El Shaddai Amsterdam celebrates anniversary

500 years evangelization in the Philippines

Zater­dag 6 no­vem­ber vierde El Shaddai chapter Am­ster­dam de 26e ver­jaar­dag. De Mis was op het feest van de eerste geloofs­ver­kon­di­gers van onze streken. Dat kwam mooi uit, want op de Filippijnen is dit jaar 500 jaar evangeli­sa­tie her­dacht. Dat wordt op de Filippijnen her­dacht met een heilig jaar. De am­bas­sa­deur in Neder­land stond daarbij stil in een toe­spraak na afloop van de vie­ring.

Eucha­ris­tie­vie­ring

El Shaddai komt weke­lijks samen in de Vredes­kerk. De jaar­dag wordt ieder jaar gevierd met een grote gebeds­dag die dit jaar onder het motto "Geloof, liefde en een­heid" (Faith, love and unity) stond. Hier­on­der vindt U de homilie van de heilige Mis die ik zater­dag­mor­gen 6 no­vem­ber heb gevierd, in con­ce­le­bra­tie met pastoor Ruben Torres, gees­te­lijk lei­der van de ge­meen­schap, en ver­schil­lende andere pries­ters.

Toespraak

Na de Eucha­ris­tie­vie­ring her­dacht de am­bas­sa­deur van de republiek van de Filippijnen in Neder­land, Z. Exc. J. Eduardo Malaya, in een toe­spraak de 500e ver­jaar­dag van de evangeli­sa­tie van de Filippijnen en memoreerde de bijdrage van de Neder­landse missio­nairssen, onder meer van MSC (Mis­sio­na­rissen van het H. Hart) en SVD (Ge­meen­schap van het God­de­lijk Woord). Neder­landse mis­sio­na­risssen zijn zijn sinds het begin van de twin­tigste eeuw naar de Filippijnen gegaan, nu komen mis­sio­na­rissen van daar naar ons toe. Gelukkig dat we een uni­ver­se­le kerk zijn!
Het was dan ook mooi dat deze jaar­dag in dit jubileum-jaar plaatsvond op het feest van de eerste geloofs­ver­kon­di­gers van onze streken: de oproep tot missio­naire inzet raakt iedere christen.

Homily

The saints who announced the faith

(Jo. 12, 44-50)

Missionaries

It is a joy for me to be with you
on this 26th anniversary of El Shaddai Am­ster­dam.
In the Netherlands we celebrate today
all those first missionaries
who came to these low countries
to evangelize, to spread the faith.
Some of them have their own li­tur­gical feast as well,
like saint Wil­li­brord,
patron saint of our diocese
and of the church in our country,
whom we celebrate tomorrow;
and saint Boniface,
co-patron of our diocese
who spent his life as a mis­sio­na­ry
partly in our country, partly in Germany.
His feast is at the fifth of june.
But there were others
like Engelmund and Adalbert
and many, many more.

From abroad

Most of them came from abroad,
full of zeal for the gospel,
many of them were monks,
they went around
to be in touch with people,
to bring them the Word of the Lord
and to found abbeys
that started to be true centres
of catholic faith, education and culture.

Words and actions

So, today we thank God
for all these marvellous people
who preached the gospel
through their words and by their actions.
Because that is always very important:
you can preach as much as you want,
but if you do not keep the word of God
and show it through your deeds and actions,
your preaching is a lie.
Let us, too, make our faith in Jesus visible
by our love, our charity, our kindness,
our joy and humility.
Faith, love and unity!
May the joy of the Lord be your strength!

A fence around hearts

In this society
many have lost faith in God,
ma­te­ri­ally we are rich, spiritually we are poor.
Many have put their “ego” on a throne.
But Gods grace cannot reach the hearts of man
unless there is some openness,
not if we have built a fence around our hearts.
The Lord created us with a free will,
which enables us to give a free response
to the Lords invitation.
So, if human beings are determined
to reject and refuse the Word,
the Lord cannot come in their hearts,
not even with the help of grace.

However, sometimes there is a crack in a fence.

The crack

If people are very determined
to resist and reject the words of the Gospel,
there still maybe a crack in their ‘defensive works’
and God can send His grace
even through a crack in their fences.

This crack in the fence might be
that a beloved person is seriously ill,
it may be a weakness, misfortune, adversity,
something that makes people realize
that man are not self sufficient,
that earthly life is transitory
and that we all are passers-by,
not so high and mighty,
that we are beggars,
beg­ging for help.

The crack in our fence
is our salvation!
It makes us feel needy and humble,
it makes us lon­ging for God’s grace,
it opens us up to God’s grace
and God can reach our hearts.
Let’s thank God for our cracks!

Darkness

“I, the light, have come into the world,
so that whoever believes in me
need not stay in the dark any more”.
That was what Jesus told us in today’s gospel.

What is this darkness, that Jesus speaks us about?
This will be different from person to person.
This darkness might be the darkness of sin,
if we feel that we are captured by something evil,
a bad habit or addiction, for instance.
The darkness could be also sadness,
a loss, a pain,
in fact it is every circumstance
that makes our lives hard and dark.
The pro­mise of our Lord is
that we don’t have to stay forever in the dark any more.
First of all, because Jesus was risen from the death
and His new life
is a pro­mise to all of us:
that new life will be given to us as well.
So, be patient in adversities, try to look ahead,
be confi­dent that the darkness will disappear,
that the final word spoken to us
is not a word of misery and darkness,
but a word of light and hope.
Let us continue to put our trust in Jesus,
in His Word, in the holy Spirit,
who was communicated to our hearts,
in holy baptism and confirmation.

Mis­sio­na­ry task

Yes, we are called to a life of hope,
we are called to a life of faith,
we are called to spread the light of the gospel
in this world.
This Word of the gospel means eternal life.

Let us pray through the intercession
of today’s saint missionaries
that we may be able to somehow
follow their footsteps
and announce the gospel
through our words and actions.
Amen.