PREACHING HOPE without forgiveness and care in one’s heart is lip service as humans were made to look out for one another, a newly-elected Dominican official said.
In his installation address as the 13th prior provincial of the Dominican Province of the Philippines on Saturday, Jan. 25, Fr. Filemon dela Cruz, O.P. said cherishing one’s desires with sincerity serves no purpose if people do not extend the same hope to those who need it.
“I think we cannot preach hope if we cannot have forgiveness, and we cannot have that disposition to be reconciled with others. Otherwise, our preaching will not be sincere and will simply be lip service,” dela Cruz said at the Santisimo Rosario Parish.
“We cannot go back to our calling as an order of preachers, as a community of preachers, unless we go back to the one who called us, the one who is our hope and the one who is indeed Jesus Christ, the preacher of hope,” he added.
Dela Cruz, who concurrently serves as the University’s vice chancellor, said it is natural for one’s journey to go astray since there is a limit to a person’s worldly capabilities.
He added that it is in the midst of these obstacles that God seeks to encounter His people, citing St. Paul who was blinded for three days for wanting to persecute the followers of Jesus but managed to arrive in Damascus safely through His guidance.
“Like the story of St. Paul, he allows us to realize that there are moments in our lives that we need other people to assist us, to help us stand again. And for a while, had been blinded, he could not manage. It was his companions that helped him,” the prior provincial said.
“We need other people to help us stand when at times we have fallen, to accompany us until we are able to find our sight again,” he added.
This sense of community or “culture of vocational promotion,” dela Cruz said, is a shared effort that must be rooted in genuine care.
“It is not just about recruitment. It is about caring. Caring for each other, for the vocation of each other. From the time they joined us until we buried one another,” he said.
“Exercising paternal care, especially for our brethren who are weak, infirm, injured and in crisis. This is not the work of one commission. This is the work of everyone, of every community.”
Dela Cruz’s reelection to a second four-year term as regional superior of Filipino Dominicans was held on Jan. 16 during the 13th provincial chapter at the UST Santa Rosa. Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas Prior Fr. Rodel Aligan, O.P. led the installation rites, which was attended by various Dominican priests.
The Dominican Province of the Philippines is the indigenous province of Filipino Dominicans established during the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1971. The religious group also ministers countries Sri Lanka and Indonesia. F
