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| A view from the cloister of the Chapel |
Homily
of the Right Reverend Santos Rabang, OSB
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Daughters of
Mary Consoltarix Monastery
Readings
First Reading: Ex 34:29-35
Psalm: Ps 99:5-9
Gospel: Mt 13:44-46
My dear sisters and brothers, you
know in my encounters with Mother Alexis when she was still alive, she used to
tell me as a young priest, “Find time
to expose yourself to God, find time to soak yourself in prayer, in communion
with Him.” Well, as a young priest it was very difficult for me to understand
those pieces of advice because then my mind was set on the conceptual, the
cerebral, the theoretical and that’s why I can never thank enough Mother Alexis for what she did to me and I
really did find time to expose myself to God and that was in prayer. And, you
should have seen me before! But you know, that kind of exposure to God and soaking
myself in the ambiance of God, you know what, a tremendous transformation it
did to my life.
And so, the First Reading was
talking about the Aura of Moses, that even his
face was changed because of that constant exposure to God, soaking himself in
the wavelengths of the life of God and He did that in prayer. You might recall
that the great Theresa of Avila of Jesus, the Church’s doctor on Prayer
describes prayer as Conversing with God. It’s a kind
of a conversation taking place between the soul and God. And that’s how the
Great Theresa, the Doctor of Prayer was describing Prayer.
Well, I saw you having a book, the ICST Journal? You were reading that, brother? I
have an article there, did you go through it? Prayer according to St. Theresa of Avila. And, if you go over the Episodes of
the Bible the past days, Abraham talking to God in a
face to face conversation with God….then again Moses, talking to God in a face
to face conversation. I still have the reproduction of the Diary of Mother
Alexis you gave to me, did you find in her entries? She was talking to God, she was talking to Jesus, and she was talking to
Mary! And then one time I asked her, “Do you really talk to them in person?” Of
course, she would deny and she would say no. But if you go over the diary of Mother, she was really talking
to someone and she entered into her diary the results of her conversation and
that is exactly what Moses experienced and before him, what Abraham experienced,
talking to God. I supposed, they were talking to God about so many things but
particularly about the people God has entrusted to their care.
Let me share with you a kind of existential experience of that which Mother (Alexis) taught me. You see, Francisco, my driver has been
serving me for 38 years, No salary. And he died on an August 14, so his death
anniversary will this coming August 14th. And he
died, well how many months? June 9, July
9... 2 months after my heart attack! And so, those moments of my life at a low
ebb. And I would tell the Lord, “Lord, what are you doing with me? I have not
yet recovered from the situation of my heart attack and now you’re taking this
man (Francisco) away!” And those who were coming,
there was that elderly man who does the watering of the garden, Santong, those
of you who came there for their retreat. And he would water the garden for two
days, also, for free! After the death of Francisco, after quite some time, he
again died of heatstroke. And you know, I had to talk to God, “How is this
now? What are you doing with me?” Again and again. Yeah, like what I have been
sharing with you, all the time that I’ve been coming here when Mother was
still in good health. We would talk about my situation in Alangan. And she
would say, “stay stay stay stay!” After coming from here, “you know, God that Holy
woman up there told me to stay, Shall I stay?” The Beauty of Prayer! And as we continue exposing ourselves
to this Pearl of great price, the field that contains the treasure who is God
and we become transformed even in our external ways. And I’m sure you must have
experienced doing this, again and again, gives us a kind of a deep joy that the
world cannot really give, the Joy of Finding a Treasure like God to whom we can
go time and again especially in our moments of need. So.. What is the Word, the message of God’s word today in the Liturgy of
the Word? It is to cherish, to treasure the opportunities given us to have that
interchange with God, that conversation with Him prayer. We know that our fallen human nature is not broad to enjoy this or sometimes, again and again, we have to sort of force ourselves to get into it. I suppose
you notice, Mother (Alexis) was spending long hours in prayer eh parang hindi naman siya napapagod ano? And she was enjoying and enjoying so that must be the kind of a joy that this exchange with God gives us. I pray, we pray
that we will be able to persevere ‘till the end in these God-given opportunities to expose ourselves, our thinking, our choices, our entire life to this way of
God and this is what we call Prayer.
I think
I have shared with you time and again. Mother took pains to sort of, you know imbibe these things in me as you
know, during her stay in Rosary College in
Vigan, that was also the time I was given to activism because those where the
years that the powers that were in Ilocos Sur were very very strong which
culminated in the burning of 45 houses in Ora. I pioneered, I spearheaded the work for Justice for these people. But
there was something more that I realized
in all these works, it is the Power of God, The power of prayer which transcends all that human nature can do. Like what I shared when we went to the tomb of Mother, from
my heart I was talking to her. Of course, these three “monasterians” cannot hear, “Mother, here is
Elijah; here is Jayer; here is Marvyl!”Oh, she must have been smiling from
heaven ah! And so let’s continue, and this is your apostolate! Continuing the work that Mother did for the Church and for all of us. And, I pray that You will be the living Alexises of our modern times. Let us pause in silence for
a short while to internalize the Word of God.
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