‘Give away until you are left nothing but scraps’ says Filipino bishop

A senior bishop in the Philippines called on the faithful to serve the poor by exhausting everything they can give until they are left “with nothing but scraps.”

“Let us never succumb to the temptation to remain as a church in maintenance mode. Let it not be more of the same. Let us continue to go out, as He has commanded us, to the peripheries,” said Bishop Pablo Virgilio David on the Thanksgiving Mass for the 20th anniversary of the canonical establishment of the Diocese of Kalookan.

The bishop explained that a steadfast willingness to serve the poor is drastically needed in their diocese, where the population of the three cities it encompasses shares the common experience of urban poverty.

“The Diocese of Kalookan is trying to live up to the vision of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines for the Church to be a Church of the Poor,” Bishop David said.

He also recalled Pope Francis’ challenge to Catholics “to seek out the last, the least, and the lost.”

Furthermore, the prelate reminds Catholics to always spread the Gospel to the poor, on top of offering them financial and material support.

“We have a better gift to give than just silver or gold, said Bishop David. “We have a Gospel to proclaim, one that gives life, one that enriches, liberates, and heals because we bear the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite ourselves, we have more than we can ever have and more than we can ever offer.”

He added: “In the name of Jesus, we can also extend our hands and raise people on their feet so that they can leap and dance with us, and realize how blessed we are even in our poverty, and yes, even in our sinfulness.”

Bishop David also emphasized that despite giving everything that we have, God can never be outdone in generosity, and we can only give through His blessings.

“Only for the love of the Shepherd can we feed His lambs,” he said. “Only for the love of the Shepherd can we tend the sheep despite who we are. Only by faith in Him who has faith in us, despite our wretchedness.”

Reflecting on Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand, Bishop David invited the people of God in his diocese to come together to build a better future for their Church community, with serving the poor as one of their core missions.

“For the next 20 years, let us not forget the Eucharistic secret to multiplication: to take our five loaves and two fish, to bless them, to break them, and to give them away until we are left with nothing but scraps,” he said.

On June 28, 2003, St. John Paul II formally separated the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas from the Archdiocese of Manila by establishing the Diocese of Kalookan.

Bishop David is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines where he assumed the position officially on December 2021.- Luke Godoy