Do not be
discouraged – Navarra

Do not be discouraged. The devil will continue or persist in trying to grab you from God. It is a life-long struggle. But he can be defeated.

This was the message Monday by Bacolod bishop Vicente Navarra to members of Bata’s community, one of the Neo-Catechumenal communities.

The Bacolod prelate delivered his homily during the rite of the imprinting of the community members on the Bible at the Bishop’s chapel at his residence.

The struggle against the devil, he said, is life-long. And he will continue in trying to snatch a human person from God. ”But you know very well that he can be defeated,” was how Bishop Navarra put it.

He stressed that, “Even at my age, I still have to struggle with the devil,” he pointed out.

But the secret is to call on him using his name. “He is afraid of the disclosure of identity,” was how Bishop Navarra termed the secret to defeat the devil one.

Not only priests, bishops, and even the Pope are exempted from this life-time struggle against the wiles of the devil. But we have learned to defeat him by the simple experience of prayers and repentance he added.

Continued dialog with God through prayer and meditation, he said, should equip a person with the armors that could shield him from the wiles of the enemy.

Discernment, however, Bishop Navarra stressed, enables a person to immediately spot the traps and tricks of the devil.

Today, the Church focuses on the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot, the treasurer His ban of Apostles.

In the past, this betrayal was something which the Church commemorated with the rite of the betrayal.

It was a moving and highly symbolic replication of how Judas turned Jesus, the Savior of the hands of His Jewish tormentors.

The rite in the past used a 13 point triangle representing Christ and His 12 apostles.

Gradually, the candles are put out and until the last one, representing Christ, only one is left, and is also blown out. The Church is then in complete darkness.

This rite used to be greeted with sadness by the faithful who remember the fateful Judas selling His Master for 30 pieces of silver.

That’s the poignant story in the Gospel. Judas, later, asked the Jewish priest to give back to Him Christ. But they refused and Judas reportedly threw down the silver they had given him in exchange for Christ.

Thereafter, Judas reportedly taken by remorse, hanged himself from a tree – a suicide.

Tomorrow, there will be no masses in the morning in Catholic Churches. Instead, the members of the clergy will attend the Mass of the Chrism at the Cathedral.

There, the clergy will reiterate their oath of fealty before the Bishop. They will be flat on their faces at the altar.

That is one of the most important rites of the Holy Week when the priests reiterate their pledge of fealty to both the Savior and the Church.

In the afternoon, there will be Mass of the Last Supper that commemorates the institution of the Sacrament of Communion and the Holy Eucharist.

More than 2,000 years ago, Christ instituted a memorial to His Passion and death by consecrating the bread and the wine into His Body and blood. This act is the Holy Eucharist replicated daily in all Catholic churches by members of the clergy.

Another highlight of the celebration is the rite of the washing of the feet as of the washing of their feet by Christ.

The Savior humbles Himself by washing the feet of His apostles and reminded them that He who is First, as the master, must be able to serve His followers.*

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