Philippine bishop: Constantly walk forward with fellow pilgrims, share and grow the grace

Bishop Roberto Orendain Gaa, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Novaliches, invited the people to continue moving forward together as pilgrims.

“People who receive grace are constant pilgrims,” he said in Filipino during a Mass in Manila on Dec. 30. “The blessings they receive are shared and grown even more.”

The people should see themselves as constant pilgrims, and it’s important, Gaa told the faithful.

“We may be in a permanent place, but the grace of God flows into and through us,” the bishop said. “We are transformed. Even our identity and missions are transformed by God.”

Like other journeys, there must be perseverance on the part of the pilgrim, Gaa noted.

“We are being invited to continuously walk forward,” he said. “It is a constant call for us. God is constantly inviting us first to receive the blessings. Blessings that we need to accompany us in our challenges.”

“The church becomes the portal of God's grace,” Gaa said. “The church is now a place of encounter for all of us who believe and follow Jesus Christ. It is a passageway.”

As a channel of grace, the church is a place to receive and grow the blessings, he told the faithful.

“But because we receive the blessing, it is also an invitation for transformation and reconciliation with God,” the bishop said. 

The pilgrim’s journey drops the unwanted baggage, he told the faithful. Baggage that hampers the faithful to get closer to God.

“We can see that in this journey of ours we shed off a lot of things,” Gaa said. “God asks us to drop everything that makes the journey difficult, everything that drags our feet backward.”

“The Lord tells us to travel light,” he said. “Do not bear the burdens that are unnecessary. Forgive. Be forgiven as well.”

In the pilgrimage, one should not pressure another to walk faster because it is his own flow, he explained. And if another walks fast, one should not pressure him to walk slower.

“They are going through their own journey in life,” he said. “They are going through different challenges in life. Maybe more difficult than hours. Maybe lighter than ours. But each in their unique way. God accompanies them as God accompanies us.”

“What is beautiful is you walk at your own pace,” Gaa said. “How God has called you, how God matures the blessings in you at your own pace. You are not rushed, but God accompanies you every step of the way.

“The blessing for us should be a blessing for others as well,” he said. “And it should be continuous.”

The blessing should not just stay with a person, the bishop told the faithful. It must be shared. “That is why the challenge for us now is how do we share these blessings with others.”

“Let us continue to move forward,” he said. “Let us not stop moving forward. But also in accompanying other people, we accompany them so that all of us move forward. In the end, we will realize that we are all pilgrims.”