MindanaoToday.com | Serve beyond rewards, prelate advices leaders
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A high-ranking leader of the Roman Catholic Church, who hails from Magsaysay town, Misamis Oriental and currently based in California, United States of America, shared his insights on leadership in religious life, public service, and in the family.
Auxiliary Bishop Reynaldo Bersabal of the Diocese of Sacramento, in a concelebrated fiesta mass on August 28, at the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral here, said homilies are intended for all—including himself–so all may share the holiness of and blessings from the patron of Cagay-anons.
Bersabal said that while it is good for the public to know what they, in the church, and government leaders are doing, yet the services rendered should be done out of love because real happiness could be experienced by helping people, even if there are instances when these may not be recognized at all.
In the same way that in a family, fathers raise children out of love without expecting rewards afterwards
He said many would accumulate wealth and achieve fame to be happy, but Saint Augustine was on a firm belief that “to know God is to know happiness and to know happiness is to know God.” Wealth and fame, he said, must enable leaders to effectively uplift the lives of those in need.
Leaders, he said, must not demand for special treatments and entitlements because they are placed in their positions because they are called to serve, not to be served. This, he said, was one the reasons why some, including himself, were hesitant in accepting positions that entail demanding responsibilities, including his appointment as auxiliary bishop on April 30, this year.
Bersabal recalled that while on prostration during ordination rites at the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral on April 29, 1991, there was a nagging question in his mind: “I am ready or not?”
Since then, he said, the commitment to serve the people of God must be renewed now and then, and all leaders must do the same, because one may experience the “feeling of emptiness” and there could be temptations that could veer one away.
He was ordained priest by the late Archbishop Jesus Tuquib.
Among the posts he served include as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Snows Parish in 1991, parish administrator of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in 1992, and parish priest at St. Francis Xavier Parish in 1995.
He also served as assessor of marriage cases for the metropolitan tribunal of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro in 1996, as chancellor and as archdiocesan director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the Philippines in 1998.
Upon invitation from the Diocese of Sacramento, he left the country in 1999 and continue to serve Roman Catholic Church followers abroad.
The 59-year-old auxiliary bishop of Sacramento was joined in presiding by Archbishop Jose Cabantan of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, Father Jose Alan Pulgo, rector of the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral and several other priests in concelebrating the 10 a.m. mass.
Thousands of city residents led by City Mayor Rolando Uy, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez and City Council members filled the pews.
Newly-crowned Miss Cagayan de Oro 2024 Alyssa Marie Cordova and her court were among the mass attendees. They participated in the fluvial procession on Cagayan de Oro River from the shores of Barangay Macabalan, facing the Macajalar Bay, that took off about 7 a.m. that day.
At least eight riverside villages joined the traditional religious activity with motorized bancas carrying colossal statues of San Agustin and Birhin sa Kota, and a replica of the Saint Augustine Cathedral. (MT)
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