On November 24 our beloved Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle becomes a cardinal.

Popes ask cardinals to assist and advise them in governing the Church.

The soon-to-be Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle will bring to the Sacred College of Cardinals his youthful perspectives, which are, however, all informed by his known and demonstrated loyalty to the Magisterium (the Teaching Authority of the Church) and the deposit of the Faith.

He will also bring to the Sacred College his wisdom, meditative love, clear vision and spirit of loving service.

These were seen at once in the homily he delivered on December 12, 2011—during the Mass and rites of his canonical possession of his seat as the 32nd Archbishop of Manila at the Manila Cathedral. Here are excerpts from that homily’s opening paragraphs.

“We are in the holy season of Advent, a time to prepare for the coming of the Messiah through prayer, penance and good works. A few days ago a friend told me that my coming into the Archdiocese of Manila as its 32nd Archbishop is truly Advent. ‘You are the one who is to come,’ he declared. The remark made me laugh. It also made me think. Is this occasion really about me? I know many people are asking, ‘Who is the new archbishop of Manila? What is he like? What are his vision and plans?’ But like John the Baptist I am inviting you to focus on the One mightier than all of us, Jesus Christ, the Risen One and the True Shepherd of the Church. My Episcopal Motto says it plainly, ‘Dominus Est! It is the Lord!’

“This exclamation is drawn from the Risen Christ’s appearance to some of his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias as recounted in John 21. In a retreat that I facilitated as a priest, this episode impressed me deeply. Although it tells of a Resurrection appearance, it is indeed an Advent experience. The Risen Lord comes to his disciples. He reveals who he truly is.

“Seven disciples went out fishing… Doubters and unknowns, they represent the Church at its infancy. Simon Peter planned to go out fishing and the rest joined him. Together they were the fragile Church embarking on its mission. Into the vast waters of mission they traveled together.

“But that whole night they caught nothing. Tired and distraught they returned to shore. They probably did not notice the early morning light. It was still night for them. Standing on the shore was a man they did not know. He asked if they had caught anything to eat. That question could sound provocative to a group that had labored all night without success. If I were one of the disciples, I would have retorted, ‘Hey, don’t you see that our boats are empty? … Are you blind or are you insulting us?’ But the disciples were probably so tired to argue with him. Then the stranger issued a surprising command to cast the net over the right side of the boat… They followed him and had a catch to so bountiful they could not pull it in. This stranger was not blind after all. He saw where the fishes were. What the disciples of doubters and unknowns did not see, he saw clearly.

It is the Lord!
“At this moment the disciple whom Jesus loved exclaimed, “It is the Lord.” The eyes of the beloved disciple were opened. His stare moved from the catch to the loving presence in their midst. This man is not a stranger. He is the loving Lord. The long dark night is over. Morning has come. It is the Lord!

“This simple story teaches me valuable lessons about the mission of the Church and my ministry as a bishop. First of all, the mission of the Church should be wholly directed by the Lord who is always present as Shepherd and guide. Human efforts should continue but unless the Lord directs the catch, we labor in vain. We know that the Lord guards His Church. He keeps watch with us on those long nights of confusion and helplessness in mission. When in spite of our good intentions and efforts there are still the multitude of hungry people we cannot feed, homeless people we cannot shelter, battered women and children we cannot protect, cases of corruption and injustice that we cannot remedy, the long night of the disciples in the middle of the sea continues in us.

“Then we grow in compassion towards our neighbors whose lives seem to be a never ending dark night. But in our weariness, the Lord comes. Dumarating Siya. Advent never ends. He is the shepherd promised in the first reading from Ezekiel. He will come to his sheep where they are scattered when it is cloudy and dark. He is near. He is Emmanuel. But we need to hear his voice and to follow his direction. We need to see realities with His eyes…It is only by the vision provided by faith that the Church could meaningfully cast its nets in the vast seas of the world and history. They may be murky to human eyes, but the Lord sees where the fishes are. The new evangelization requires putting on the mind and the eyes of the Lord again, a transformation coming from prayer. Then when we pray, we are transformed, we see differently. A child, especially the unborn, is not longer seen as a burden but a gift, the youth are not a problem but a promise, women are not objects but persons, laborers are not machines but partners, the poor, the differently able are not a nuisance but our jewels, and creation is not an object of manipulation but a sign of God’s sustaining love….These and many more comprise the Church’s miraculous harvest from the seas of mission if only we see with the eyes of Christ. Whenever we see as the Lord does, there is hope!

Then he reminds us that we must “follow the Lord in our mission not individually but together—as the disciples did.”

And he ends with a reminder that the disciple the Lord loved was the young John, who had no rank, was the humblest of them all, but he was the one who had the clearest vision.

“I pray that my Episcopal ministry and all ministries in the Church may be rooted in humble and loving discipleship.”