COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 24 August) — I woke up today filled with joy and gratitude for the gift of Priesthood. I celebrate with friends my 45th Presbyteral jubilee.
What is True Love…?
The many odes written about true love…
Clergy, ulama and other guru try to define it… Yet, only those consumed by it truly understand what it is all about…!
Dante wrote in The Divine Comedy: ‘The days that man allows true love to appear, those things which are made will fall into confusion and will overturn everything we believe to be right and true.
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Paolo Coelho wrote in The Zahir: ‘Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.’
‘This force is on earth to make us happy, to bring us closer to God and to our neighbour, and yet, given the way that we love now, we enjoy one hour of anxiety for every minute of peace.’
On the Cross, Jesus expressed his love for us by laying down his life that others may live and live to the full. He called us his friends and there is no greater love than this, to lay one’s life for his friends.
Today, especially on my Presbyteral 45th Jubilee, I am ever reminded that the OMI Congregation is born of Mercy. And if I become faithful to my call and our founder’s original experience of God’s mercy, I have NO option but become an apostle of Mercy of God to others.
(Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI, celebrated 45th anniversary of his Presbyteral Ordination on 24 August 2019)
