Fr. Marlito Ocon, SJ
Delivered during the Mass in honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the Church of the Gesu, Ateneo de Manila University
July 26, 2020
Happy Feast day to all, sons and daughters of Ignatius: our lay partners- collaborators, alumni and students of different Jesuit schools, our parishioners in different mission areas, our partners and co-workers in social and pastoral ministries, sa lahat ng nakikinig at nanunuod, maayong hapon ug malipayong fiesta kaninyong tanan!
I think this is the first feast day celebration of the Jesuit Philippine Province that the Provincial had difficulty looking for the homilist for our mass. This is all because of COVID-19! When they decided that I will give this homily it became more complicated for the organizers because many are scared that I might bring the virus from PGH to Katipunan. I might infect the mass goers, or mass servers or worse, the mass celebrant. All these I think have made this celebration special, special but it created a scary, not a festive feeling. So we decided to just record my homily. Hindi ako sanay at hindi ko style ang pre-recorded preaching. I don’t know how the Holy Spirit can work with me, but I trust Him that He will do something when I run out of words to say. So trust that what I will say today is not only coming from me but from the Spirit!
My dear brothers and sisters, I know that many people today are scared of COVID-19 virus, for indeed it is scary. But as one health expert says, “Let us not make our lives useless because of fear”. I personally experienced people who got scared of someone simply because he/ she works in PGH. My friends, this is more scary than the virus! If many people would think this way I wonder if we can still have enough health workers in our hospitals. It is good to be careful and take extra precautions but let us not exaggerate. Habang pinagnilayan ko ang mga pangyayari ngayon, kasabay ang pagdiriwang natin ng Kapistahan ni San Ignacio, napaisip ako, what wisdom St. Ignatius of Loyola might want to share with us regarding our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Irish Jesuit, Fr. Nikolaas Sintobin, SJ in his reflection on what Ignatius might do in response to this pandemic said that Ignatius would write a letter from heaven which contains down-to-earth advice. He will write like this and I quote:
Heaven
March 1, 2020, Earth Time
Dear People on Earth,
I see you’re having a hard time finding the right attitude to the coronavirus. That’s not strange.
I myself have been struggling with chronic illness for over thirty years. As Superior General of the rapidly growing Jesuit order, I was confronted with all possible and impossible problems day in and day out for fifteen years. I would like to give you some tips through these difficult times. They are taken from my own experience.
At this time of coronavirus, obey the doctors, the scientists and the competent authorities as if it were God Himself. Beware of fear. Fear never comes from God and does not lead to God. Fear often suggest to you all possible reasons why you should be afraid. Much of it is true. Only, you don’t have to be afraid of it. The Lord takes care of you now, too. I know that, from a well-informed celestial source. Experience has shown that He can write straight on the curved earthly lines. Dare to believe in them.
In times of crisis you do not benefit less, but more from prayer. Grant it to yourself to indulge in His love. It is the best antidote to fear.
In my Spiritual Exercises I wrote, “Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words.” Look after one another in whatever way you safely can, especially remembering the poor and the vulnerable.
Finally do not forget to live and enjoy life in all this. Whatever happens, every second you are given is a unique and precious gift. There is nothing the corona virus can do to change that.
United with you in everlasting prayer,
+ Ignatius
On this note, we can ask ourselves, as sons and daughters of Ignatius, where are we right now? Are the people around us, the people we serve, and the people of God feeling our presence? It is easy to justify our absence amidst the lockdown. But people will ask where are we? People are watching how have we been behaving during this pandemic—what have we been doing or not doing for the least and the little ones at this time. When beautiful Churches, great Basilicas, grandest Shrines or even the smallest of chapels are closed, and when brilliant theologians and linguistically gifted evangelizers and preachers cannot gather a crowd, many are asking, “Where is the Church?”
When we started visiting the COVID-19 patients in PGH, I was tempted to say, “Here we are!” as if we are bringing the Church to them. Later I felt ashamed because I think the right answer is not “here we are” but “here it is”—they are the poor suffering people in the Hospital Wards, but it is the very place and the very people that Jesus would always want to visit. They are COVID-19 patients with chronic co-morbid conditions, advanced in age, on dialysis, stage 4 cancer on chemotheraphy – tired and depressed, alone and lonely, hindi makapagsalita, ni hindi makapabigkas ng kahit anong panalangin, madalas iiyak na lamang, feeling hopeless and helpless, ngunit marami sa kanila patuloy na kumakapit at umaasang sila’y gagaling na ang sabi madalas ay, “Kapit lang kami sa itaas Father, siya lang talaga, walang makabibisita sa amin, mabuti nga binisita ninyo kami, lalaban kami Father.” 
There are inmates with life sentence from National Bilibid Prison whose both hands are tied on the bed for 24 hours, with critical and chronic cardio, liver, kidney and pulmonary conditions. Sabi ng isa, “Umaasa pa rin ako Father na makalaya, kaya sana gagaling ako sa covid na ito, ipadasal ninyo kami Father, salamat sa dalaw!” There are dozens of mothers who gave pre-mature birth and with all kinds of complications and cannot give that magical moment of skin-to-skin first hug to their babies because they are tested positive of the virus.
