HONG KONG (SE): “I think this is historical,” that “a Roman Catholic cardinal would come here to share his thoughts … at St. John’s Cathedral,” said Cardinal Stephen Chow S.J., the bishop of the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong, during his homily for the Anglican service for the Seventh Sunday of Easter [Sunday after Ascension], at St. John’s Cathedral, Garden Road, on June 1.
Thanking Bishop Matthais Der of the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong Island Bishop Der and the community of St. John’s for the invitation. The cardinal focused on the reading from the Book of Acts 16:16-34, which recounts Paul and Silas’s encounter with a slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, their subsequent imprisonment, and the conversion and baptism of the jailer and his household.
The cardinal noted that after Paul set the slave girl free from possession so that she could live with human dignity, her angry owners had him and Silas thrown in prison. However, their actions towards their jailer were an example of empathic love, which stopped the jailer from killing himself and led to his baptism and that of his family.
The cardinal said that authentic faith is demonstrated through and the choices and action we make each day.
The cardinal went on to observe that we are sometimes content to stay put within our comfort zones “believing that are faith is more or less fine. We forget that our Christian faith is authentic only when it is paired with a mission that challenges us to go beyond our own self-interests.” He said, “We as disciples are entrusted with Christ’s mission to bring all people…all living beings… back to the Father through Christ.”
Cardinal Stephen said that we, as the Body of Christ, are called to infuse the world with God’s salvific love. “We become missionary disciples of love in this terribly broken world where love is badly distorted, or simply missing.”
He said, “love is best understood in healthy relationships; when the parties involved encounter each other. Genuinely and respectfully” without objectifying the other.”
The cardinal said, “the best way for us to learn how to love is from the love on the cross. The love that says self-interest does not come first,” adding that “Christ emptied himself so that we can be fulfilled.”
That fulfillment is our salvation “God in us and we in God forever.”
Bishop Der, presented Cardinal Stephen with a gift at the conclusion of the service. He noted that they had come to know each other and work together over the last few years, noting “we have become good friends and partners in the gospel, and fellow pilgrims.”
The bishop said, “We are so pleased to see that the two Churches (Anglican and Catholic) are coming together in a common witness in this very broken world.”
He told the cardinal, “We deeply appreciate your leadership, your wisdom and your pastor’s heart and in leading your Church.”
Cardinal Stephen replied, “I pray that our encounter will bring us into deeper and firmer unity as the body of Christ in this world.”
