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Read the UGNAYAN
The Filipino Community
at St. Francis of Assisi
135 West 31st St.
New York, New York
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Homily: San
Lorenzo Ruiz Among Us
September 28, 2008 |
Enshrinement of San
Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila at St. Francis of Assisi Church at 135
31st Street midtown, off Seventh Avenue.
Rev. Fr. Jerome Massimino led the blessings, as Erwin Avila
assisted during the reading. Photo contributed by Bro. Octavio
Duran, OFM. |
When Fr. Russell
Becker, greeted us with "Sumasainyo ang Panginoon" before the
Gospel reading; you all enthusiastically answered, "Sumasainyo
din". There is something in all of us that sparks happiness when
we hear someone speak our language and when someone identifies
with us. We can say, he is one with us! He gave us a voice or he
became our voice! I the same token, we can say the same way with
San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.
He was the
cause of our joy and Filipinos all over the world rejoiced when
in 1987 Pope John Paul II of happy memory canonize Lorenz0 Ruiz
de Manila. Previous that event, in 1981 the same Pope beatified
Lorenzo Ruiz in Manila. A milestone i the history of the
Catholic Church and in the Church in the Philippines for he was
the first person to be beatified outside the Vatican. We rallied
behind this icon and for the first time we have what we called
our First Filipino Saint! He became an icon that embodied the
entire Filipino people not only in the community of nations, but
also in the Catholic world. He became the face of the Filipino
Catholic. That is a loaded statement - says a lot and needed to
be unpacked.
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For me the best way is
begin with the question: Who was San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila?
Only then we can say that San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila is the face
of the Filipino Catholic especially for the Filipinos living
outside the Philippines.
We don't have the exact
date of his birth but these we know. He was born of a Chinese
father and a Filipina mother. He was a married lay person and he
had 3 children. He lived in Binondo which is to this day still a
Chinese community. He worked in a Dominican Church as an
"escriba", that is, in the standard of his time; he was a
calligrapher who worked on church records.
Some historians claimed
that he was a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary and
thus he had a devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. At a certain
point in his adult life, a tragic turning point arrived; he was
implicated in a murder. According to historians he sought refuge
with his Dominica patrons and to completely escape this
allegation, he joined he missionary expedition Nagasaki. Japan
in 1636 where Lorenzo and his companion where martyred the
following year. Existing imperial court records tell us that
after he was tortured, his captors tried to convince him to
renounce his faith thus saving his life possibly he united with
his family in the Philippines. Loren; did riot give in to the
trickery of his captors but instead said: If I have a thousand
lives to offer, I will offer them to God." Could you imagine how
it is for Lorenzo to he implicated in a murder, to he displaced,
to flee to another country and be separated from his family,
tortured and finally martyred
for the faith?
We may not he completely aware of it
but there are facets of his life that we share. Like San Lorenzo
we left our beloved country, the Philippines and with our
sacrifices, we are like martyrs for our families back home.
Through our sacrifices they live and enjoy an abundant life amid
the economic crisis that beset our beloved country.
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Every immigrant, every person on the moved, every person on a
flight is a displaced person always longing for home left
behind. Lorenzo felt the same way when suddenly he was yanked
out of his familiar world, of the comfort of a home and family
and suddenly found himself in .Japan. Christmas will soon be
here and we will once again recall how we joyfully
celebrate Christmas in the Philippines. Soon we will be sending
our gifts, our balikbayan boxes to the Philippines. It is our
way of saying, we never left, we are here with you. But not
until we recognize that we miss home so much that we realized
that we too are displaced like the fleeing San Lorenzo.
The passage in today's Gospel reading
appropriately applies to our Saint: "For whoever wishes to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
will save it."
By (living for the faith, by dying for others, Lorenzo surely
secured his place in the kingdom of heaven. You, who by night
and day bear the hardships of being away from her, the hardships
of emukw8uent for the. back at home are martyrs a way.
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Blessing of the Filipino
community who came to honor the enshrinement of San Lorenzo Ruiz
at the midtown Church. The principal celebrant is Rev. Fr.
Jerome Massimino, OFM (Pastor and Guardian of St. Francis of
Assisi Church), concelebrants are Fr. Russel Becker, OFM
(Director, Franciscan Missionary Union and Spiritual Director of
the Filipino Ministry); Fr. Kevin Tortorelli, OFM (Director of
the Adult Education at St. Francis) and Fr. Julian Jagudilla.
OFM of Raleigh, North Carolina
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Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila indeed
the FACE of the Filipino Catholic not because we share the same
ethnicity or the Catholic faith but because we struggle, we are
displaced an we die to ourselves that others may live. May we be
able to come to our First Filipino Saint as our intercessor
before God who through his faith, he gave us an example of how
to bear hardships of life and the pain of separation and it was
with the same faith that he offered his life for the glory of
God. May he bring our prayers before God that we may bear our
cross that we may share the joys of his kingdom here among us |
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