EAO Provincials Meet
Homily on Monday, 2nd Week of Lent, 2 March 2026, DBRH Lawaan, Talisay City
Before anything else, I thank Fr Randy, our Vicar, for having done the honor of officially welcoming you today in the FIS Province. On my part, I would like also to express how happy and honoured we are to host this East Asia Oceania (EAO) Provincials Meeting here in our Retreat House. Thank you, Fr Will Matthews, for accepting our offer. We hope that you have been able to settle down calmly in your rooms through the help of our staff, and that you have begun to feel at home. Just let us know if you have any particular need so that we can attend to it as soon as we can.
We have just entered the second week of our Lenten preparation for Easter. Just yesterday we celebrated the Lord’s transfiguration on the summit of Mt Tabor. Today we find ourselves on a Filipino version of Tabor, the hilltop of Don Bosco Lawaan. Every year for the past 25 years or so, our confreres would come up here to rest from our labours and bond with the Lord for a week-long retreat. I don’t really know if anyone of us had ever experienced being transfigured here. But I guess, secretly, there had been. I speak of countless cases of transformations among retreatants not only from wolves to lambs and sheep, but also from sheep to shepherds.
Aside from that, every three years we would gather here for our Provincial Chapter to seek God’s enlightenment and discern his will and plan for our way forward as a Province. Moreover, this place has also served as the venue for various EAO gatherings in the past, like the recently held Formation of New Rectors facilitated by Br Mon Callo.
Today we, the Provincials of EAO, have this house and the entire hill just for us. It is God who has brought us here from our busy schedules in order to have a quiet time with Him, facilitated by Fr Will Matthews, our Regional, Fidel Orendain, Gen. Councilor for Social Communication and Fr Rafael Bejarano, Gen. Councilor for Youth Ministry. But this is also our time to bond with our fellow Provincials who had been tasked to animate and govern our Provinces.
At this point we might ask: what could God’s message be for us, who have accepted the call to a more challenging service in our respective Provinces? These coming days what could his big surprise be for us who had been carrying the burden of this leadership responsibility, some for the past few months, while others for the past five or six years? What is it that the Lord is asking us to do so we can see miracles beyond water turning into wine?
For now, we might not know it yet. But at this moment of our Eucharistic celebration, we can only express the same sentiments as that of the Prophet Daniel in today’s first reading (Dn 9:4b-10): “We have sinned and have done evil… We are shamefaced even to this day.”
In fact, beyond the windows of this chapel we see through the screens of our smart phones what is really happening in the world outside today – the evil effects of war particularly in the Middle East. But looking back at the smaller world of some of the communities in our Provinces, we realize that actually the conflict and dissent in the world outside is just mirroring the many conflicts in our world within. It will be a big lie if we say that our Provinces are absolutely free from any conflict and that confreres are living in perfect harmony. And so, we too are sometimes put to shame for contributing to the world’s situation of conflict and the absence of peace.
Therefore, right at the very start of this “historic” meeting of the EAO Provincials, we gather first to humbly beg for God’s mercy and compassion for all our sins – not only the sins of world leaders, but also for our own faults and the failures of our confreres to build communities of love, peace and harmony. The good news is that the Responsorial Psalm gives us the very words to express best the compunction in our hearts “Lord, do not deal with us as our sins deserve” (Psalm 79).
Let us push our reflection a little further. When we consider more closely the gospel passage we have just heard (Lk 6:36-38), we realize that we who beg for God’s mercy are at the same time challenged to be ministers of his mercy. Jesus’ command to his disciples is indeed super challenging “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
As this grace-filled meeting unfolds in the coming days, let us implore God to transfigure us by the power of these sacrament, and to grant each and every one of us the same heart of his Son, a heart of boundless mercy and compassion particularly for our confreres under our pastoral care, most especially for those in crisis, in transition, or in difficult situation. Let none of us be accused of judging and of condemning anyone, so that on the day when we shall make our final “rendiconto” to the Chief Shepherd, we may not be judged and condemned but may experience the embrace of his love and mercy for all eternity. GiGsss!
