(Homily delivered by His Grace, Most Reverend Leonardo Z. Legaspi, O.P., D.D. Archbishop of Caceres during the 7th International Gathering held at Caleruega Retreat House, Batulao, Batangas on August 21, 2004 (Saturday) 2004 at 4:00 p.m.)

I welcome you to the only Christian nation in this part of our world. I welcome you in the name of the Dominicans who preached the gospel of our Lord Jesus in this Asian Archipelago of some 7,000 islands. I welcome you with joy and gratitude for sharing us your youthful dreams, hopes and prayers.

It has been noted time and time again that St. Dominic was a man of great joy. When beset by dangers and problems, he would burst out in song. He walked through towns and cities and countryside singing out his praises to the Father. Dominic was like the saint from Assisi, a troubadour of heaven.

But joy can be passing sentiment that fades away in the face of peril and difficulties. True joy is not an emotion-it is a permanent quality that informs and shapes our lives. True joy finds its permanence with our fidelity to our call to be preachers.

To preach is to be entrusted by God with precious tool- the tool that is the Word of God. The Word is our gift from God and it is in turn our gift to the world. From God, we receive the Word that redeems and sanctifies us. To the world we pass on this gift that its listeners might find strength and healing in the Word. But to pass this Word in order tat it might transform lives there is precondition.

The preacher must first be transformed by the working of the Word in his life. Otherwise, he will be like a hollow cymbal, "full of sound and fury but signifying nothing."

But our word can be tainted by the World. In the lips of men, it can become a tool of deception and manipulation. We can proclaim words to dominate. Our use of words can destroy reputations, crush the weak and lead its hearers astray. In the lips of hollow men, men devoid of spirituality and depth. Words can dehumanize and become formidable barricades to the entry of truth and grace.

How great then are the responsibilities and challenges handed to us by the virtue of our vocation to preach the Word. Let us go to the prologue of the Gospel according to St. John for illumination. The Evangelist writes that the Word is the true light that enlightens all men. The Word unveils for its hearers-the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. This becomes possible because the Word was made flesh.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. It was by becoming flesh that God's Word became the tool for revealing the glory of the Father. The Word was made flesh. The Second Person of the Trinity had to take on our flesh and blood, our history and our culture in order to fulfill His Mission of enlightenment and salvation. It was by taking on flesh that made Him experience a Mother's love; because He had taken flesh, He had eyes to see lilies on the field and the flight of birds through a summer sky. He had ears to hear the pleas of the blind and the accused, a heart to weep with and compassion over lost sheep, a body that He could offer to the nails of the executioners. It was by taking on our human flesh that Christ could give witness to sinful man of the hidden secrets and glory of the Father and the Holy Spirit. If He had not assumed that human flesh, His image would applicably - it would be a disembodied collection of the abstract words without power, without challenge, without relevance.

What does this tell us? Our Lord and Master, our Brother and redeemer showed us the way to be effective preachers. The Way is that of "taking flesh". As preachers, we cannot remain in ivory towers high above the reach of the joys and pains, the celebrations and disasters of men and women. Our word must also - take flesh.

But this hides a double-edged sword that cuts two way. We can put on the flesh of the world and sink into the pleasure fleshpots of a neo-pagan modern culture. Or, we can put on the flesh that sees reality con ojos de fe y de amor; we can put on the flesh that hears the pleas of the suffering and he forgotten; we can put on the flesh that gives us the mind of Christ; the heart of Christ, the healing touch of the Lord.

No wonder our Father St. Dominic could go about with radiant smiles and songs that soared to the heavens because like Paul of Tarsus, he lived, no longer confine within his puny existence, but Christ's-he was alive with the life of Christ!

Word and Flesh: Preaching and Witnessing: these go together. Word without flesh would produce a disembodied text. Preaching without witnessing would produce an anemic Christianity. Thus, our vocation as Dominican preachers impels us not to isolated hermitage but to bustling missions deep within the life of men and women.

