Message of His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle at

World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia

..My task this afternoon is to reflect with you on the family, a home for the wounded heart.

First I would like to invite you to consider the different type of wounds that we experience and encounter.
Then we will turn to Jesus the Wounded One, whose preaching of the kingdom of God included the ministry of healing.
Then we turn to the Church, the body of Christ definitely made of a wounded men and women yet called to share in
the redemptive mission of her lord and her head Jesus Christ. And finally I would offer a few tips on how we, as
wounded people could be agents of healing in our homes and in a wider home called the Church.
let us start with some considerations about wounded hearts of course the heart here is not just an organ within the
body when we talk about wounded hearts, were talking about wounded persons. All people are wounded, I guess no
one here could claim I have never mean wounded, all of us have been wounded and continue to experience wounds in
your hearts. There are different types of wounds, some physical, some spiritual, some emotional, some relational,
some financial, and there are different causes and consequences but whatever the nature of a person to know wound
it always affects the family and consequently a persons social relationships. All wounds hurt but wounds are more
painful and hurtful when we see our family members suffering when somebody inflicts a wound on our family member,
we are also wounded, they become our own wounds but mostly hurtful are the wounds inflicted on someone by his or
her own family members.

The sacredness of the family is wounded by that when brothers and sisters fight
over money, when relatives fights over a piece of property and they say we are
fighting for a principle. What type of principle is that? When the piece of land
is more important than your brother and sisters, but the world calls that a
principle. But this the mystery of it all even when homes are hurt by wounds it is also
the home that is the privilege place for comforting and healing wounded hearts. The
wounds may come from the family but it is also the family that becomes the source of
comfort and healing. (read:When a girl tells Cardinal Tagle: Youre fake Tagle,In the
Philippines love can separate families).

The wounds that affect our families today are many immense and deep, I dont
have time to analyze each one but just to give you some examples: Financial
constraints, unemployment, detestation, lack to access of basic needs,
the lack of education, economic and political policies that do not support the
families. Of course failed relationships, infidelity, sickness, disabilities,
social cultural even religious exclusion or discrimination, human trafficking,
child abuse, human slavery, wars, ethnic conflicts, climatic calamities,
forced migration, displacement of people, all of these bring wounds to human
persons and to families, and from your specific context your countries your regions
maybe you can add to the list that I have just presented.(Read: Tagle on Refugees,
dont play blind,deaf,mute)
Open your eyes, listen to the hurts of the wounded, see the wounds and see the causes
of those wounds. Wounds make persons families and communities vulnerable to
manipulation, bitterness, despair, exploitation and even vulnerable to evil, to sin. Some
people fall into crime, criminality, they start thinking of evil deeds because of deep
wounds, interior division, the division within me and the external division, conflicts they all lead to alienation.
I dont know who I am anymore, I dont know whether I am accepted by my
family, I do not know I if I belong to the society. I am an alien, I do not belong.
I dont have a home. This is usually the experience of wounded people - alienation,
homelessness, you may have big beautiful house and still be homeless. For what is a
home, a home is not measured by how many acres you have on which the
building called the house sits. No, a home is the gift of the loving presence. I
remember in my youth a beautiful song it says, a chair is still a chair even when there is

