Homilies of the Superior General, Fr. Antonio M. Pernia

In the Beginning was the Word

Homily of the Superior General, Fr. Antonio M. Pernia, SVD, at the Philippine SVD Centennial Mass, Parish of our Lady of the Pillar, San Isidro, Abra, 23 August 2009 / Readings: Dt 8:2-10 / Col 3:8-17 / Jn 1:1-18.
       
Your Excellency, Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian,
My dear Confreres and Friends,
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We have just heard, proclaimed so solemnly, the Prologue to the Gospel of St. John. As we know, this gospel reading was one of the favorite gospel passages of our Founder, St. Arnold Janssen. He inherited his fascination for this gospel reading from his own father, who recited it everyday at the family’s evening prayers. His father considered it the most efficacious of all prayers which had great power with God. The family recited the Prologue especially during times of severe storm and other dangers.

I can imagine that this same gospel reading must have resounded here in this place during the first months after the arrival of the first SVD missionaries in 1909. Finding themselves in a strange place and culture and in a difficult and trying situation, the first two missionaries must have often prayed: “In the beginning was the Word ... From the beginning the Word was with God ... Through him all things were made ... The Word was the source of life ...” A prayer that expresses the faith that the world is in God’s hands. We are in God’s hands, even if we are so far away from home. Indeed, it was a rough and difficult beginning. But in every beginning, there is always God’s Word which is the source of light and life.

Exactly a hundred years ago today, on August 23, 1909, Fr. Luis Beckert and Fr. Juan Scheiermann set foot in this very town, which was known at that time as Pilar, to begin their mission in what was then referred to as the “SVD Abra Mission”. The history books describe that memorable day in the following words:

Accompanied by Bishop Carroll and dean Bartolome Espiritu, the two newcomers, Fr. Beckert and Fr. Scheiermann, rode into the hinterland along narrow paths. Toward noon they entered Pilar ... the Capitan and some people had put in their appearance to welcome them. After a short rest, Bishop Carroll took his leave at three in the afternoon. Now the two missionaries were all alone among strangers in a rented bamboo house. The church was in a lamentable condition, nothing but a wretched shed with a grass roof. No doubt it was a rough and hard beginning.

This is the beginning that we have gathered this morning to remember – a small, humble and difficult beginning. What began here a hundred years ago as the “SVD Abra Mission” was accompanied by many trials and sufferings. Just five months after his arrival in Abra, Fr. Scheiermann died of fatal illness, leaving Fr. Beckert alone for about six months. Fr. Beckert himself passed away in 1913. And in the first seven years of the mission, five missionaries died. Then there was the major setback due to the deportation of the missionaries during the First World War. This led almost to the closing down of the mission.

It is therefore with a sense of sacred respect and reverent awe that we recall the beginnings of the SVD Abra Mission, and remember the names of the first SVD missionaries – Luis Beckert, Juan Scheiermann, Jose Stigler, Bruno Drescher, Miguel Hergesheimer, Francisco Blaczyk, Teodoro Buttenbruch, Enrique Buerschen, and the many others who came after them. This morning, it is like we are standing on sacred ground, as we remember and honor our pioneer missionaries of the SVD Abra Mission. And it is with great solemnity and profound gratitude that we recall that small, humble and difficult beginning.

And yet, like the beginning about which the gospel reading this morning speaks, the very beginning of creation, also at this small and humble beginning, there was the Divine Word. Here, too, a hundred years ago, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God”. For the pioneer missionaries who made this beginning were all committed and dedicated followers of the Divine Word, ready to sacrifice themselves for the spread of good news of Jesus Christ. They did not allow the “lamentable state” which they found when they arrived here to dampen their faith and weaken their missionary spirit. As Fr. Beckert wrote to Rome, three days after their arrival in Pilar, “I believe that once we have dealt effectively with the initial difficulties, we shall have plenty of work and shall enjoy it”.

