The La Consolacion College Bacolod community celebrated the feasts of St. Monica and St. Augustine through a Eucharistic celebration Thursday, Aug. 27, at the school Quadrangle, with the faithful called to embrace a form of love patterned after the self-giving love of Christ.
Fr. Raymundo Edsel T. Alcayaga, OSA, who presided over the Mass, centered his homily on Jesus’ command in the Gospel of John: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Alcayaga began by drawing from the everyday experience of love, noting that people encounter it through their relationships with parents, family members, friends and others. Love, he said, is therefore not something unfamiliar or merely abstract.
But the love Christ asks of his followers goes beyond ordinary affection, Alcayaga said. The crucial part of Jesus’ command is not simply to love one another, but to do so “as I have loved you.”
Alcayaga began by drawing from the everyday experience of love, noting that people encounter it through their relationships with parents, family members, friends and others. Love, he said, is therefore not something unfamiliar or merely abstract.
But the love Christ asks of his followers goes beyond ordinary affection, Alcayaga said. The crucial part of Jesus’ command is not simply to love one another, but to do so “as I have loved you.”
Pointing to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, Alcayaga described Christian love as one that is willing to give of oneself for the sake of others.
“It’s a very unique and yet very challenging love,” he said. “Love that is willing to sacrifice oneself, just as Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for us, for the salvation of humanity.”
He emphasized that such love is unconditional and offered not because something is expected in return, but because of love itself.
The Gospel reading, from John 15:9-17, also connected Christ-like love with the fullness of joy. Jesus tells his disciples to remain in his love and says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
Alcayaga challenged the LCC Bacolod community to take this command seriously beyond the celebration of the feast and allow Christ’s example of self-giving love to become visible in daily life.
The message carried particular significance as the school honored St. Monica and her son, St. Augustine of Hippo, the spiritual father of the Augustinian tradition. Their story reflects the enduring power of faith, prayer and persevering love, with Monica’s steadfast concern for her son accompanying Augustine’s long journey toward conversion and his eventual life of service to the Church.
The annual celebration holds special significance for LCC Bacolod as an Augustinian educational institution, where the life and teachings of St. Augustine form part of the school’s spiritual heritage and mission.
Through the feast, the school community was reminded that the Augustinian call to love finds its fullest expression not merely in words or affection, but in a willingness to give of oneself for others — following Christ’s own measure of love.