no one sitting there but a chair is not a house and the house is not a home when there is
no one there to hold you tight and no one there you can kiss goodnight. Thats not the
end of the song. It continues, a room is still a room even when there is nothing there but
gloom, but a room is not a house and the house is not a home when the two of us are far
apart and one of us has a broken heart. Let me finish, I get wounded too, now and then I
call your name and suddenly your face appears but its just a crazy game when it ends ,it
ends in tears.Then, the plea darling have the heart .Dont let one mistake keep us
apart . I am not meant to live alone. Turn this house into a home. When you climb the
stairs and turn the key, oh please be there , still in love with me.
Thats a home! Not a house but a home a loving presence the gift of a loving
presence which lead us now to Jesus Christ.
HUMILITY of the HEALER, The Ministry of Jesus
A certain author Luciano Sandrin notes that integral to the mission of Jesus which is the
proclamation of the reign of God the kingdom of God was the healing of the sick, the
wounded , the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The dawning of the Kingdom of God
is very often accompanied by signs and wonders specially those of healing,
In Matthew 9 verse 45 , Jesus continued his tour of all the town and villages.He thought
in their synagogue, He proclaim the goodness of Gods reign and He cured every
sickness and disease. Jesus instructed the twelve to do the same. In Matthew 10:7-8,
Jesus says as you go make this announcement , the reign of God is at hand , cure the
sick, raise the dead heal the leprous and dispel demons. The good news of the reign of
God is manifested in healing as caring, ,assisting people, accompanying them
reconstituting relationships, bringing back a girl to life and restoring her to her family .
When God rules, when God reigns there seems to be a pattern in Jesus mission of
proclaiming the kingdom accompanied by healing.There is compassion, Jesus was
moved by compassion, then Jesus cares. Included in the caring of Jesus is his anger
towards the evil that befalls a person and then the attention with which he cares for the
person. Then comes faith, usually the healed person manifests faith in Jesus. Jesus would
tell them to keep quiet.
THE HUMIL:ITY OF JESUS
Jesus, the humility of the healer, the healer will not go around saying hey,, hey you see
that man he use to be laid he was able to walk now because of me, praise me. NO! The
healer comes to proclaim the Kingdom of God not himself or herself.The proclamation of
oneself is the way of the Kingdom of this world thats why the kingdom of this world
operating on ambition, power, self recognition.They inflict wounds , but Jesus kingdom is
always a humble serving kingdom thats why it heals by caring, by compassion and by
love.
Healing even youre wounded
Some father of the church say that in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus was
really talking about himself, someone attentive to those left dying on the road, that is
Jesus. He was really talking about himself and we can agree yes he is the Good
Samaritan. Every person wounded even if a stranger, even if an enemy, I will love and
care for. Remember, in the parable was a Samaritan, which of that time which
considered as an enemy of the Jews but if you want to heal, the test is are you willing to
heal even your wounded enemy? Nobody claps (laugh).. I caught you there (laugh), but
Jesus stops and heals even those who plan to persecute him. Remember how in John
13 , he washed the feet of his disciples including those who had plan to betray him, you

heal even your enemies. Why? That is the way of the kingdom of God ,very
different from the ways of the kingdoms of this world.
We all know the parables of mercy in Luke 15, three parables -the lost sheep and the
lost coin and the lost son, all of them getting lost but the three parables ended with
rejoicing with feasting. Why? Because the lost now found is coming home.
When you look at the first parable the lost sheep, the lost sheep probably was sick or
wounded and from a purely pragmatic economic reason, the shepherd should not leave
unattended the 99 healthy sheep to search for the one who was wounded , sick and
lost.That wounded sheep is really a liability. But Why? Why would the shepherd look for
that sheep , why would the women look for one coin and why will the father welcome
with such extravagance the lost son- for only one reason, the sheep, the wounded
and lost is my own, it is mine, and if it cannot come home I will carry it home.
The elder brother castigated the father , the father wants the home to be made home
and would not be home if the wounded brother would not be accepted. No other
reason, you are mine and my home will not be complete without you. You
cannot come home. I will carry you home.
HEALING by BEING WOUNDED
This is how Jesus presents the kingdom of love and mercy but Jesus not only heal the
symptoms of our wounds he does not save us from our vulnerability and woundedness,
He saves us in our wounds and vulnerability, he entered our woundedness, he became
like us excepts sin. In his incarnation, He embrace a wounded world he experienced
being haunted down by an ambitious politician, he experienced being refugee in Egypt,
he experienced being lost as a teenager, He experienced being branded as crazy, He
experienced not having a home, he experienced the ridiculed even of religious leaders,
He experienced betrayal of a friend, He experienced the humilating death on the cross
given only to criminals. And he was buried in a borrowed tomb, Jesus heals by being
wounded. And according to the letter to the Hebrews, he was perfected, he was made
perfect as a compassion of a high priest, as a compassion of brother because he is
tempted in every way that we are expects sin, he knows our wounds and he transformed
our wounds in to the triumph of love thats why even the resurrected Christ had the
marks of wounds. The wounds will not disappear in fact it is the wounded one that saves.
So my dear brothers and sisters since all of us are wounded no one should be able to say
I have no gift of healing, no! Our wounds will make us everyone to be avenues of
understanding, compassion, solidarity and love.
Are we still together? Yes, I now go to my third point, Im a halfway thru.
So from wounds and homes to Jesus the wounded one who continues praying to the
Father our high priest seated at the right hand of the father bearing the marks and our
wounds in his resurrected life beautiful to behold. Dont think that in a resurrection, our
wounds the scars will disappear no! Even if they are scars, if there is scars of love of
compassion, of solidarity, wow they are beautiful scars. For the risen one posses those
marks of his loving concern for all of us
CHURCH HOME FOR THE WOUNDED HEARTS
Now that lead us to the church the home for the wounded hearts . By church, we mean
the body of Christ that is present in every local congregation like the parish, like the
Diocese, like your religious order or society and apostolic life and most specially the
family, the home, the domestic church, the church in the family. Being the body of Christ,
the church shares in Jesus mission of proclaiming the reign of God through healing,
through solidarity, through compassion. St. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians

