SAN DIEGO — “How do we respond to the gift of Christ?”
Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido said Pope St. John Paul II explored that question in 1981 in Manila at the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint and martyr.
“We respond by the daily giving of ourselves to that gift,” Bishop Pulido said. “The pope spoke of Lorenzo’s witness as an example of what it means to be a Christian.”
Bishop Pulido celebrated the annual diocesan Mass for San Lorenzo Ruiz on Sept. 12 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, accompanied by Bishop Michael Pham; Father Peter McGuine, the parish’s pastor; and about a dozen priests.
Filipino Catholics from across the region packed the pews of the 257-year-old mission, lifting their voices in traditional hymns. The Diocesan Commission for Filipino Priests organized the celebration.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz was born in the Philippines in 1594. He learned the Catholic faith from Dominican friars, served as an altar boy, married and had a family. He was falsely accused of murder in 1636 and was forced to flee to Japan, along with Dominican and Japanese priests.
There, the rulers were persecuting Christians and arrested San Lorenzo Ruiz and the priests and subjected them to extreme torture. He refused to renounce his faith to spare his life.
“I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God,” he is known to have told his persecutors. “Had I a thousand lives, all these to him shall I offer.”
He died at age 42 at the hands of his captors. He was beatified in 1981 by Pope John Paul II and canonized in 1987, making him the first canonized Filipino saint.
“Every time we come to Mass, we witness Jesus giving himself to us in his body and blood,” the bishop said in his homily.
“We have received so much from him,” he continued. “We have received our life, our faith, our families, forgiveness,” he continued.
“We can respond by giving of ourselves, by loving, by forgiving, by caring for someone who is hurting, by being faithful to our families, by standing firm in our faith when it is difficult.”
To do that, he said, Christians can give their testimony in simple ways, such as offering a silent prayer before eating at a restaurant, talking to someone about God in their daily life, or inviting family members to Mass.
“I hope we all keep talking about God, even though sometimes our society tells us, ‘I don’t want to hear more about God.’”
He said that today, more than ever, “we need more witnesses like San Lorenzo Ruiz.”
