Homily delivered by Fr. Ari Dy, SJ (XS '89) during the Mass commemorating the 1st death annivesary of Fr. Rafael Cortina, S.J. last Ocotber 19, 2004 at Mary the Queen parish church

     It is difficult to think that one year has passed since Fr. Cortina’s death assaulted us like a thief in the night. The suddenness of his death in faraway Spain makes us want to think that he is still there on vacation, and that he will be back soon. But that is wishful thinking and we all know it. Our beloved Fr. Cortina is in a far better place, where he watches over us and intercedes for us.

     Fr. Cortina was a missionary, and here in the Philippines it is significant to us that he died on Mission Sunday last year, October 19 th , which is also the feast of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. They too were missionaries, 17 th century French Jesuits who introduced Christ to the Huron and Iroquois Indians of what is now Canada and the United States . Missionaries are special people because they leave behind everything that is familiar out of a great love for Christ. Tirelessly they labored to introduce others to Christ, the French Jesuits among the Indians of North America, Fr. Cortina and his companions among us Filipinos.

      I like to think of missionaries as gracious hosts. What they host is not a comfortable home or a sumptuous meal, although that can be part of it too. What they open up to us is their faith, their love of God and of Jesus Christ. As Jesus labored to introduce us to Abba, his Father and our Father, so the missionaries introduce us to Christ and his Father. This is the hospitality of the missionaries. What they have found and experienced in Christ is so beautiful that they want to share it with others. Christ is their home, and they want many others to be comfortable in their home. Fr. Cortina was like that. Let me share some of my experiences with him.

     He always made me feel at ease and welcome. When I was in college and involved in an alumni apostolate (this was when Dazers had a community called Torch and we had an apostolate at the home for the aged in the Marikina Boys Town complex), a check donation from San Miguel Corporation had to be picked up from a friend of Fr. Cortina's at San Miguel. I was assigned to accompany Fr. Cortina to get the check, and while making the arrangements with him, he asked if I knew how to drive because I could just take his old Ford and go to San Miguel myself. I was a new driver then and didn't feel confident enough to drive myself, so I said we'd better go together. And we did. When we passed Poveda Learning Center , he told me all about who Fr. Pedro Poveda was.

     Many years later, I was a young Jesuit scholastic and he was already assigned to Xavier School after his stint as parish priest and after spending some years promoting the Chinese apostolate in different countries. I arrived at the Jesuit Residence one night, and I chanced upon him relaxing in the TV room. He seemed very happy to see me, and then he proceeded to show me my room and make sure I had everything I needed. He would do that for me every time I visited Xavier, whether or not he was the Minister of the house. There were times when he assigned me to the Provincial's room, and jokingly asked me if it was good enough for me. In truth the Provincial's room was just like any other room, and anyone could use it if the Provincial wasn’t around, but I guess that was his way of making bola to affirm me.

     Fr. Cortina had a great love for the Chinese apostolate and he showed this in deeds rather than in words, whether spoken or written. When I would bring up issues of inculturation, he unassumingly shared his experiences with me. For example, he said he often got invited to preside at a Chinese funeral that had to be performed at a precise time, according to the principles of feng shui . He wondered whether he should condone such superstition, but in the end he showed up at the appointed time and presided at the funeral. He made up for it by gently telling the family about a Creator-God who was powerful and in charge every moment of every day; he told them that either God reigned at ever moment or else he was not God. In this quiet way he effected a dialogue between faith and culture.

     Such was the hospitality of Fr. Cortina. He had an uncanny way of making people feel welcome in God's house, and he had a special love for the Chinese. In this way he was a gracious host, mediating the love of God for each one of us. He made people like us feel wanted and welcome, and in so doing incarnated God's love. I saw this most clearly when I heard Fr. Cortina preaching about the Blessed Sacrament.

     With his usual eloquence and conviction he illustrated what it means to believe in the real presence. He said it was to be the only person in a prayer room with the Blessed Sacrament, and yet to feel that one was not alone. This was the Jesus he experienced, and he wanted all of us to experience it as well.

     No remembrance of Fr. Cortina would be complete without mentioning his sense of humor. He had a distinctive laugh that shook his entire upper body, a naughty smirk, and a ready story; even when he was complaining and getting angry about some form of inefficiency that he encountered, he was still endearing. For his boys at Xavier he reserved a firm but friendly slap on the back, which could mean anything from affirmation to admonition. He was not oblivious to the fact that many of his students used Chinese to refer to him as "the old man" ( lao eh ), so he self-deprecatingly joked about this. It was not beyond him to mimic and make fun of others, and that made it a tall order to outwit him. He managed to have the last word and the last laugh.

     Such was Fr. Paeng Cortina, the gracious host who welcomed us to the bosom of Christ in the Church. We gather tonight in his memory, and I think the best way to honor him is to be like him in his zeal for Jesus, in his missionary desire to bring others to Christ and thus live lives of generous service to others. Let us take a moment now to quietly remember Fr. Cortina. Let us pray for him and to him, that he may rest in Christ’s peace and that we may be gracious hosts like him in introducing Christ to others.

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