Thought for the Day – 2 April – The Memorial of St Pedro Calungsod (1654–1672) Martyr
SOREN Kierkegaard once said,
“A tyrant dies and his rule ends.
A martyr dies and his rule begins.”
Pope Benedict XVI referred to San Pedro Calungsod in his homily by his English and German name ‘Peter’. Without saying it directly the Holy Father was signalling all of us to go beyond our usual, if natural, patriotic yet myopic perspective when looking at San Pedro’s elevation to the altar of the Lord. San Pedro or St Peter Calungsod now belongs to the whole Church or, rather, to the whole believing world. We need to rejoice, as he is now officially one of our intercessors with God, for our various needs and concerns.
We need San Pedro Calungsod’s courage to shine through our efforts to face up to the spears of secularism, materialism and hedonism that subject our young and adult Filipinos under constant attack. We need the same courage of San Pedro Calungsod who did not abandon a priest-mentor-friend in mortal danger, to prod us not to abandon what we once heard from the tender lips of our mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers and catechists – the things of God, of His Son Jesus Christ, of His Church, of eternal life, not only of the life here and now.
The early Christian writer Tertullian once wrote, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” May the blood of St Pedro Calungsod give birth to all of us becoming more Christ-like, not abandoning the truth of the Lord for the tricks of the world.
Then we, like him, shall rediscover the secret of eternal youth.
Fr Eutiquio Belizar SThD (Excerpt)
AnaStpaul 