Breed of Heroes and Saints

This morning, I with Bro. Vince and some seminarians, joined the 8 o’clock mass at the Cebu Cathedral in solidarity with the Filipino people to express anger over the abuse and misuse of state funds by the government. About two weeks ago a protest rally organized by ordinary citizens went viral in Facebook to have a “Million People March” in Rizal Park. Others joined in the protest in different parts of the country as a citizen-led democratic exercise in a “picnic style gathering” just to express indignation and disgust. The night before, I was still unsure if I would go. 

My friend Cheryl encouraged me to join and pray for them as they would participate in this protest from Fuente Osmena and walk towards Plaza Independencia. She text me that she was anxious because there had been reports of a bomb scare. So I decided to join the mass as a Filipino and as a priest to pray for our country and the safety of the marchers and the gathering that would ensue.

The mass was organized by the Cebu Clergy headed by Msgr. Romel Kintanar on behalf of Archbishop Jose Palma who is out of the country. The Eucharistic celebration was attended by religious men and women, seminarians, lay church organizations and concerned citizens. Bishop Julito Cortes, Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu, gave a thought-provoking and challenging message in his homily.

I would like to paraphrase some of the ideas in his message. He said that the Mass was a gathering in order to bring to the attention of the Lord this grave injustice over wasted public funds for private gain. As a people of faith we are to discern, to grieve and pray.

We discern because we in Church at times grab “a piece of the pie” by tempting and encouraging government officials to corruption. Thus he emphatically declared:  walay mangayo! (we shall not ask). We grieve over a political system which allowed lack of accountability. We pray for our government leaders who are supposedly our stewards. As a community of faith, we continue to say no to sin! No to the evil one and we need to be anchored in faith.

Bishop Cortes also said something very inspiring by connecting the gathering on the meaning of National Heroes Day. He said that it’s a reminder that we are capable of heroism. We are much more dignified and borrowing from the words of Cardinal Luis Tagle “we can do better than this!” because we are a breed of heroes and saints!

He tells the faithful an episode in Rome when Pope Francis met Cardinal Vidal. The pope asked him where he came from and the old prelate said “I come from the Philippines.” On hearing this, Pope Francis was said to say: “Ah the Philippines. The land of saints!”

At the end of the mass, Msgr. Kintanar invited all church-goers to march to Plaza Independencia. A sizeable number of people from all walks of life were already there. There was music, protests songs, prayer from different religious groups even from a representative of agnostic-atheists. But most of all the crowd was educated of the “why” of the gathering. I felt happy that I was in that event. I felt I did my duty as a Christian and as a Filipino.

Cheryl texted me later in the afternoon: “Glad you and the seminarians from Don Bosco counted in for this noble and significant cause for our country. The weather was great. We had a peaceful walk and gathering. But most of all we made a mark in society.”

Edith Stein

Today is the feast of St. Edith Stein (1891-1942). She was a philosopher, brilliant writer, catholic convert, Carmelite nun and martyr. When she became a Carmelite she took the name Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Born in Breslau (Poland) to an observant Jewish family, she stopped believing in God when she was 14. She obtained her doctorate in philosophy “Summa Cum Laude” at the University of Freiburg, Germany in 1916 after writing a thesis on “The Problem of Empath.” Later, she became the assistant and collaborator of Professor Edmund Hussserl, the famous founder of the philosophical movement known as “Phenomenology.”

During this period, she was struck by an experience she never forgot. Visiting the Frankfurt Cathedral, she saw a woman with a shopping basket going in to kneel for a brief prayer. She would write later “this was something totally new to me. In the synagogues and Protestant churches I had visited, people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation.”

In the Summer of 1921, she picked up an autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite reformer that led her to a journey of faith. She was drawn to the Christian faith and was baptized the year after in January 1922. After her conversion, she taught in a Dominican School in Speyer until finally she decided to enter the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of Cologne in October 1933.

In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Sr. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, were among them. Together with many others, they died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. The young Dutch Jesuit, Fr. Jan Nota, one of her close associate said at her death: “she was a witness of God’s presence in a world where God is absent.”

Regarding Faith in God, St. Edith Stein had this to say:

“It is natural for man to seek God. All of our striving for truth and happiness is ultimately a search for the one who supports us absolutely, satisfies us absolutely, and employs us absolutely in His service. A person is not completely himself until he has found God. Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he realizes it.”

“There is no need for us to spend our lives proving the legitimacy of religious experience. We are, however, required to declare ourselves ‘for’ or ‘against’ God. That is what we must do—to decide, and without receiving any guarantee in return. This is the great risk of faith. The path leads from believing to seeing, not the reverse. Those who are too proud to squeeze through the narrow gate are left outside. However, those who do make it through to the other side come, even in this life, to see with ever increasing clarity and experience the truth of the maxim: credo et intelligam – I believe and I shall understand.

Indeed an inspiring journey from atheism to faith!

St. Dominic and the Rosary

In the 15^th century, two outstanding figures stood out prominently. One was St. Francis from Italy; the other was St. Dominic from Spain. Both founded what we now call the Mendicant Orders and their followers were referred to as “mendicant friars.” Mendicant because they begged to survived. They depended on charity for livelihood since, unlike the old monastic order, they did not work inside the monasteries. They tried to imitate Jesus’ lifestyle fulfilling a need to reinvigorate the life of the Church.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Dominic de Guzman. He was a Spanish priest from Caleruega. Realizing he had a gift for preaching, he went on mission-travels to combat heresy. Wrong teachings were rampant in those days because of the ignorance of the people. He founded the Order of Preachers, who later will establish a rich intellectual tradition, to focus on study and preaching. Among their ranks will come brilliant teachers like St. Albert the Great and the immensely influential philosopher and theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Dominic inspired his followers to be both learned and virtuous. He started a “mixed spirituality” – men who were active in the preaching ministry but contemplative in study and prayer. They were the original “contemplatives in action.”

Among his great contribution was the Holy Rosary. He introduced it on the feast of the Assumption of 1217. Today it has become a notable feature of popular Catholic spirituality. In the words of Pope John Paul II, the rosary is "among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation.” Big thanks to St. Dominic!