August 9, 2024: Mass of the Holy Spirit presided over by SATMI Director Fr. Edilberto Cepe, C.Ss.R
PEACE! As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
Good morning. Many of us are excited to begin this new academic and formation year. We are excited to see our classmates and professors again and share our experiences in the missions last year or even the past months during our vacation or, for the incoming second year, to share our experiences during your Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program. We are excited to learn.
We have a different kind of feeling in our gospel reading today. The disciples were not excited; in fact, they were afraid, and so they locked the door of the house they were in. And rightly so, their Master had been arrested, tortured, and killed. They might be the next. Into this situation, Jesus came and said, “Peace be with you!” “SHALOMALEIKHEM!” While this is an ordinary greeting in Israel now and perhaps in Jesus’ time, the evangelist John intends something here. Jesus came and brought peace to his disciples as he promised days ago before he died in John 14 (Jn 14:27), “Peace, I leave with you, my peace, I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus’ greeting changed the situation; the disciples rejoiced. Then he said again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” partly fulfilling what he said in the Last Supper in John 16 (Jn 16:22), “You are in anguish now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”
Jesus’ presence and his gift of SHALOM brought joy to the disciples. We know that Shalom is not just peace. In an ordinary greeting, the one who says SHALOM wishes to the other, may you be full of well-being, may health and prosperity be upon you. It isn’t just meant to wish a person a lack of conflict or struggle. Shalom goes deeper… It is completeness, soundness, total well-being, and complete reconciliation. There is a blessing; there is peace. And more so if it is the Lord who is giving it to you; it is no longer just a wish; it is God’s blessing,
Today, as we begin the new academic year, the Lord is telling you and me, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
The Lord is giving us his blessing: that we may be complete, sound, reconciled to one another, and at peace as we begin another year of studies. At the same time, he is giving us a mandate just as he did to his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” By means of this “sending,” the disciples were made apostles, “those being sent.” That would be their identity: people sent to continue what the Lord has begun.
That also gave us the reason for our gathering today, the reason why you are studying here at SATMI.
We are here because the Lord has called and sent us. Now sent to study, but the ultimate reason is that we are sent to continue the mission of the Lord. That explains the purpose of our study. We study not just for the sake of knowledge, not for self-fulfillment, not to put additional letters after our family names or gain a diploma that we can be proud of. We are here to learn, to be trained, and to grow better as Christ’s disciples so that we will become competent apostles who will continue the Lord’s and the Church’s mission. We are already apostles to the world by our baptism. But you, students of SATMI, will study to learn more and be equipped as co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard. You are to equip yourselves because you are being sent to a world that is increasingly resistant to the gospel’s message, to a generation that gradually considers the good news as a text like any other text. To a world that considers faith in the Lord Jesus as just one of the options. To a people that is suffering, to a society that is divided, to a world that is at war, to our Oikos, “our common home,” that is crying for help.
Yes, we are here not just to become priests, brothers, religious sisters, professors, or theologians. There is a more significant reason for us to study theology and learn to theologize. We study so that the message of the Kingdom can be appropriated well to God’s people and respond to the needs of our time. Today begins the new journey to learn and to be formed. We thank God that He has sent us professors who will teach and form us, who will be our friends and mentors, and who will accompany us on this journey. We pray that we will indeed grow in the gifts of the Spirit, the gifts God has given and will continue to provide to us so that we may be able to do our part in building up the Body of Christ.
We thank God for having called us to be here. As we begin this 2024-2025 journey, let us hear the Lord saying to us, “PEACE be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
God bless us.
For more photos:
https://satmi.org/project/mass-of-the-holy-spirit-orientation-2024/