The Homily of His Excellency, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines ( Closing Mass of the Cuaresma Exhibit)

The Homily of His Excellency, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines (given as Celebrant during the Closing Mass of the Cuaresma Exhibit, Harrison Plaza Annex Bldg., February 17, 2008)

The Homily of His Excellency, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines (given as Celebrant during the Closing Mass of the Cuaresma Exhibit, Harrison Plaza Annex Bldg., February 17, 2008)

I am happy to have been invited by Mr. Clifford T. Chua, and the Hermandad de la Sagrada Pasion de Jesus, to be here this afternoon to close this Lenten exhibit. For these past ten days, the Exhibit has fittingly helped us begin the season of Lent well.

These images are significat not only because they are part of a heritage, precious images thaty come from various parts of the Country and elsewhere. But, in particular, the images are special because they are important icons of our Catholic religion. They recall to us that real dimensions of existence that we do not see, the dimension of faith, without which our life has no meaning and no hope. The season of Lent, Cuaresma, our annual forty day retreat, enables us to confirm our belief, and the "santos", these sacred images, powerfully help us remember and to pray.

I greet all those connected with this exhibit and all here present and, in the name of the Holy Father, I invoke on them God's blessing

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"How good it is for us to be here". "Get up let us go".

We are on Mount Tabor with Peter, James and John. The Lord has appeared tranfigured. There is an atmosphere of glory and unspeakable peace; it covers the mountain and everyone. There is an atmosphere of glory and unspeakable peace; it covers the mountain and everyone. For the three apostles, it is like coming into a quiet port after a violent storm at sea. Their cares are far off, they see all so clearly, the joy is overwhelming. They want to stay there for ever. "How good it is is for us to be here", Peter says to them: "Get up"; calmly they go down the mountain with Him, where they see the crowd and the other apostles waiting for them. Once again they feel tired, uncertain, sad sinful.

This scene in today's Gospel illustrates something which every Christian, at one time or other, has to have experienced in his or her life: a moment of great peace, when there seem to be no difficulties, when people understand each other, when we are content with our work, when life seems beautiful and full of promise for the future. At such a moment we are on Mt. Tabor, and we don't want to leave, to abandon that wonderful peace and happiness. We don't want to hear of pain, of sadness. We want to stay on the mountain for ever. We too say "How good it is for us to be here".

Sometimes the Lord in his plan for us allows us to stay at some length of time on the mountain top. But more often than not, He comes close to us, shakes us, and says also to us: "Get up", and sends us back into the vortex of life with its problems, its contradictions, its diffeiculties, its uncertainty.

This is the destiny of all human beings, whether they be believers or non-believers. In this we are all equal. Even the atheist at times has his Mount Tabor which sadly he too has to abandon. The difference comes in the attitude that is taken when happiness gives way to the cross. Here the disciples of Jesus must distinguish themselves from those who hae no faith. How? By the response we give to the words "Get up".

For Abraham, this voice of the Lord was expressed in the words: "Leave your Country, the land of your fathers". He was so well off there among his people; he was happily married to Sarah. Then this mysterious voice of the Lords told him to "Get up and go". It was hard but infact it was agift to Abraham, because what God promised him was much more than what he asked of him. "In you will be blessed all the families of the earth". And so "Abraham left his Country as the Lord has told him". This moment in the life of Abraham shows us what faith is all about. And for this reason we can continue to consider this old man, this shepherd of 4000 years ago, "our father in faith". God called him, he replied with his "yes", trusted in the Almighty, even if he didn't know exactly what awaited him.

The Church calls is in reality to repeat and to make our own the experience of Abraham and that of the apostles on Mount Tabor: to do what is hard and what we would rather not do, to get up and to follow our Lord down the mountian.

The country indicated for Abraham was the promised land, Palestine; for us it is the Kingdom of God: and not only the Kingdom of God after our death, but the one which is "among us" now on this earth, and for whose coming we pray in the "Our Father"; that Kingdom of God which is nothing other than the will of God for me, which he is waiting for me to do. "Thy Kingdom come" means "thy will be done". To get up and go down from Tabor doesn't mean anything other than doing what God wants of us now.

But we must put these words into action, and this is what Lent provides us with an opportunity to do: to show God that we are serious. The three apostles would have never come to the luminous joy of Easter if they had stayed up on Mount Tabor, in the shade of their tents. We too won't reach it if we do not follow our Lord with determination, with courage. Jesus comes close to us now, as he did to Peter, James, and John on Tabor: He invites us to go down the mountain with Him and to follow him to Jerusalem. He says to us: "Get up, let us go". Amen.