Your Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Your Eminence, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila…
Your Excellencies, my Brother Archbishops and Bishops…
My Brother Priests…
My dear religious Sisters and Brothers…
Honorable Officials in Government…
My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ…

It is with great joy that we welcome our dear brother, His Eminence, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales in the sanctuary of this church, for in this noble cathedral, the Archbishop of Manila assumes his rightful place among all other prelates in the Universal Church who told the distinction of being Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is an honor conferred on his person, but it is also a dignity which belongs to this great and noble See of Manila, which although diminished in size, has not been diminished in zeal for and devotion to Faith. It is not only in Manila who is honored with the dignity, however. The whole Filipino nation is honored as well, for a Cardinal does not only represent his own city. Within the universal Church, he represents his own country as well.

Although a Cardinal represents his own country in the universal Church, he is primarily concerned, however, with shepherding his flock like any other Bishop. His authority as Bishop of his own See is equal to the other Bishops in their own respective Archdioceses and Dioceses. The dignity of a Cardinal, however, elevates his concerns over and beyond the confines of his Diocese, into the wider perspective of the Universal Church. His solicitude now encompasses, not just his own particular part of the Church, but the Church as a whole, together with the College of Cardinals, in union with the Holy Father.

A Cardinal is not a “super-bishop” in the sense of having governance over many other dioceses of which he is not the Ordinary. Rather, his dignity orients him to the Universal Church, not in terms of governance, but in terms of solicitude. I saw this role most concretely at the conclave which elected the present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and again in the recent Consistory which conferred the red hat on our new Cardinal. In both instances, Cardinals all over the world came together to bring up matters, which, although particular and specific to their respective places, were nevertheless significant to the Church as a whole.

Having a new Cardinal in the person of Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales gives us a voice in the Universal Church, not necessarily in the sense of representation, because the College of Cardinals is not a parliament in the Church, but in the sense of participation. In carrying our voice at the Universal Church, we are not only represented, but more importantly, we participate --- we become a more active part of the living Body of Christ.

A cardinal therefore, must live in the tension between particularity and universality, for although he casts an eye on the concerns of the Universal Church, he is nevertheless rooted in the realities of his own Diocese. The metaphor of the seed dying in order to sprout once again is a fitting image of this tension. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest” (Jn. 12:24). Unless we die to our own particularity, we will never be able to rise to the level of the universal. Unless we die unto ourselves, we will never be able to see the needs of others. Unless we die into our own narrow-mindedness, we will never be able to take the larger view, the wider perspective, and the open horizon.

Like a seed that falls to the ground, however, we never lose ourselves totally in the act of self-giving. We retain our particularity, we retain to our self-consciousness, which makes the act of sacrifice even more painful, for we do not come in or out of it as if it were some kind of role to be played – sacrifice is real, serious and bloody business.

Although this is initially a lesson in ecclesiology, there is something to be gained for our own personal reflection as well as for our own personal reflection as well as for our discernment as a nation. The whole body cannot function if every organ becomes absorbed in its own self, without due regard to its complementarity with all the others. We need to transcend personal interest so that we may attain the common good. By personal interest, I do not only mean the selfish and self-seeking kind, for there are self-interests that are valid and legitimate. Yet the seed that falls to the ground and dies that is the seed that lets go of itself so that something greater might rise from its brokenness. Dying like the seed means letting go of our personal interests – yes even the valid and legitimate aspirations, so that something greater might emerge from our act of self-sacrifice. It means letting go of what we want for ourselves, so that the broken pieces of our dreams may form the scaffolds of our grander vision.

Dying like the seed can mean letting go of our plans, letting go of our wounded pride, letting go of our insistence on how things should be done; letting go of our hatred, our animosities, our hard-headedness – if that is the only way our nation can go forward, if that is the only way we can all be united and face a future with no more fears and anxieties.

St. Paul speaks of this self-negation for the sake of the greater whole (and I quote): “It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body, to make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, that is the Church…” ( Col. 1:24). There cannot be anything lacking in the suffering of Christ, yet, we are all called to share in his suffering to continue what he has accomplished.

A cardinal is called to look beyond his own particular church to be concerned with the Universal Church. Every Christian too, must learn to see the bigger picture and broaden his mind. Often times, a Christian already knows what he must do to make himself more useful to the bigger community, but his narrow concerns hold him back. He thinks he might lose too much if himself if he acts for the greater good. He thinks he is too insignificant to matter at all. Yet, we have heard it from St. Paul: Our own little sacrifices do matter. Our own acts of goodness do matter. They “make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.”

His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, knows only too well how little things can matter. For him, only the little things matter. The big ones they cannot change anything. In his Pondo ng Pinoy, he has shown to us what little people can do. Here is one Cardinal who knows how to elevate the particular to the level of the universal. He is your Cardinal: the Archbishop of Manila. Listen to him!