THREE Filipino cardinals urged the faithful not to lose hope at the opening of a religious conference in UST, which sought to reflect the Jubilee Year theme and the recently concluded synod that tackled ways to make the Church more inclusive.
Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula said love and hope are reasons enough to continue on with the Catholic mission, as he reflected on the theme of the 11th Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE), “Padayon: The Synodal Witnessing of Faith.”
“Let us not give up. Let us continue on our journey. Magpadayon lang kita. Despair and sins are not reasons to stop our mission. God loves us, so we continue on living, on having faith, on serving,” Advincula said in his homily during the opening Mass on July 18.
Advincula said God would always guide and find the faithful even when they are lost.
“Such is the heart of God who persistently hopes in us. He hopes to find us even when it seems hopeless. God’s hope in our homecoming is a persisting hope, and His hope does not disappoint,” he reminded some 5,000 delegates at the Quadricentennial Pavilion.
Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, who talked about “Walking Together in Hope: Synodality and the Jubilee of Hope,” said hope is rooted in a promise not to fall into despair.
“We tend to despair about our humanity. That is why our hope is rooted in a promise. And this promise comes from the God who has decided to walk with us,” he said.
He also urged the participants to become pilgrims of hope during the Jubilee Year of Hope.
“Synodality is about walking with each other. But before we can learn to walk with each other, we must first of all be awakened to the presence of the God who has decided to walk with humanity. A God who is faithful,” the outgoing president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said.
For PCNE founder Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, hope is not wishful thinking and is instead the gift of Jesus.
“Hope is born of love and based on love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross. So we see that in Jesus, hope and love are connected. Love begets hope,” Tagle said.
“Christian hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And so, what Christian hope does is to purify our human aspirations. Hope purifies our human desires and aspirations,” he added.
Tagle, pro-prefect at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, was joined by veteran broadcast journalist Jessica Soho, basketball star LA Tenorio, and Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos in a discussion.
David and Tagle were the main resource speakers of the three-day conference. The event also featured Singaporean lay theologian Christina Keng, an expert on synodal discernment.