In a certain sense, the beginning here in Abra was a repeat of September 8,1875 in Steyl when the Society of the Divine Word was born. The Founder, Arnold Janssen, had only four men with him in a yet untransformed inn. The guests who gathered for the inaugural mass were skeptical of the project that was being started. They sat on improvised furnitures and used borrowed utensils for the feast afterwards. The founder was not unmindful of all this. In his homily at the mass, he said:

The simplicity of this beginning should not discourage us .... We know that with our present resources we cannot accomplish our task; but we hope that the good Lord will provide everything we need. May he do with us as He wishes. If this seminary succeeds, we will thank the grace of God. If nothing comes of it, we will humbly strike our breast and confess that we were not worthy of the grace.

The pioneer missionaries here in Abra had learned well from the founder. They had little resources. But they had great faith – a profound trust in God’s grace and an abiding confidence in the generosity of the people. Like in Steyl, something has come of that small and difficult beginning. What began here a hundred years ago, spread to other towns in Abra, to other provinces in Northern Philippines, and eventually to other parts of the country. What began as the “SVD Abra Mission” has now grown into the “Philippine SVD”. And so, today, the whole Philippine SVD returns to its roots to honor and pay tribute to our pioneer missionaries who dared to lay its foundations here in what is now San Isidro. Today, too, the whole Philippine SVD returns to the place of its birth to sincerely thank the people of San Isidro for having welcomed, accepted and supported our first missionaries and the subsequent generations of missionaries who came after them.

And so, at this point, I would like to ask my SVD confreres and the SSpS sisters to stand, turn around, and with profoundly grateful hearts, thank the people of San Isidro, and indeed the people of Abra, by giving them a round of applause. And I repeat the words of Fr. Provincial at the beginning of this mass: “Thank you, San Isidro! Thank you, Abra!”

And today as we return to our roots, what a contrast it is between this huge crowd which has come here today to remember and the handful of people who came to greet the first two SVD missionaries a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago, there was one bishop and two missionaries. Today, there is one bishop and two hundred missionaries. A hundred years ago, there was the Capitan and a few people. Today, the whole town of San Isidro, and the whole province of Abra are here. This contrast underlines God’s abiding presence among the missionaries and the people’s generous response to their work. The fact that we are so many who are here this morning is an indication of God’s immense blessings on and the people’s unselfish collaboration with the work of our missionaries.

And so, today we do not only come to remember, we also come to rejoice in thanksgiving to God and to the people of Abra. For God has deigned to bless that small and difficult beginning. The early missionaries knew, deep in their heart, that without God’s grace and the people’s generosity, what they began here would have amounted to nothing. Today, then, we celebrate not just our missionaries’ dedication and commitment, but also the people’s response and cooperation, and above all, God’s favor and faithfulness. After all, as theologians say today, mission is God’s not ours. Or better, mission is God’s first and foremost and ours only secondarily. That the SVD Abra Mission has flourished and borne innumerable fruit is because our pioneer missionaries knew how to make themselves willing instruments in God’s hands, committed collaborators of God’s mission.

And this is the example that we all today must emulate. Today we all need to make ourselves collaborators of God’s mission and instruments of His Spirit. And so, today, we come not just to remember and rejoice in thanksgiving. We also come to renew our missionary vocation. For all of us are called to be missionaries. For our God is a missionary God – a God who reaches out to the world in dialogue, inviting all of humanity to share fullness of life in the Divine community of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And if God is a missionary God, then the people of God is also a missionary people – a people called to witness to the good news of Jesus Christ and to collaborate with God’s Spirit in inviting men and women to share in his life and glory.

In particular, for our SVD missionaries, the example of our pioneer missionaries is a call to renew our commitment follow the Divine Word,
 
to be disciples – chaste, poor, obedient, immersed in the life of the Trinity; called, like Saint Arnold, to imitate the Word made flesh in self-emptying, to follow Jesus Christ through cross and resurrection, in suffering and joy.

As heirs of Fr. Luis Beckert and Fr. Juan Scheiermann, we SVD missionaries are called today to renew our commitment to make “His life our life and His mission our mission”. Only then can we pay fitting tribute to our pioneer SVD missionaries. Only then can we do justice to the generosity of the people of Abra. Only then can we truly honor the small and humble beginning that was made here a hundred years ago.

May St. Arnold Janssen, St. Joseph Freinademetz and the blessed men and women of our religious missionary family pray for us. And may God bless us all.