Carvajal: Saint as model

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I HAVE always held the position that the Son of God became human so we could feel both the spiritual and physical warmth of God’s love for man.

Moreover, by stepping down from His divinity, God also became imitable, His way of life achievable on earth. When a Christian, therefore, is canonized a saint it is to serve more as a model imitator of Christ’s life than as the intercessor, protector or provider that so many devout Christians have made of them.

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It is hardly debatable that Christianity is a religion of love and that to be a Christian is to commit to the imitation of Jesus’ loving and compassionate life.

Hence, saints are primarily canonized to serve as models of that devout imitation of Christ’s life. They are definitely not to be worshipped like a God (that would be sacrilege) and their role as intercessors for the living is incidental and secondary.

The imitation of Christ is still the best form of worship even if unfortunately for many Catholics, not excluding bishops and priests, the preferred forms are ritual and strict adherence to traditional beliefs. Anyway, this begs the questions how do we imitate Christ today and how do we imitate our new San Pedro de Cebu? Which is really the same question as how do we love our neighbor today or how do we express our compassion to the neighbor today?

Jesus showed compassion by feeding the hungry, curing the sick, teaching the ignorant and casting out devils. He broke the letter of Jewish (His religion) religious laws and gave His life in standing up to the new way of life he was introducing.

San Pedro de Cebu, for his part, showed compassion for unbelievers by sharing with them His faith in the Christ and more. We know how missionaries in his time were all things to all men: healers of the sick, providers for the hungry and teachers of the ignorant in places where they preached the gospel.

Times have changed and the way to respond to the neighbor’s needs has to be vastly different from the way Jesus Christ, his apostles and later the saints responded. For instance, today we have to be challenged by the question how do we show Christ’s compassion to poor mothers and children, born or unborn, who need primary reproductive health care.

Today, Ash Wednesday, we need to ask what the crossed ashes in our foreheads mean in our relationships with others.

San Pedro de Cebu is most welcome as model. Imitating the way he followed in the footsteps of a compassionate Christ would have to be the best way to honor him. If ever we approached the Cebuano saint as intercessor, it should be for help in discerning how God wants us to best respond to the challenge of loving the many that are hungry, sick and ignorant in our communities.