Pope Francis travels untiringly from Manila to Tacloban on Saturday to pray for the dead and console the survivors of Typhoon
Haiyan, the country's most horrible natural disaster at
250 kph (155 mph) winds a seven-meter high storm surge, which killed 6,300 people and damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November
8, 2013. The Philippines was the country
hardest hit by extreme weather in this year.
The storm obliterated approximately 90% of
the city of Tacloban in Leyte province. An estimated 14.5 million people were affetec in six regions and 44 provinces and about one million people remain homeless.
The Pope's day trip to the coastal city 650 km
(400 miles) southeast of Manila gives him another opportunity to speak about
climate change ahead of a major document on the environment he is due to issue
in June.
The government estimates it needs almost 170
billion pesos ($3.8 billion) to redevelop the affected communities, including
the construction of a four-meter high dike along the 27-km coastline to avert
from the same calamitous impact.
"I don't know if it is all (man's fault) but
the majority is. For the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down
nature," he narrated to media aboard the plane traveling to Manila.....(If we’ll try to check, this is actually
confirmed by some experts that carbon pollution – which has been emitted by
developed countries like US which remains as the world's worst number one CO2
polluter, China are responsible for 3.5 tonnes of CO2 each per year, UK is
nearly 10 tonnes, North Americans is 20 tonnes, and G8 (world's richest nations
also responsible for over 80 percent of the climate change we are experiencing
today), is the main reason our planet is gettin hotter, increasing the chances of weather disasters drought
and flood and hurting our health).
After a concelebrated Mass attended by around 200,000 people in an open field near Tacloban airport, Pope Francis visited the
archbishop’s residence Palo, Leyte, to have lunch with 30 survivors of the
typhoon and the 7.2-magnitude quake that struck Visayas in 2013. He was silenced by such an extraordinary communion
and solidarity amidst crisis.
Pope Francis said that this visit is really for him; he's learning as a pastor and does not stop learning bringing it to heart and reflect it on the light of the
word of God.
It appears that the nature brought by Tropical Storm Amang tried to prevent the apostolic visit but the seemingly coolest Pope
pushed through with his visit. The rain
and wind that started to fall and batter the storm-ravaged city did not stop
him to invoke Heaven in prayers through the Liturgy.
In his homily he preferred to speak in Spanish
and he asked the multitude if he could have it translated by his good
translator which the responsive crowd heartily honored.
Msgr. Mark Gerard Miles delivered the Pope's sermon
in this sequence:
We have a high priest who is capable of
sympathizing with our weaknesses. Jesus is like us. Jesus lived like us and is
the same us in every respect, except sin because He was not a sinner. But to be
more like us He assumed our condition and our sin. He made Himself into sin.
This is what St. Paul tells us. And Jesus always goes before us and when we pass
an experience, a cross, He passed there before us.
And if today we find
ourselves here 14 months afterwards, 14 months precisely after the Typhoon
Yolanda hit, it is because we have the security of knowing we will not weaken
in our faith because Jesus has been here before us. In His Passion He
assumed all our pain. Therefore He is capable of understanding us, as we heard
in the first reading.
I’d like to tell you something close to my heart.
When I saw from Rome that catastrophe I had to be here. And on those very days
I decided to come here. I am here to be with you – a little bit late, but I’m
here.
I have come to tell you that Jesus is Lord. And He never lets us down. Father – you might say to me – I was let down because I
have lost so many things, my house, my livelihood. It’s true if you say that
and I respect those sentiments. But Jesus is there, nailed to the cross, and
from there He does not let us down. He was consecrated as Lord on that throne
and there He experienced all the calamities that we experience. Jesus is Lord.
And the Lord from the cross is there for you. In everything the same as us, that
is why we have a Lord who cries with us and walks with us in the most difficult
moments of life.
So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord
does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All
I can do is keep silence and walk with you all with my silent heart. Many of
you have asked the Lord – why Lord? And to each of you, to your heart, Christ
responds with His heart from the cross. I have no more words for you. Let us
look to Christ. He is the Lord. He understands us because He underwent all the
trials that we, that you, have experienced.
And beside the cross was His Mother. We
are like a little child in the moments when we have so much pain and no longer
understand anything. All we can do is grab hold of Her hand firmly and say
“Mommy” – like a child does when it is afraid. It is perhaps the only words we
can say in difficult times – “Mommy”.
Let us respect a moment of silence
together and look to Christ on the cross. He understands us because He endured
everything. Let us look to our Mother and, like a little child, let us hold
onto her mantle and with a true heart say – “Mother”. In silence, tell your
Mother what you feel in your heart. Let us know that we have a Mother, Mary,
and a great Brother, Jesus. We are not alone. We also have many brothers who in
this moment of catastrophe came to help. And we too, because of this, we feel
more like brothers and sisters because we helped each other.
This is what comes from my heart. Forgive me if I
have no other words to express myself. Please know that Jesus never lets you
down. Know that the tenderness of Mary never lets you down. And holding onto
her mantle and with the power that comes from Jesus’ love on the cross, let us
move forward and walk together as brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Thank you very much.
References:
Philip Pullella and Neil Jerome Morales, Manila Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:02pm EST, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/us-pope-philippines-idUSKBN0KP07X20150116
Marc Jayson Cayabyab, INQUIRER.net, 5:40 AM | Saturday, January 17th, 2015,
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/665419/pope-to-arrive-45-minutes-earlier-in-tacloban#ixzz3P5yazMds
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climate-change-impacts/
China - new number one climate polluter?Feature story - 20 June, 2007
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