The Good Shepherd

April 22 is Good Shepherd Sunday. April 24 is the new shepherd of Mati Diocesan bishop’s episcopal ordination day.

Good Shepherd Sunday is celebrated in all churches throughout the Catholic world. Bishop Apigo’s episcopal ordination will be celebrated in Davao City San Pedro Cathedral by Catholics of Davao City and Davao Oriental together with other bishops, priests and friends of the bishop-elect from outside Davao.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of the whole Church because His way of shepherding is uniquely and superbly good. From the gospel of John (10:11-16) we know the following: He has personal knowledge and love of everyone. He declares that every one of His sheep knows Him, listens to Him and follows Him. And He assures everyone that if anyone gets lost He would leave the rest of the sheep to look for the lost one and carry him/her back home on His shoulders to the sheep-fold.

This article is a respectful request and reminder to every bishop, priest, consecrated person and lay faithful attending the ordination in Davao and installation in Mati to pray for Bishop Apigo that the Holy Spirit will empower him with the qualities of the Good Shepherd, to be a shepherd/bishop after the heart of Jesus.

Also, they have to pray for everyone who is in-charge of some kind of shepherding—caring, serving and guiding others, Pope Francis, all bishops, all priests, all consecrated person superiors, all parents, and all lay church leaders of the Grand Sheepfold which is the Church.

The grand celebration of Good Shepherd Sunday worldwide and the minor local celebration of the episcopal ordination and installation of Bishop Abel Apigo of the Diocese of Mati are clearly a Church event in this eastern part of Mindanao. It is not a social occasion full of ostentatious colors and pageantry. It is not a cultural entertainment evoked by signs and symbols of ancient liturgy. It is, and should be, a providential moment -simple and humble- when through the Church, Jesus Christ, the High Priest and Good Shepherd, confers through the lay-on of hands by the ordaining archbishops and bishops a heavy spiritual task and mission, not of power and prestige, but of service and shepherding on a short and humble young man from Sacred Heart parish in Calinan District in Davao City, an alumnus and former Rector of Davao St. Francis Xavier Regional Major Seminary (REMASE), alumnus of Rome Pontifical Gregorian University and chairman of the Diocesan Clergy of Mindanao (DCM), Msgr. Abel Apigo.

By the graced sacrament of episcopal ordination may he grow in stature, not physically, but spiritually as shepherd and second bishop of the Diocese of Mati.