Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo leads the morning prayer for the seventh day of the 51st IEC. (Photo: Michael Dalogdog)
CEBU City, Jan. 30, 2016–Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo called on delegates to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) to engage in “friendly competition” not to upstage one another, but in showing love and kindness for others.
Leading the morning prayer on the seventh day of the IEC, Archbishop Lagdameo reflected on what it is to be a “Eucharistic community”: that is, to be disposed to practice “acts of kindness and beauty, of mercy and reconciliation, of peace and justice, of generosity.”
“As Christians, we rely on one another. We depend on one another. We help one another. The various parts of the body [rely] on one another. We suffer together. We rejoice together,” said Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines from 2005 to 2009.
“As we fulfill that mission, Jesus gives us the command to love one another, as He has loved us, and at the same time He gives us the grace we need to carry out that command.”
Lagdameo reminded the IEC pilgrims that God has made available to them individual gifts, talents, experiences, and perspectives. These gifts also include the wider community everyone belongs to, he said.
“As members of this Eucharistic community, we are called not only to practice love and to honor one another but also to those outside the community,” he said. “We should engage ourselves in friendly competition on showing love and kindness to our neighbors.” (Felipe Francisco / CBCP News)