chapter 12, if one member suffers, all the members suffers with it, if one member is
honored, all the members share its joy.
The church of wounded members becomes a church of solidarity and compassion in
union with each other not only in glory but most especially in wounds. Dear parents
when your child, your son or daughter will graduate with honors I always hear this, the
remark of one parent as he or she witnesses the event with tears in his or her eyes , oh
my son my daughter, but when the child does not pass the course and is required to
repeat the course one parent will address his or her spouse and say Hey your son,
your son must repeat the course, how come?
When it is about honor its my child when it is a disaster, its your child.
We are one church, one home, one family. The church must embody the redemptive
mission of God. Joseph Hartzer, using the insight of the great Canadian theologian
Bernard Leonard says, nowadays the redemptive mission of the Church must be
manifested in the Church becoming the disciples of authentic persons capable of self
sacrificing love . For it is this type of community that will prevent alienation., loneliness
and further woundedness,
Self sacrificing love.
The second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic constitution of the church
says that the church is the sacrament, the sign and instrument of the intimate union
between God and humanity and of human being among themselves, thats the core of
the church intimate union, communion, love and not alienation so at the very core of the
churches identity is its mission. You are not there to alienate further you are there to
heal, to unite and to reconcile.
A beautiful image in the bible of the church that heals even if it is wounded is thats
small bond of friends of a paralytic in Mark 2- , you know those four friends who did
everything that they could but when it was impossible to bring their friend close to Jesus
because of the crowd, what did they do? They went up the roof, they opened up the roof
to lower their friend to Jesus. Thats a family, thats a parish, thats a diocese,
thats the Church.
No one gives up! I wont give up! We wont give up, leading people to the healing
touch of Jesus.
In the words of Maria Catallo Cunniff, the church opens doors to Jesus and sometimes
roofs in order to bring people to Jesus. Let me now go to the last portion. Some paths
that we could take so that we could promote Jesus redemptive mission inaugurating the
reign of God within the church as the home for the wounded. First, we must realize that
all healing comes from God, it is the initiative of God. Secondly, healing is situated best
in a a community, the family, the parish, the school, the bond of friends without
forgetting the involvement of the wounded person. He or She must also be courageous in
taking the path towards healing conversion. Let us not forget the liturgical sacramental
aspects, baptism, Eucharist, sacrament of forgiveness, reconciliation, the anointing of
the sick, the ethical dimension.
Joseph Kelly proposes some practices based on the image of the church as a field
hospital an image which is dear to Pope Francis . Joseph Kelly said if we are serious about
healing and a field hospital setting,:
first we must keep in touch with Jesus, the chief physician, we should be humble, we
cannot heal simply by our human effort even our psychological counseling skill, we all
turn to Jesus. Secondly, let us recognize our own wounds facing our own wounds well
enable us to be compassionate and understanding to the wounded. Third, we should not
be afraid of the dark when you deal with wounds, oh wounds are never clean, they could
be bloody and we should be ready to enter that dark world. Fourth, we must accept that

