Celebrate, Live and Share the Faith

(An excerpt from the Homily of Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, D.D., Archbishop of Davao, April 10, 2021 during the Eucharistic Celebration and Solemn Opening of Holy Door of Sta. Ana Shrine Parish)

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, Happy Easter kaninyong tanan! Every mass in the octave of Easter, octave (otso), octagon, 8 days mura na’g domingo. Every Sunday of every day of the octave is overflowing joy.

But that happiness is particularly overflowing for us in this Shrine Parish of Sta. Ana because today as you have heard, we open and formally declare this Parish Church as a Jubilee Church. And ang importante nga feature of that, being a Jubilee Church, is the Opening of the Holy Door or we call it the Jubilee Door that we just opened a few minutes ago.

I never thought that I did not think that the quincentennial of our faith in the Philippines would be in my calendar of my life. And becoming a Bishop, a Priest, Archbishop and wonderful place like Davao, that I’ll be given the grace together with you to celebrate these days, joyous days. In fact, one year, year-long commemoration of the 500 years of Christianity in our islands, in our nation.

Now, when we’re planning for this year-long, for this special jubilee it took sometime mga 4 years ago to slowly plan, we thought of beginning this year with remembering the first mass in the country. And then another feature, two very important features, daghang mga events for this year but ang duha ka importanteng historical events that we call events that happened 500 years ago would be the Mass and first Baptism in Cebu. So were planning, were getting more details so it was April 4, beginning of 2021 and ending April 22 of next year.

Now, why is it that it’s April 4, last April 4, Easter Sunday? And therefore, we today, we are just in the first days of the Jubilee Year, of the special year, first day pa lang. But, why April 4? When good students of history would say, Archbishop, the first mass was on March 31, 1521. But don’t get scandalized, that’s all I memorized too even catholic schools. Nobody, only later that we are told that that March 21-31, 1521 mass was an Easter Sunday mass. Only very recently that emphasized it was just not a daily mass, it was an Easter Sunday mass. That’s why, I saw one article, maybe because they arrived set foot in the island of Homonhon, dili March 16 but March 17. And they moved to Limasawa and there, March 31 they celebrated the first mass. So, probably my dear brothers and sisters, they must have celebrated mass that is Holy Week. But maybe because of the import that it was Easter Sunday, make a record of it that is just conjecture. Many times lang karon mobutang sila first recorded mass in the country, Easter mass.

So, last Sunday with that beautiful realization, April 4 mao tong Easter Sunday pud 500 years ago ang atong unang misa recorded was an Easter Sunday mass. In Cebu, there is Wednesday, we would remember April 14 the first baptisms and we would remember the date April 14. But upon examination actually ang April 14 in 1521, 500 years ago was also a Sunday, Third Sunday of Easter. Remember, ayaw mo kalain ang nindot gyud nga adlaw sa ting bunyag dili ang adlaw nga magtapok ta. Huwebes nalang kay si kumpare maoy motambong, mao man na atoa. Huwebes nalang kay ang tig-lechon makalechon siya’g huwebes. No, before, the day was very important, Sunday was a day of baptisms. So we are in it, April 4 Easter Sunday and we plan many things.

And then pandemic na, we thought why not ask the Holy Father the usual, mga kustombre if will we have a Jubilee Year in the Church? So we wrote to the Holy Father asking if he can declare special churches, pilgrimage Churches. And sa meeting namo niingon pa nga, di lang nato cathedral ang pangayoon sa Santo Papa kay pandemic man, let us explain. Ako ma’y naghimo sa sulat, explain nga the more Holy Father, the better so that our people can go to these pilgrimage Churches. So we wrote and we ask, pwede ba?

Very nice, beautiful customs, pwede ba with the Jubilee Door in each parish within a diocese? So, I wrote. That’s why I included Sta. Ana, wala ko mananghid sa kura paroko kay gadali man mi. So later on na misulat ko Fr. Junar, mosugot ba ka nga Jubilee Church ang Sta. Ana? Buotan, nisugot man pud, tanang mga pari nisugot. And we had the reply from the Holy See that yes, all the churches nga gihinganlan are approved by the Holy Father with holy door.

And another feature, every time that we make in the spirit of pilgrimage and prayer, we go to that Jubilee Church like Sta. Ana. Special graces will be granted to us especially the grace of plenary indulgence.