Daily I Die
Homily on Friday, 11th Week in OT; 20 June 2025, FSpIF Chapel, Talamban
Quotidie morior. This short Latin statement means “Daily I die.” I learned it from my Novice Master Fr Jose Carbonell who used to tell us that religious life is a daily dying to oneself so that Christ may live in us.
Our Novitiate formation in Don Bosco Canlubang 41 years ago was not really marked by very difficult trials and tribulations. But I would say it offered us the chance to die to our own selves because of the daily routine of prayer, study, manual work, rest and recreation, not to mention the monotony of being with the same persons – batchmates and formators alike – 24/7.
Today this same Latin statement continues to challenge me as I begin a new chapter in my Salesian life and priestly ministry. And I feel more and more scared as I reflect on today’s first reading. In his second letter to the Corinthians, we find an amazingly zealous St Paul full of pride not for his achievements but rather for his human weaknesses. While he claims that he as a preacher had been qualified by his noble human origins what actually made him surpass the false preachers were the enormous trials, troubles and tribulations he had to face in order to preach the Gospel of Christ to the nations. It was as if he was telling them “Quotidie morior” that is, “Daily I have been dying to myself in order to make Christ live in you.”
And to show this more evidently, St Paul in his letter began enumerating one by one the trials he had so far experienced as an apostle of Christ: imprisonment, beatings with rods, scourging with forty-nine (49) lashes, shipwreck, toil, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, fasting and dangers of all sorts.
That is why as I begin this new responsibility that has befallen upon me, I feel more and more scared of the trials I will be facing, and of the daily dying to self I have to undergo; a dying which already began in the novitiate but needs to happen even today. Nevertheless, while St Paul feels good boasting of his weakness, I too feel the same way about my own inadequacies knowing that God’s grace will certainly be sufficient for me.
As Christ our Lord has often taught, true leadership in the Christian community is not about positions of power, but rather about positions of selfless service. It offers us a greater opportunity to take up the much heavier cross… to die to oneself and to let the light of Christ shine more brightly. Hopefully by doing so, we who have been appointed servant leaders shall be storing up real treasure in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroy not thieves break in and steal. GiGsss!
P.S. Please say a little prayer for me as I do for you.
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