Becoming Servant-Leaders of the Word in the Church today

Homily of Bishop Sofronio Bancud
at the Close of the 22nd National Bible Workshop
5-8 February 2018, Cebu City

Dear fellow Servant-Leaders of the Word: Maayong buntag/udto kaninyo nga tanan!

These past few days, without any doubt, have been a grace-filled and faith-inspiring encounter for all of us! And for me, it’s always heart-warming to see your familiar faces, especially those who have been part of this biblical apostolate even long before I came to chair this Commission. Actually, having come from the different communities, dioceses and archdioceses of this archipelago, I’m inclined to call this event a biblical ‘family reunion’, for indeed ours is a family of tireless servant-leaders and proclaimers of the Word of God. Such is the mission we have assumed for ourselves, and there is something or Someone that especially binds us all as a religious family, and that is Jesus, the Word of God-made-man. He is the One who has called us to be His servants and for whom we have committed our lives and our apostolate. In many and marvelous ways, the Good News preached by Jesus more than two thousand years ago never fails to touch the very core of our being that like St. Paul, our souls are restless and our hearts exclaim in faithful obedience: “…woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).

At this opportune time of the Catholic Church’s history in this part of the world, while preparing also for the celebration of the 500 years of Christianity and the Catholic faith in this country, we are likewise blessed to be able to hold this National Bible Workshop in this place where the first missionaries in 1521 preached the Word of God and where the Christian Cross was also planted by Magellan and his companions. By God’s loving providence, it is in this land that the Good News was first brought and generously received by our forefathers with an obedience of faith that helped set on fire the great work of evangelization. Today we stand proudly in the same place where the humble and challenging beginnings of Christianization took root – inspired by what the early missionaries had accomplished, grateful for the faith we have received and privileged to be part of a Church “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph 2:20).

But at the same time, this memory of the evangelization of our beloved country compels us to reflect more deeply into the realities of the present time and the challenges that we as a Church must address today, and that certainly includes our faith and our personal commitment to the biblical apostolate. In the conciliar document of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines held in 1991, this observation and challenge was already noted:

“For us Filipinos, the first century of the coming millennium will mark the 500th year since we as a people first accepted the faith. And we ask: Has that faith, does that faith, make any difference in our life, in our nation?”

The same question, I believe, still begs for an honest answer even to this very day and we can only bow in humility at the realizations and insights that might come to mind. Interestingly, the same conciliar document prophetically and fittingly describes the situation we still find ourselves now:

“If we go by the media reporting today on crimes of violence, graft and corruption, abuse of power, the many grave social ills that plague our nation, we have to wonder about our claims to Christianity.”

And so, without exaggerating our failures or even minimizing them, neither boasting about our accomplishments nor dismissing them naively, we further ask ourselves:

“Where are we today in the face of our present realities – as bishops and priests, as religious and laity? What does our corporate faith have to say and do – to the Philippines and the world now?”

In this light, my brothers and sisters, how then do we understand our role and our responsibility as servants of the Word and as “ambassadors for Christ”? (2 Cor 5:20)

While we cannot promise effective and clear-cut solutions to the evils that plague our society and our Church today, still we have to ask these questions anew to reawaken our consciousness of our identity as servant-leaders of the Word and to rekindle in our hearts the same joy and zeal for Christ that brought the first missionaries to our land despite all dangers and uncertainties. We have built on what they had accomplished and, rooted in the realities of our culture and our times, we pursue the same command that Jesus gave his Apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Therefore, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ is what we can fundamentally offer to a country fragmented by violence and hatred, by political affiliations and selfish interests, with the goal of renewing and uniting everything in Christ. In this regard, we take counsel from St. Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles: “…I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable…” (2 Tim 4:1-2). In order, however, to sustain our missionary efforts and ensure the constancy of our commitment, it is important that we never lose sight of that which most profoundly motivates us – “the love of Christ that urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14). As Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii gaudium:

“The primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of him.”

Reflecting then on the present realities in light of the forthcoming celebration of the 5th centenary of Christianity in this country, we, your bishops have clearly pointed out in our Pastoral Letter that, as we embark on preparation and renewal, our focus will be on faith, evangelization and discipleship.   The latter has been of special consideration for us this past few days as we reflected on servant-leadership with the theme: Becoming Servant-leaders of the Word in the Church Today. His Holiness, Pope Francis explained that

“the radicalness of the Gospel, of the call of Jesus Christ, is in serving: being of service, never stopping, always going the extra step, forgetting about oneself”.

Indeed, we are leaders but servants first, that should spell out the difference of our identity and our apostolate. “Poder es servir” as one song goes. According to Robert K. Greenleaf who coined the phrase “servant leadership” in an essay he wrote in 1970,

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

While we can say that servant leadership is a timeless concept, this kind of leadership acquires a deeper meaning for us and a greater challenge indeed because Jesus perfectly demonstrated what it truly means: “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He is also the one who reminded his followers: “…You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-8).

He also emphatically pointed this out to his disciples: “…when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” (Luke 17:10). Could it be that Jesus touched countless lives because he was a servant first who showed concretely and unmistakably the compassion and mercy of God? Was it not this manifest servanthood which astounded the people along with his teaching “for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”? (Mark 1:22). Truly, he was not like the scribes and pharisees who would not even lift a finger to lighten the burden of those who were heavily laden (cf. Matthew 23:4ff).

Like Jesus, my brothers and sisters, today we resolve anew to become servant-leaders of the Word: that defines our identity in the biblical apostolate. And so we commit ourselves to the growth and well-being of the faithful we work with and their communities, so as to make disciples for Christ who will also commit to become servant-leaders of the Word. That certainly is not an easy task or mission to accomplish. But we have the Spirit of the Risen Lord who always bids us: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). Hence, even if there are lights and shadows in the horizon, there is no reason to lose heart, to be afraid or to doubt our mission. Likewise, we have the Blessed Mother and the saints to guide and spur on. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI aptly reminds us in his encyclical letter Spe salvi (Saved in hope):

“Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope.”

He went on to say that certainly Christ is the true light but we need lights close by to reach Him, thus we have the saints. Similarly, Pope Francis encourages us:

“We do well to keep in mind the early Christians and our many brothers and sisters throughout history who were filled with joy, unflagging courage and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel. Some people nowadays console themselves by saying that things are not as easy as they used to be… Let us not say, then, that things are harder today; they are simply different. But let us learn also from the saints who have gone before us, who confronted the difficulties of their own day.”

Lastly, we have one another to pray for each other always, and to strengthen one another in these challenging but grace-filled times. May Mary the Mother of the Word-made-flesh and may St. Joseph, her Spouse, accompany and intercede for each and everyone of us, our families and our collaborators in the biblical apostolate. And may God bring to fulfillment the work that He has entrusted to us. God bless us all. Amen.