Holy and Heroic, Banal at Bayani
Homily on the Feast of St Andrew, 30 November 2022
When I was still a student, I didn’t really like social studies and history subjects. But later on, after graduation when I started teaching, I began to take more interest on history because I realized that there are indeed so many historic events that are both amusing, amazing and inspiring; and there are so many lessons in history that can teach us and form us to be who we are today.
Today is a holiday because of a brave man in our history whom we are honoring today as a national hero. His name is Andres Bonifacio. Andres Bonifacio is one great valiant leader who led the bloody revolution that liberated us from the three-century old colonization of our country under Spain. Inspired by the writings of Dr Jose Rizal (who eventually became another great national hero) Bonifacio started to believe in the dignity, bravery and capability of the Filipino people, that a foreign power like Spain should honor and respect as true Christians and missionaries of the Gospel. I believe it was this fiery faith that empowered him to fight the unjust aggressors of his time even to the point of sacrificing his own life for the good of the nation.
Hence, the virtue of fortitude that we see in our nation’s heroes is the same kind of fortitude that we need today in order to fight against unjust aggressors in society or at least to stand firm in defense of our faith convictions and work untiringly for the wellbeing of the people entrusted to our care.
Today we are gathered to celebrate the feast of St Andrew, a zealous apostle endowed with the Spirit’s gift of fortitude and wisdom that empowered him to preach the Gospel of Christ even in the midst of countless trials, tribulations, opposition and persecution. I guess his first and unforgettable encounter with Jesus when he was still a fisherman left him so impressed and amazed that he immediately recognized him to be the longed-for Messiah. This could explain why after that encounter he was so eager to bring his brother Simon to meet him the following day. And when Jesus called him by the shore of Lake Galilee to become a fisher of men, without any hesitation he and his brother left everything and became his disciples. He together with other apostles followed him closely up to Jerusalem, until they were empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost.
After Pentecost St Andrew preached the Gospel outside Jerusalem in various parts of the Roman Empire, always eager to save both Jews and non-Jews from the slavery of sin. At the end of his life, he too died like his master nailed to a cross in the form of an X.
On this first week of advent we pray that the saints of the Church and the heroes of our country may inspire us to make our Catholic faith grow and glow until we become fiery fighters and zealous apostles for the Lord. May we be empowered by the same Spirit of wisdom and fortitude to fight boldly the invisible enemy in our spiritual battles and stand up against the evils that afflict our society today until the end of our life.
May this Eucharist we celebrate in this season of Advent inspire us and empower us to be both “banal at bayani” saints for the Church and heroes for society. God is good…!
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