THE CHURCH’S evangelization must begin with recognizing the worth of every person without judgment, especially those who are abandoned and marginalized, Pope Leo XIV’s representative to the Philippines said.
Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown called on the faithful to look beyond poverty, addiction and abandonment when defining people’s value, saying they are loved unconditionally and redeemed through Christ regardless of how society perceives them.
“Every person living on the streets of Manila, every person addicted to drugs, every person who has been abandoned or forlorn is loved by the Lord with an infinite love,” Brown said during the closing mass of the 12th Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization (PCNE XII) on Saturday, July 25.
Brown related this to the Gospel account about the parable of the pearl of great price, in which a merchant sells everything he owns to obtain a pearl of incomparable value. He explained that Christ’s sacrifice reveals the infinite value God places on persons, regardless of how insignificant they may feel or how society perceives them.
“He has sold everything. He’s come from heaven and given his blood on the cross to redeem you, to buy you back,” the prelate said, noting that no person is beyond God’s forgiveness.
Drawing a comparison between the parables of the lost coin and the pearl of great price, the papal nuncio explained that many people often see themselves through the lens of their weaknesses and failures, believing they possess little worth.
“When we look at our own lives, our own weaknesses, our own limitations, we feel like I’m basically a drachma— I’m of little value. But in the eyes of Jesus, you are the pearl of great price,” he said.
Witnessing how humanity has been redeemed at the cost of Christ’s own life must compel others to respond to God’s love with renewed faith and witness, Brown added.
“We can’t live our lives as we used to live them, because we realize that we have been purchased at a great price, the price of the blood of the Lamb,” the papal envoy said.
Brown also urged the faithful to measure every person’s worth through Christ’s redeeming love rather than societal standards, as the Church’s missionary calling is fulfilled by both proclaiming the Gospel and performing concrete acts of charity and service.
“We need to imitate the Lord… and see the most marginalized people, the most abandoned people, as pearls of great price, bought by the blood of Jesus,” he said.
Brown noted that the Gospel calls on Christians to recognize the dignity of those whom society often neglects rather than defining them by their poverty, failures or circumstances.
“[T]hat is the work of evangelization, to recognize and put into practice what the Lord wants us to do. ‘Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me,’” he added.
The mass concluded the main conference of PCNE XII, which also featured the commissioning of participants in honor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and sending them forth to continue the Church’s mission of evangelization in their respective communities. F
