Moved to Do Mission
Homily on Thursday, Memorial of Sts Pedro Bautista, Paul Miki & Companion Martyrs, 6 Feb 2025, DBPH Chapel, Talamban
While reading the life story of St Pedro Bautista I was surprised with what I came to know about him. First he was born in the year 1542 in Avila. Avila is a famous place in Spain that has produced two other saints who died close to the end of that century: St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Jesus, both of whom were reformers of the Carmelite Order. The three of them died within the same era: Teresa died in 1582, John of the Cross in 1591, and lastly Pedro Bautista in 1597. What made Pedro Bautista different is that he died crucified as a martyr in Nagasaki, Japan where San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila would also be crucified 30 years later in 1637.
The second thing that surprised me was this. St. Pedro Bautista served as a choirboy for two years at their own Cathedral before he became a Franciscan. And when he became a priest he worked as a missionary in the Philippines for several years before he was martyred in Japan. He was part of the fourth group of Franciscan missionaries who arrived in Manila in 1584. He was the first to organize a church choir for children. And not long after that, he was appointed Custos or superior of all the Franciscans in the Philippines. He established communities in different places from Bulacan down to Sorsogon in Bicol. He built churches, hospitals and schools especially for the poor who were very dear to his heart. Fr Pedro became known for his compassion, generosity and apostolic zeal; he became like Jesus for the Filipino people.
I really wonder why Spanish Friars like Fr Pedro Bautista, who lived very exemplary lives, were never mentioned in our history classes before. I don’t even remember a holy Friar like him being mentioned in “Noli Me Tangere” or “El Filibusterismo.” (Maybe I missed reading those pages or was just asleep in class.) How I wish many more Filipinos today may come to know that there were such good missionaries in our seemingly dark history.
In the gospel passage we have heard today we see Jesus summoning the twelve apostles for he intended to send them out two by two to various towns and villages. And so the twelve came to him and after receiving instructions, they were empowered by Jesus not only to preach repentance, but also to cure the sick and drive out demons from those who have been possessed. I believe this passage is what might have inspired and moved Fr Pedro to leave his country and become a zealous missionary in a distant land like the Philippines.
But what amazed me most is that, on account of his love for prayer Fr Pedro also had a hermitage built somewhere in a secluded place in San Francisco Del Monte in Quezon City. This sacred ground eventually became like a retreat house or an oasis of prayer where fellow missionaries serving the poor could withdraw by themselves to rest, pray and meditate on God’s Word. He probably realized that doing missionary work in this country was not an easy task especially for those who have come from so far away and had to embrace a totally different culture. And so the only way a missionary apostle can be sustained and empowered is by praying.
This I believe is precisely what we need today during this Jubilee Year of Hope. It is high time that we allow our prayer life to empower our ministry, and vice verse, that our prayer life too should be translated into apostolic action… that after praying, we also become missionaries to others.
We pray in this Eucharist that following the footsteps of San Pedro Bautista and companion martyrs we may be able to grow more in our prayer life and constant union with God and consequently become missionary disciples of hope to the faithless, hopeless and loveless people of today. GiGsss!
P.S. The first stone church built by San Pedro Bautista was the church and convent in Lumban, Laguna, 1586. Among the first hospitals he set up were the Holy Waters Hospital of Mainit, Los Banos Laguna, 1590 and the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Cavite, 1591. And among the first schools he opened was the Colegio de Sta Potenciana in Manila, 1591.
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