Memorial of St. John Baptiste-Marie Vianney (Part 2 of 2)

Excerpts from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, during the Memorial of St. John Baptiste-Marie Vianney, August 4, 2020.

In relation to people, John Marie Vianney has a very important first step. He says, open your heart that your heart is not only for priests maybe for all but especially for priests. Open you heart so that the word of God may enter it, take root in it and bear fruit there for eternal life. The work of John Marie Vianney was not only external, serving people, yes, but his main struggle, endeavor, tinguha is to allow the Lord to be in his heart and bear fruit. And the fruit we know now as he is a very famous saint. Now in that struggle to keep the word of God, Jesus in our heart, we have two important lessons in today’s liturgy coming from the scripture especially for priests.

I think the first lesson is again to believe the presence of Jesus in our lives, to believe that that presence is always a presence of conversion, the availability for us to be graced again, to be blessed again because the first part of the readings, terrible ang description first half almost. “For thus says the Lord, incurable is your wound, grievous your bruise, there is none to plead your cause­­­.” Pagkalooy ninyo, no remedy for your running sore — sore ba, kanang imong samad nga dako ba dugay na, kay ug presko murag wound man na, kaning sore gina-na ni, no remedy for your running sore. Na-ospital ko mao nay kahadlokan nila, hadlok sila og kanang bed sores didto ko nakadiskubre nga ang pangutan-an diay sa ospital ug bed sores, ang mga nurses diay mao ng conscious kaayo sila nga nag bed sores pa ko, that a sideline. All your lovers have forgotten you — pagkalooy, they do not seek you — di na motext sa imoha, I struck you as an enemy would strike — ah sakita uy aray, punish you fully, why cry out over your wound, your pain is without relief — grabe man ning 1st reading uy.

Kita mga pari maminaw ani mura man ni’g hopeless. But no, in the 2nd reading unsa ng complete term, 360 turn almost contradicting itself, he says, thus says the Lord, it’s Jeremiah, see I will restore the tents of Judah, his dwellings I will pity, city shall be rebuilt upon hill and palace restored as it was, from then will resound songs of praise — wala nay bed sores. The laughter of happy men and women, I will make them not few but many on and on and on. Maybe I would make an educated guess, Marie Vianney was so sure of this so that his encounter with people burdened by their sins almost hopeless in themselves, Marie Vianney was able in his own way to minister to them with such flavor of availability of conversion, of grace, mercy and healing. We cannot simply, wala tay dating if we don’t allow it to be there so real in our hearts, in our self.

The second lesson for today, priest for all of us, their many situations in life when we have storms like the gospel reading and yes we cry out to the Lord. Ang Lord usahay murag “wak-wak” nga makit-an ni Ramir, is a ghost sometimes, we can’t recognize Him so well but now it is the Lord, yes it is the Lord. And somehow life is life, but crucial is the moment when the Lord would say “come,” kutob ra ta it is the Lord, ikaw diay. But the Lord says, “Come, come” and may we be like St. Peter in today’s gospel reading and I would guess like Marie Vianney in his life he would always trust the Lord and obey Him when He says “come”.

My dear brothers I think it is safe to say all of us are experiencing storms in our ministry, in our life as lay faithful, yes and we pray to the Lord we will recognize Him but many times the crucial moment is when the Lord says “will you continue to be faithful to your husband, to your wife.” Yesterday you were so bastos, you were so terrible, you were so harsh. Romulo can you be good tomorrow, come. And even Peter who made initial steps fell again in the water because of lack of faith. Jesus was there to save him. Marie Vianney, I think was so aware of this so real in his life that he became in his own way, a great saint and a great model for the priest of the church and for all of us.