How will you celebrate the Jubilee for the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines?
Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, the archbishop emeritus of Cotabato, asked Catholics to witness and celebrate the gift of faith more fully.
Here are the few things you can do:
Gratitude
Quevedo said Catholics should respond to the great blessings that the Lord has given us through “gratitude”.
People, he said, should be thankful not only for the material blessings in the past 500 years but more importantly the “spiritual blessings we have been gifted” by God.
Quevedo said the celebration will not mean anything “until we say, with our lives, thank you, Lord”.
Rejoice
According to him, the faithful must “rejoice” in the gifts that God has given us over the past 5 centuries.
He asked Catholics to be happy that overseas Filipino workers are sharing the faith that they have been gifted to others in different parts of the world.
“Not so much by words but by the joy of their Eucharistic celebrations,” Quevedo said.
“The joy, dancing, singing, is a different kind Christianity that Europe has experienced in the past but now they see the joy that our own OFWs are exhibiting, demonstrating to their worship of God,” he added.
Sharing
And then, rejoicing must lead to sharing, not so much with words, but by witnessing in everyday life.
Christian witnessing, he said, is about living by the example of Jesus, “and that is what we are expected to do”.
“We rejoice in your gift, and we are determined and resolved to share that gift,” Quevedo said.
The 82-year-old cardinal was among those who graced the occasion to mark the 500th year of the earliest recorded Christian baptism in this archipelago that took place in Cebu.
The event was highlighted with a Eucharistic celebration officiated by Papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown and the baptism of 7 children at the “Magellan’s Cross” in the city of Cebu’s Plaza Sugbo.
