the cardinal sin building . . . 4th sunday C

We are inaugurating today parts of the Jaime Cardinal Sin Building for our immediate use.  We have deprived ourselves proper classrooms for more than a year now and we are more than thrilled to come back.  In fact having postponed it twice already, the thrill has already acquired some shades of agitation.  If not for the coming of the Tilma of our Lady of Guadalupe and if not for the Candelaria we would have probably postponed this inauguration for the third time.  The Candelaria needs the building in time for the fiesta and the Lady of Guadalupe has to be enshrined.  Consistent with her role in salvation history Mary ends the long wait. 

The formal blessing will be done at the Mass of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the school year of 2016-2017 in June by the Archbishop himself.  There are still a lot of things to be done.  But in keeping with Filipino tradition, the first place in a house, and even more so the first place in a home, is always accorded to mothers.  She is therefore the first occupant, she will preside over our home and there she will show us Jesus, she will teach us about Jesus, and she will lead us to Jesus.

We have always called the seminary the heart of the diocese.  But I have always thought of it as the womb for it is the seminary that continually gives birth to the future of the church. 

As we inaugurate the seminary high school building for the use of both our Junior and Senior high school seminarians, it is important that we are reminded of three things from our readings this Sunday.

First the call of Jeremiah in our first reading.  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you."  A vocation is always God's eternal plan for each one of us.  This plan is not an afterthought; it was not an inspiration that came to mind only yesterday while you were tending the garden.  No.  It is an eternal plan, it is a plan that has always been there before you were born, it is a plan that has always been there even before you were formed in your mother's womb. 

In following this eternal plan of God, his vocation, Jeremiah will encounter a lot of difficulties and trials.  For this he will be called the weeping prophet for his many lamentations and grievances, and also for this he will model the suffering servant which would foretell the passion of Jesus appropriately read during the holy week, the week of passion. 

So is this what the vocation of Jeremiah is all about?  Is this what the plan of God is?  If we center only on what Jeremiah did as vocation then we missed the more important half in every vocation story.  And what is this missing important half.  We have missed out the "I will be with you always" part of God.  Many times we emphasize vocation as what I do.  Many times we missed out what God does, who God is for me because of what I do. In the oratory you will find printed on the ceiling the words of the Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, No estoy, yo, aqui que soy tu madre?"  Am I not here, I who am your mother?  Whenever you look at it be reminded of the other half, the very important other half of every vocation story.  Am I not here for you?

Second, in our second reading today we are reminded of what St. Paul calls "a still more excellent way."  "Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.  But I shall show you a still more excellent way."  And so St. Paul begins one of the most beautiful discourses he ever wrote, a discourse on love.  It is so beautiful it is read in almost all weddings I have ever attended.  But if only they knew the background of this text.  Actually Paul wrote this discourse on love to a community that has a very difficult time staying together.  Paul is not writing about romantic love.  He is writing about a love that unites us amidst our differences, a love that unites us even deeper because of each other's giftedness which we place at the service of one another, a love that gives us that extraordinary power to create and sustain and build our community.

I would like to address this part of the homily primarily to our benefactors, sa aton mga panday, mga pintor, mason, welder, peon, sa kay Fr. Neil, kay Engr. Abonador, kay Sr. Antonia, Sr. Inday, sa mga nagbulig sa aton sa parokya sang Lambunao, Guimbal, Tigbauan, Miagao, Januiay - sa tanan nga nagbulig patigayon agod nga mahuman ini bisan sa amat-amat lang, sa mga parents nga nagpaninguha nga makakita benefactors.  After the mass I would like all the seminarians to approach the people who have helped us and say to them thank you, and show them that you really appreciate what they have done for us, what they have done for you.  Saying thank you means "I cannot repay you, I have no resources to compensate for what you have given us, but I say thank you as my way of recognizing that there is in you that 'still more excellent way' that has built us up and sustained our community."  Thank you and may you continue to nourish in you this more excellent way.

Third, and last.  Today the kasimanwas of Jesus were very mad at him.  This was triggered when he reminded them that when the prophets of old came to do miracles and wonders, more often than not it was for Israel’s enemies and not for them.   In Naaman it was Syria that God favors over Israel, in Jesus healings were done in Capernaum a gentile town, but not in Nazareth among his fellows Jews.  This is also what makes our Lady of Guadalupe significant to our formation today.  Like Jesus, Mary went and took God into places and people where God was not thought to be and where God was thought to have no business being there.  She went with the enemies.  She went to the Aztec Indians who were looked upon as savages, immoral and sinners and made one of them an instrument of making her presence known and felt to Aztec Indians and now to all peoples of the world.  When they were ostracized she embraced them, when they were looked down she trusted and loved them.

Today as we thank God for his many gifts to us.  Let us thank the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe for choosing to be a mother to us.  May she keep us always under the fold of her mantle and be embraced in the cradle of her arms