One of them is a Mother na isa sa mga nagdodonate sa amin ng tubig para sa mga frontliners, isang araw nakita nalang namin siyang nasa Charity Ward dahil covid positive. At sabi niya, “Father kapag gagaling na ako magpadala ako uli ng tubig, nakita ko kung gaano kahirap ang buhay ng mga nurses at doctor, ang init-init sa loob ng PPE, kaya siguro nangangilangan sila ng maraming tubig na maiinom. Another Mother X na umiyak bago pa man kami makapagsimula ng panalangin. Noong tinanong ko siya, “bakit ka umiyak?” ang sagot ay, “Naawa ako sa inyo Father para kang nahirapan huminga at ang init-init ng suot mo. Sila yung mga taong hindi lang kahirapan nila ang iniinda kundi ang kahirapan din ng iba. Siya ang nagkasakit, at may dalalawa pang anak na positive ngunit sa akin siya napaiyak. Umiyak dahil naiisip niya ang hirap ko na nasa loob ng PPE. Hindi lang sariling hirap and iniisip at iniinda kundi ang hirap ng iba.
Since the lockdown, have we truly empathized towards others? Have we cried for someone’s suffering? Have we expressed our concern for others? Or are we more concerned for our own safety and self-preservation. Last June, I felt I needed to take a break and a retreat. I was deeply touched when a friend called me and said, “Doon nalang kayo sa bahay ng brother ko Father, no quarantine needed. I was deeply touched when two religious sisters from two different religious communities offered me a room to stay in their community for a break and a retreat. They offered me a room to stay in their house hindi dahil sa wala silang takot kundi dahil frontliner ako at mas kailangan ko ng matitirahan. This is the spirit that we need this time in our communities. We cannot forever insulate ourselves in a safe place. This is not the Jesuit way, this is not Christian! Love and compassion impel us, summon us, call us to go out and take the risk. Compassion is to suffer with, not full distancing.
Kasama sa simbahang ito ang:
Why Lord, why? Bakit sila? Bakit ganyan? We just have to kneel down in silence, for it is in silence that we can hear His answer. They are the Church. We did not bring the Church to them, we visited a Church when we visited them. A simple visit to them is like a pilgrimage to a famous Church. This is the Church where eloquence means nothing but gives way to silence. This is the Church where long prayers and elaborate liturgies are unheard of. This is the Church where we can learn how it is and what it means to entrust one’s life to God. This is the Church that teaches us what faith is and reveals to us who God really is. This is the Church where even the believers of other religions beg for prayers, “Father, Father isama mo rin kami, bless mo rin kami”, sabi ng isang Protestant na babae na nakikiusap isama ko siya sa panalangin.
Generous benefactors share their blessings to the patients at PGH.
Don’t search the Church on-line. We cannot say our Church is closed as our Cathedrals and Basilicas are closed. With or without the pandemic this Church in hospital wards is open. If you cannot visit them, please do something for them or for those who are taking care of them—the front liners! Reach out. Not ill or self-quarantine. See what our neighbors need.
Sa simula ng lockdown, ipinagbawal pumasok sa covid areas. Masarap isipin na sana bawal nalang forever para safe kami. Masarap magtago sa dahilan na “bawal pumasok sa covid areas”. Hindi naman obligadong pumunta, pwede namang hindi at maraming dahilan na huwag nalang pumunta. Sabi nga ng mga nurses at doctors, huwag nalang kayo mag-ikot Father, baka mahawa pa kayo.” But how can we do this? It’s not only part of our work, it’s part of our mission. We cannot just hide and feel safe in our room, that’s not what it means to be Jesuit, to be Ignatian, to be Ateneans, to be Christians.
We have to go beyond our comforts and means! We have to go beyond ourselves. This is what it means to be a disciple. As Jesus said clearly in the gospel reading, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and even his own life, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” We have to renounce all our fears, our worries for it will just paralyze us. It will only give us all the reasons to not do the things that are asked of us.
“At the start of this pandemic simply seeing health workers in full PPEs creates a scary feeling. Thinking about visiting them scared us all the more. But as we reflected about it more deeply, we realized that since it scares us and it scares a lot of people, there must be something in it that we must respond to with courage, not fear. We feel that this is the very essence of our mission and this is where we are called to respond to. Thus, aside from visiting covid patients from bed to bed and room to room to pray over them, we started to engage in and respond to the emerging needs even those beyond our means. Thanks to our friends, donors and benefactors! 
What moves us then to go beyond our comforts and means? In Physics, an object can be moved with a causal force which must be greater than the gravitational force or weight of the object. What greater force then, can move us to do more and to be more for others, especially when our “gravitational force” to stay in our zones of comfort and security is naturally strong?
It is grace! It is God’s grace at work in each of us that moves us to go beyond ourselves, to renounce our strong desire for self-preservation. It is not easy, and it will never be easy. It is a cross for many of us but isn’t it that where the cross is, there Jesus is? What moves us to go beyond ourselves, to go beyond our comforts and means? It is God’s grace, present in a messy Church in hospital wards. It is God’s grace that is always greater than our ‘natural gravitational force” to stay safe! May the spirit of Ignatius ignite us all to beg for the grace of courage when we are drowned by fear, for the grace of self-giving when we are held back by self-preservation. Amen.