the church is a field hospital, we should be ready to respond in emergency cases, we

should be prompt with creative solutions, we should be agile and flexible. Fifth, we
should infuse the field hospital with hope, we cannot be healers if we look desperate, I
dont know how those glam looking people could even generate love trust and healing.
Smile please
Sixth, often when we try to heal or help, we have no choice but to be quiet, silent, no
words, no solutions we just provide a loving presence.
Discernment is essential .
TWO STORIES My dear brothers and sisters my timer here says I have 7 minutes to go I
will spend the last 7 minutes telling you stories for thats what Asians, we live by stories.
I told his story a few days ago in La Salle university, I usually attend the summer camp
for young people in the diocese and one summer camp devoted to finding ones purpose
in life vocation, actually. One purpose in life, I gave a key note address like this, very
short.
After that, I opened the floor to questions and the first question that I got from a young
person was Bishop, will you sing for us? Quite, unrelated to the topic, so I said let us go
back to the topic ask questions about the topic and they asked questions and then came
another boy, now Bishop will you sing for us? So, I said you did not tell me that I would
sing, so let me start a song that all of us would sing . afterwards the young people came
in good Filipino fashion ask for a blessing, some had selfie, some asked for autographs.
Some asked me to sign their shirts. Here Bishop, please sign here, one young girl said
here, here, sign here I said no, no turn around turn around! But I was thinking, what do
they think of me? Am I a singer? Am I a celebrity? What am I? Do I project myself as a
Bishop?
The answer came a year later. In a similar youth camp, one boy approached me and said
last year, I had my shirt signed by you Bishop and I said oh yes I remember he said I
have not washed the shirt. But he says, every night, I fold it, I put it under my pillow. I
have not seen my father in years. Hes working abroad, he has not been home, but with
that shirt, and your signature, I know I have a home, I know I have a father. Gracias,
muchas gracias, tante grazie
Let me close with this moving story which I will read from an account submitted by a girl,
a refugee girl: I was born in the jungle. I was lucky my mother told me. Lucky that I was
born when so many around me died. I come from Burma, where thousands have
perished in the war between Burmese troops and oppositon groups. I was born in the
jungle because my parents fled their home to avoid the fighting.
When I was in primary school, I had to leave my home village and from that time on, I
would move from village to village to attend school. Until 1992, I visited my parents and
brothers and sisters about a year but I have not seen them since. As I have been unable
to return home following the closure by Burmese troops of all roads along the Thai-Burma
border. So I must live by myself, stand alone without my parents, I have relatives who
live around here but I know I cannot get my parents love and care whenever I want. I
cannot talk to them whenever I want. When they are sick, I cannot visit and look after
them. I realized how much I missed my parents when I was sick. Life as a refugee is so
difficult I badly needed my parents to be with me. Right there by my bed but I could not
have them.
I burst into tears .It was so hard for me. I was unable to see my parents because of the
war then I realized, I was not the only one crying and I felt unsolved. I know there are
thousands of people who are suffering like me. When will there be peace in Burma?
When will the war be over? When will the ethnic issues resolved?

After years of moving from place to place, I finally settled in the Karenni refugee camps. I
was asked to teached in the camp schools. Before long however, I was selected for an
internship in the Philippines, during my time away, I learned more about human rights
and I am now working with a Jesuit refugee services in the field of education.
We are busy supporting Karenni schools in a number of ways, I am happy and can use
my education to assist my people in this difficult times. I was not the only one crying.
Thats home for the wounded heart.
Thank you very much!