Recently,
a man who had a coronary attack was brought to a Cebu hospital. He
was dead on arrival. Soon some friends and his priest son Tony arrived
on the scene. As they moved the body the dead man's wallet fell from
his pocket. While picking up the wallet a photograph fell from it.
It was a shot of Tony while still a seminarian. Later one of those
present told Tony this story, "A few nights ago," he said,
"I was having a few drinks with your father. During our conversation
he took out this photograph of you and showed it to me. He said, 'this
photograph made me a different person. Before my son Tony entered
the seminary I was a womanizer. As soon as I saw him in a sutana (cassock)
I said to myself that I want my son to be a priest and I want him
to be proud of me, his father. I was often tempted to go back to my
old ways. Whenever this happened I would take out the picture of my
son and look at it and from it I got the strength to overcome my desires.
Since my son entered the seminary until now I have never touched another
woman." Tony was dazed for days, not only because of the sudden
death of his father but also at hearing of how his father had struggled
to be worthy of him as a son - had struggled to love him in a very
concrete and real way.
Today,
the very first day of the year, the Roman Catholic Church gives us
a feast of Mary. This feast brings up a question that is dividing
many homes these days. Should we have images? Do Catholics worship
Mary? Do they worship images of Mary? I think the answer is in the
story of Father Tony and his father. Tony's father carried around
a picture of his son and that picture empowered him to live consistently
with his love for his family. If the pictures or images of Christ
and the saints do the same for us then their use is very valid and
helpful. If they challenge or empower us to live consistently with
our love for Christ then they are most helpful. But if they are a
sort of anting-anting (amulet) that we expect to give us magical
protection from danger, they may be leading us into religious immaturity.
One of the worst things we can do in religion is to ask God to do
for us what we should be doing for ourselves.
This
brings us to distinguish two attitudes that we can have towards the
Blessed Mother or towards the saints. There are two principal ways
of looking at them: as intercessors or as models.
In
most homes there is an altar to the santos, often to the one
who is considered most powerful in the area. San Vicente is considered
powerful in most areas while San Augustine is not! The Sto. Niño
and the Mother of Perpetual Help are among those considered most powerful
in Cebu. These are honored by fiestas and by processions. They are
expected to protect us from harm and to help us in difficulties. Sometimes
they are asked to help us even in shady deals. They can be invoked
to help a business transaction that is not quite honest or to pass
an exam for which we have not studied. Mostly, we turn to the saints
as intercessors to act as go-betweens with God to gain favors for
us or to protect us from evil happenings.
In
pre-Christian times the "not like us" world was seen to
be populated by great and loving gods in the sky and not so loving
ones in the earth. These gods were surrounded by lesser intermediaries.
Most of nature - trees, the rivers and mountains - were seen to be
inhabited by these intermediary spirits. It was important to court
their favor and to placate them if offended. When the Christian missionaries
came they replaced the animistic spirits with saints; the amulets
and anting-anting with images, medals and scapulars; and the
rituals with blessings and processions. In all of this, whether courting
or placating the old spirit world or the Christian God, there was
a sense of our powerlessness. It was all "out there" and
only the ritual and intermediaries could change things. Intercession
was all important in winning the favor of that world. Our own behavior
was not important.
Today,
the emphasis is not just on a God who is "out there - in heaven"
but also on a God who is around us and within us. The experience of
God is not just something "out there" but is found in all
aspects of life in a Christian Community. The Scriptures are accounts
of how God was involved in the very human lives of people in the past.
When we read them we see that God's presence in the world in the past,
and now, is not so much through the magnificent and sensational but
through the ordinary. For instance, it really does not make one bit
of difference whether or not the sun is seen to dance in Carcar or
Agoo. But it is a great miracle if two neighbors who have hated one
another for years become reconciled.
If
this is our way of seeing God, our way of looking at the saints will
also change. We will see the Saints, not primarily as intercessors
that will help us to make shortcuts to God and to avoid the trials
and difficulties of life, but more as models who will show us how
to face up to and deal with reality. It will bring us to see that
what pleases God is not just ritual and devotions but hearing the
word of God and living it in the concrete activities of our lives.
We will see the saints as models of how to live as Christians when,
for example, we are faced with hurt, disappointment, temptations to
lust or with a desire to take revenge. This is the really difficult
part of Christianity, "Do good to them that hate you, bless them
that curse you, pray for those who persecute and calumniate you."
We want God to be "our God" but we are unwilling to pay
the cost of being "His people."
The
Feast of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on January 1 is of
recent origin. Its inspiration comes from the document Lumen Gentium
of The Second Vatican Council. What is interesting in this document
is that Mary is revered not primarily because she was the mother of
Jesus but rather because she was his first faithful follower.
What is highlighted is her response to God and she is set before us
as a model of how we should be before God.
The
opening scene in St Luke's Gospel where we find Mary encountering
the angel gives us one of the fastest diagnosis and treatments in
all of history. "Do not be afraid Mary, you have found grace
with God." The visitor, "Doctor Gabriel," notices at
once how fearful Mary is and he immediately gives her the correct
prescription. He tells her to trust in a loving caring God.
Fear
is a condition from which none of us are free. If we try to overcome
it by our own means we will tend to become more and more insecure.
We will become more and more compulsive and addictive in our efforts
to control the world around us. But if we can let go of fear - as
we do when we try to meditate - and yield to the realization that
we are loved by God our fear will lessen.
In
the Gospel stories about Mary we see her often in fearful situations.
She is told that soldiers are going around killing infants and that
her baby is their target. Most parents can identify with her panicky
feeling when Jesus talks back to her after he has been found in the
temple. She is fretful about the embarrassment of the host at Cana
when the wine runs short. She says to the servants - as she says to
us - "do whatever he tells you to do."
When
Jesus was about 30 years old he left home and the family carpentry
business. At first, when he worked a lot of miracles and healed people,
he was very popular. Later, he challenged people's behavior and told
parables and stories that drew attention to the hypocrisy of the political
and religious leaders of his time. When this happened the leaders
conspired against him and had him tried on false charges and condemned
to crucifixion. Mary was on the sideline of many of these happenings.
She was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. She received no
instant or magical relief.
Today,
too, there are many mothers standing at the foot of the cross. It
may be the cross of an unfaithful or cruel husband or of a drug dependent
child. There are men carrying the cross of family situations that
they cannot handle, and of fretful wives that nag them so much that
their homes become a hell. Mary is an example to us of someone who
neither asked nor got easy magical solutions for her problems from
the God with whom she was so close. Yet she lived for him alone and
was ever faithful.
It
is often easier to light a candle in the church than it is to follow
the example of Mary, or of Tony's father, who expressed their faith
in deeds rather than in words.
