It happened in the morning of the first Sunday of Advent, 3 December 2023. A group of Catholics was gathered together for the Eucharist to mark the beginning of a new liturgical season and to light the candle for the first Sunday of Advent. The perpetrators had chosen that very occasion to detonate a bomb, instantly killing three of our Catholic faithful and wounding ten others in the gymnasium of the Mindanao State University in Marawi city.
Surely, the killers who precipitated such a horrendous act of violence have their loved ones too. What would it take to get them to see in the families of their victims their own families?
Such violence should not only be denounced; it should also be renounced as a way of seeking redress by every peace-loving Filipino.
We have just celebrated “Red Wednesday” last November 29, to remember our fellow Christians who, for sheer love of their faith, have suffered from violence and persecution around the world. The casualties in this morning’s bombing are now counted among them. We take comfort in the thought that they have participated in the passion of Christ, that their blood has been poured out as a libation like the blood of Christ. They professed their faith at that last Mass that they attended, especially in the “communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Through the same eucharist which we celebrated with them on this Day of the Lord, we have united ourselves with them by the same faith that we profess, and in the same grace of baptism through which we participate in the life-giving death of Christ.
We hope that the statement issued by the Mindanao State University can still touch the consciences of the perpetrators. It says, “Violence has no place in a civilized society, and it is particularly abhorrent in an institution of higher learning like MSU, a bulwark of peace, harmony, solidarity, reverence for life and humanity. This attack is an assault on our core values and our commitment to creating a safe and inclusive community for all.” We could not agree more. With them we reaffirm our unrelenting commitment to peace and our repudiation of violence.
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We pray for the eternal repose of those who have died, and for the healing of those who have been injured. We unite ourselves spiritually with their families and draw strength and consolation from our faith in Christ who will “restore all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross…” (Col. 1:20)
+Pablo Virgilio S. David
Bishop of Kalookan
President of the CBCP
3 Dec 2023
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