Service

(An excerpt from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, February 26, 2022 during the live streamed mass Ordination to Diaconate of Bro. Emmanuel V. Angelitud, OCD, at the Discalced Carmelite Fathers Holy Family Novitiate House Rambutan St., Tugbok Proper, Davao City)

Today, we are happy and full of gratitude to the Lord, that among them from their community now, one would make a formal step forward to make that commitment to serve the Church in a more formal way. A firmer expression, I want to serve the Church as a Carmelite in this ordination into one of the orders… order of deacons. Kanang serve, we heard that in the gospel reading and that service is explained quite so well in the first reading of Jeremiah. So, my dear friends what do we continue to reflect today?

First, then in this beautiful occasion the call of Emmanuel to be part of this community, he has professed that in his profession but added to be ordained as deacon. That reality to become a deacon is not like an election, we serve the people, unya karong panahona ba, we think it’s kind of the election. The service in the Church is radically different from that. I’m happy to be in this ordination. This kind, I’m not belittling that service of people in government. No, all I’m saying is as we celebrate with the Carmelite community here and with Emmanuel we realize today in this rites a kind of eternal truth that each one of us should keep, very important to keep. And what is the truth? Jeremiah tells us, before you were born in the womb of your mother I have seen you, I know you. It does not come from people’s voice of choosing. God knows us. He keeps an eye on us and He calls us. No matter what we try to be perfect, but paramount, labaw sa tanan mga igsoon in this celebration, we are reminded God has an eye on each one of us.

So therefore, ang mga Mama ug Papa diri dili lang ni sa pari. And to the Sacrament of Matrimony is the same with Jeremiah. Dili lang na mura’g romantic nga I love you, nagkita mi sa mall, pagkakita naku sa mall pagkagwapa, one year after gikasal mi. No, for the great vocation to be mothers and fathers, God sees our pain and you enter into marriage. And you have a sacred duty in the larger community of God’s people. Beautiful, marriage. And let me add on top of that…sometimes the Lord would see you to be really a good teacher and eternal teacher. One would mold young people to be great sons and daughters of God. God sees you and keeps you as sacred calling. All the more Emmanuel that is not open said of marriage, of teachers, of excellent farmers who love the earth but also so explicitly said in your prayer.

Also to Emmanuel yes, you have your own YES but that is only a response to the yes of the Lord looking at you. So that is what the celebration today tells us. We thank the Lord for that graciousness to guide us, to engage the world in many ways. But now, we thank God, another ordained minister in the Church as deacon. We thank the Lord hopefully that seeing Emmanuel maybe young people would say kanindot sa Carmelites da. I think the Lord is calling me, I think I hear and sense that eternal calling from the Lord. That is the beauty of this celebration. It is not the calling of a very temporal, I see myself as an excellent lawyer getting thousands per case? Because the mixture my dear friends, a good mother and a good father does not come to quest, a good mother, a good father does not see an investment in children. They simply pour out love, of their love of their children, because it is the call of the Father. The same with Emmanuel, the standard of response is quite different from this world. You know that. It is like a losing proposition in the eyes of the world. Yet ,I saw Emmanuel from the start of the Mass with a smile. Knowing of it that is a losing proposition but when we answer the Lord like Jeremiah there is joy beyond imagine.