voice of the one who called him, our Eucharistic Lord. He expressed it into his prayer as he said:
Most sweet God of my soul, you are my inheritance, heritage and wealth. Most beloved author of my life, to you I sacrifice my heart and my soul. You, the most beautiful of all human beauty, embrace me in the fire of your beauty. Allow me, Oh most sweet God that nothing else satisfies me but your own beauty.
This was Written by St. Francis Caracciolo while he was at prayer in one of our houses in Spain.
See in this prayer how our holy founder was captivated with the beauty of the Eucharist that radiated his soul. He was captivated by that and therefore you must imitate this so that we too must behold the beauty of God being revealed to us in this mystery. For us my brother, this is the highlight of our religious journey. We celebrate it with solemnity because it gives thanks and glory to our Lord for the beauty of the vocation he called us to and he leads us.
Issues in life:
Do not make yourself too important. It must be clear to you that you become a religious not because you are very good, you are very important, you are very talented, you are very handsome, you are the best,….. But put and mold into your mind and heart that God called you because he loves you, he has mercy on you and you will do his works and not yours… For this very purpose we must heed his call, He must increase and I must decrease. My friend, keep this in your mind and heart, you and I and all of us here will never be equal to the God who calls us. He calls us to be his disciples and servants, not lords and kings. He must increase and I must decrease. We do this “For the Greater Glory of the Rising Christ”… Yes Archbishop Bruno Forte during a Mass at our General Dieta, preached to us about the importance of this Motto. “That Jesus is not a historical Jesus”. Jesus is not confined to the words and texts of the scripture. That Jesus death, resurrection and presence is not in the past, He is very much alive now and he died and rose for us with all the good works we are doing in the name of Christ. We make him present today in the flesh. We make him known then not in words but in our actions that are, translated in the flesh. He is alive most especially in the service we render to one another.
Bamboo, John Bert, my dear friends of Christ, I thank you for coming tonight to this celebration. We the Adorno Fathers and Brothers are very thankful for your continued support and prayers. Tonight we will witness before our eyes, like the apostles, Peter, James and John at Mt. Tabor, that it is good to be here for Jesus who will show his glory through the good works he has begun in us. This solemn profession, this consecration to the Lord through the vows of Chastity, obedience, poverty and not seeking ecclesiastical dignities is not meant for us to be exulted, like john the Baptist, it is meant for us to point to the Rising Christ in our life. Through our love for each other, our listening and submitting ourselves to our superior and living a simple poor life, we represent Jesus alive and not historical.
My Dear friends, people of God, help us to live this life faithfully and do not attack our weaknesses. Encourage us to live a holy life and help us to remain in our community. Do not let us be dragged away from our community life by giving us personal money, by inviting us into indecent places, by clothing us with expensive and branded clothes or luring us into indecent relationships. We solely belong to Christ and are married now to Christ.
And to you my dear religious brothers, clothe yourselves with the love of God and live your consecration. Maintain your charity and your bond of brotherhood. Pray together, dialogue and help one another. No one is called among us to be great, because we are always confronted with the reality that there is only one who is great, our Dear Lord who was crucified on the cross. No other heroic and sublime life can surpass that love. In our lives, there should be no competition, rather unity and encouragement in the midst of humiliation and humility in the experience of success. Pray together, for we read in the Scriptures, when there are two or three gathered in his name, he is among them. Our primary strength and power comes from the quality of our community life. Community life is not what you see outside, it is what is within. The things you see outside the windows of your life do not belong to you, it belongs to others, do not desire it, it is very dangerous; but take care of what is within, that is a treasure and that’s why you house it, it is yours, love them…. The last note…. because I know this is too long… Love one another not the way we want to love each other but the way God, Jesus love us… all your life for the sake of your brother… God bless:
Let me leave you with these words composed by Archbishop of Chieti, Bruno Forte:
Pray for us, Saint Francis, adorer of God, hunter of souls!
You did not hesitate to leave everything to belong completely to Christ, your Lord. Teach us to love interior silence; teach us fidelity in listening to the Beloved; teach us perseverance in humbly allowing ourselves to be loved by the living God.
You, who made yourself all things for all people to bring to every heart in every way the joy and beauty of the Gospel, obtain for us burning charity, to make us humble, luminous witnesses of divine Love in every one of our decisions, actions and thoughts.
Pray for us, Saint Francis, expert in spending your days and nights consumed with burning love under the sun of God! Amen.
Congratulations and may God be praised!