MANILA ARCHBISHOP Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle told members of the Ateneo community in a Thanksgiving Mass last December 7 to discover and fulfill God’s purpose in their lives just as Mary did.
“We have to discover the purpose that God has for us, the way Mary received the purpose that the Father had offered to be the Mother of the Savior,” noted Tagle, who was installed by Pope Benedict XVI into the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church last November 24 in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
He was the main presider of the said mass at the Church of the Gesu. Concelebrants included the following: Fr. Jose Magadia, SJ, the Provicial Superior of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus; Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco; Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David of San Fernando, Pampanga; Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Tony Ledesma; University President Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ; and other Jesuits and priests.
The mass also served as a vigil for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which Catholics observe on December 8.
Tagle’s parents, Manuel Tagle and Milagros Gokim-Tagle, also attended the mass.
Tagle thought that his recent elevation as a cardinal was a concrete example of his message. “Since the gospel is about the Annunciation, while reading through this, I also recall the ‘annunciation’ that happened to me,” he said, recounting how he knew about the Pope’s announcement when he was in Rome last October.
However, he also stressed, “Again [it is] not because I am like Mary, far from it. But somehow the episodes in the Gospel relate to our own experience.”
Discovering God’s purpose entails recognizing how one has been blessed, said Tagle. But most importantly, it means knowing “how we should courageously face our mission assured not by the constant presence of angels but assured by the living word. The Lord is with you. The Lord will assist you.”
He acknowledged the Ateneo administration and community, the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary, Loyola House of Studies and Loyola School of Theology (LST) for organizing the said mass.
“It’s a way of coming back home. It’s a way of reconnecting with one’s roots,” he said.
Tagle, 55, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in pre-divinity from the Ateneo and later on studied theology at the LST. He pursued both a licentiate and a doctorate degree in sacred theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, where he graduated summa cum laude.
Editor’s Note: Beyond Loyola will publish a special feature on Cardinal Tagle in the December issue of The GUIDON.