In his book "Sing a New Song" Fr. Timothy Radeliffe offer a timely caveat. We should not forget that an indispensable way for us to prepare ourselves to be effective preachers of the Word-is through study. He notes that our centers of study "our schools of joy because they are founded upon the belief that it is possible to arrive at some understanding of our world and our lives." In addition, our former Master says that our center for study must be school of hope. He writes: "In a world that has lost confidence in the value of reason, it witnesses to the possibility of a common search for the truth."

I was informed that this is the first time that your gathering will be held outside Europe. I am glad and thankful that you have chosen my country for this historic first venture of the International Dominican Youth Movement. If I may make this comment, that by going outside your European context, your movement has finally matured into becoming authentically international. By coming to shores beyond the European world, you are taking risks, risks of the unknown and the unfamiliar, risks that demand new adjustments and confrontation with sharper challenges. But you are young. Youth does not tremble at taking risks. Youth's spirit is one of adventure of going forth into the deep, of going forth to all the nations to spread the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But in these shores far away from your own habitats, you will not be totally lost in foreign surroundings, among strange tongues and exotic customs. You will find in the Philippines not just traces but enduring monuments that reflect the work of Europeans, in particular, of the pioneer Spanish Dominican missionaries who came here some 417 years ago and who risked their lives to mold our ancestors into a Christian community the only catholic nation among Asia's teeming millions. Thus you will hear hymns familiar to you; you will enter churches whose architecture reminds you of Spanish churches and whose devotions are patterned after the Holy Week liturgy of Sevilla, you will taste paellas inspired by recipes from Valencia and see our youth engrossed in soccer game. You will perhaps also discover the religiosity of our leaders and citizens a religiosity which perhaps your own country has lost.

It is my hope therefore that you will be enriched by your coming to this distant islands. I hope you will transform the seclusion of this retreat house and make it your active house, open, creative centre of study - not just of your own familiar European world, but of a new Areopagus. a new and enriching venue of learning to enrich your calling as preachers. The message entrusted to you by Christ cannot be confined in familiar neighborhoods but must reach out to every unfamiliar corner of the world.

In I987, when we celebrated the Fourth Centennial of the Dominican Presence in the Philippines. One of our speakers, Fr. Felicisimo Martinez talked of the Mission of the Order in terms of Five Frontiers and the Five Challenges for Dominicans today which the General Chapter in Avila had named. The first frontier was that between life and death or the challenges of justice and peace in the world. The second was the frontier between humanity and inhumanity or the great challenge of the marginalized. The third was the third world religions. The fourth was the challenge of secular ideologies. And the fifth was the frontier of the Church or challenge of non-catholic Christians and the sects.

By leaving your European culture and entering an Asian environment, you have placed yourselves in a new frontier where all these challenges can be found. For here in the Philippines you can confront pervasive poverty which dehumanizes hundreds of thousands of Filipinos; you will be challenged by this poverty of the marginalized to ask questions about the life style of your country whose economic policies dehumanizes hundreds of thousands of Filipinos; you will be challenged by this poverty of the marginalized to ask questions about the life style of your country whose economic policies contribute to global poverty. If you roam through our villages and towns you will see the aggressive incursions of new sects among our faithful. My dear brothers of the International Youth Movement - the core reflections you will be addressing these days are related to the triple questions: Who will preach? What to preach? To whom to preach?

I have attempted to present my personal reflections on these three questions in the hope that they will add something positive to your three-day discussion. I have described who will preach by meditating on the need of conversion on the part of the preacher - a conversion demanded by the need of integrity and holiness connected with his calling to preach the Word of God. I have described what to preach by emphasizing that it is the word made flesh the word made living through immersion in the joys and sorrows of humanity that provides the substance of our preaching. I have briefly touched on the question to whom to preach when I described the dehumanizing lives of the poor in contrast to the prodigal lavish life of the poor of the West. It is the rich and powerful and the victims of their policies who are the audience of our preaching.

These are reflections from my perspective. The decisive fruits of this meeting will of course come from your own individual and collective discussions and findings. I pray their outcome will be enriching and lasting. I pray that at the end of your gathering you will find satisfaction and significance in your results - so much so that you will leave these distant shores less a stranger and blessed with happy hearts who sing a new song of joy and hope.