This is the full text of the homily of Xavier University president Fr Roberto “Bobby” C Yap SJ during the celebration of the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit, commonly known as “Red Mass” on June 25 at the XU gymnasium. All photos by The Crusader Yearbook.
My dear sisters and brothers, today we ask for the outpouring of the Spirit as we begin a new school year. We request for the gifts that only the Holy Spirit can give. In particular we beg for three graces. We beseech the Spirit to gather us. We implore the Spirit to affirm us. We plead the Spirit to challenge us. Gather. Affirm. Challenge.
The Holy Spirit gathers. During Pentecost, the Spirit gathered a diverse group of people and formed them into a new community. The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2, 7-11) narrate, “They asked in utter amazement, ‘Are not all these men Galileans? How is that each of us hears them in his native tongue? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. We live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, … Yet each of us hears them speaking … about the marvels God has accomplished.”
We make the same cry at Xavier University: “Dinhi kanato mga taga-Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Butuan, ug Malaybalay. Nagagikan kita sa Maramag, Medina, ug Mambajao. We are from Misamis, Surigao and Bukidnon. We grew up in Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon. There are even visitors from other lands … Korea, Myanmar, Netherlands and France. Yet each of us hears about the marvels God has accomplished.”
As diverse as we are, we plead the Holy Spirit to gather us together. To unite us into one community. We need the Spirit to inspire us to support each other so we can become more than the sum total of our individual selves.
You exhibit the gifts I don’t have and I exhibit those you don’t have. You cry the tears I cannot cry and I laugh the laughter you cannot laugh. You believe when I struggle with doubts. I believe when you struggle with doubts. You smile when I am in tragedy. I grieve when you are in joy. Our individual pieces are partial. Our faith, our hope, and our love are quite incomplete. But the Holy Spirit gathers us into one faith family. We are formed into a vast community of mutual support. Pentecost becomes a revelation and a comfort. It tells us a mighty truth: nagkakaisa tayo at walang iwanan.
The Holy Spirit affirms. Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Gal 5, 22) teaches: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” The Holy Spirit affirms our fundamental identity. The Spirit affirms who we truly are as a Catholic university and who we are called to be.
At Ateneo de Cagayan, we implore the Spirit to affirm the Ignatian values which we profess to live by. We entreat the Spirit to affirm the values which we hold most dear, the values of Saints Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier and Peter Faber: magis, cura personalis, and finding-God-in-all-things.
We ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to uphold the Ignatian value of magis, which is the constant aspiration of following God’s will in all that we do. We ask the Spirit to instruct us how to practice cura personalis, which is a forgiving love for others. We request the Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts so we can find-God-in-all-things and see the sacredness of all creation.
The Holy Spirit challenges. John’s gospel tells of how the risen Lord gave the gift of the Spirit: “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ … Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’” (John 20, 20-21) These words speak of challenge.
We beg the Holy Spirit to challenge us to serve faithfully our mission. As a Jesuit university, Xavier participates in the Jesuit mission of reconciliation with God, reconciliation with others, and reconciliation with creation. With the recent release of Laudato Si’ (LS), Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, let us focus on the third aspect of Jesuit mission—the challenge of caring for creation, our common home.
The Pope reminds us that for Saint Francis of Assisi: “Our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.” The patron saint of ecology prayed lyrically: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs. [LS 1]”
But the Holy Father sadly points out that “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. [LS 2]”
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. [LS 53]” Pollution and climate change, scarcity of drinkable water, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, destruction of coral reefs, decline in the quality of life. “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. [LS 21]”
The Jesuit Pope implores us to pay attention “to the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest [LS 13]” and “to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. [LS 49]” Whether it is depleted fishing grounds, polluted drinking water or homes leveled by storms in rising seas, the poor suffer the worst consequences of ecological decline.
Our Santo Papa challenges us to very practical ways by which we can grow in “ecological citizenship” through a simple and sustainable lifestyle: “There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions: such as avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, … All of these reflect a generous and worthy creativity which brings out the best in human beings. [LS 211]” May the Holy Spirit challenge us all at Xavier so we can help renew the face of the earth.
My good friends of XU, the Spirit gathers, affirms and challenges. Come, Holy Spirit, gather us. Halina na, Espiritung Banal, affirm us. Umaari ka, Espiritu Santo, challenge us. Amen. Amen.