I’M writing from Orlando, Florida while attending the 2nd General Assembly of the National Association of Filipino Priests—USA. I remember fondly the first assembly that we held three years ago in Los Angeles. It was a historic moment because approximately four hundred of us, Filipino priests, ministering in different parts of the nation, gathered for the first time to celebrate our priesthood, our gifts, and all our contributions to the life and ministry of the Catholic Church in the United States of America.
This week, from November 4-7, we are convening for the second time to reflect on our assembly’s theme: Nurturing, Sharing, and Witnessing Our Call. It’s a relevant and appropriate theme during this urgent call of the Catholic Church for New Evangelization. For, indeed, as priests acting in the Person of Jesus Christ, we’re called in this particular time and in this particular place, the United States of America, to respond more vigorously to the call of the Gospel to nurture, share and witness our faith.
In his keynote address, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, spoke of the demands and challenges of new evangelization in this 21st Century. Referring to the biblical image that the Synod of Bishops used on New Evangelization, which is the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, Cardinal Tagle said that our primary challenge is to be like Jesus who was fired up for the mission despite being a “tired, weary, and thirsty traveler” to meet a Samaritan woman at a well, who was also tired, weary and thirsty. The demand of new evangelization is a “one person to another person encounter,” which can only be effective if we ourselves, as disciple missionaries, become co-travelers. Cardinal Tagle spoke firmly of this criterion of an evangelizer. He must be a fellow traveler who meets people at their own “wells” in life. Only then can evangelization continue to progress.
“While structures and institutions are important,” the Cardinal said, “evangelization happens in a deep manner when a person encounters another person.” With this in mind, the Cardinal shared a personal story several years ago when he was the bishop of Imus, Cavite. Some people kept asking him why he didn’t have an office. The bishop answered them, saying, “Well, wherever I am, that’s my office.”
Cardinal Tagle urged us to go back to this “simplicity” of ministry, of being a companion in the journey. “Individuals are waiting for a good news. It is not enough to tackle institutions,” the Cardinal argued.
As a corollary to this demand of evangelization to encounter people at their “wells”, Cardinal challenged us with the question, “Do we know the wells where people frequently go when they are weary and tired?” The bishop was alluding to the ordinary places of encounters with people including our loved ones. If Jesus was present at the well before the woman of Samaria came, we too must be at the ordinary places of encounter with people before they come.
Cardinal Tagle’s keynote speech was enough to fire us, Filipino priests, for ministry in the United States of America and every place we go. It has lightened the burden on many of us with this great task of new evangelization. We know now that the fulfilling works of evangelization are found in those one-on-one encounters with people in ordinary places. We’re also assured that, like the Samaritan woman in the Gospel, the individual persons with whom we share the joy of the Gospel, the Person of Jesus Christ, will spread this Good News to their family, relatives, friends, and neighbors.
* * *
From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
