St.-in-waiting
THE Philippine tour of a relic of Saint Padre Pio coincides with Ultra Lotto fever – how many of the thousands upon thousands who prayed before his incorrupt heart in Batangas, Manila, Cebu, and will continue to do so up to Oct. 26 in Davao are not believers in the luck of miracles?
When I was in high school, the saint to go to was St. Therese the Little Flower (thus the proliferation of at least two generations of Theresas, Teresas, Teresitas). In college, the one who enjoyed the reputation of “patron saint of impossible causes” was St. Jude. Padre Pio, who died in 1963 and was canonized in 2002 is, as shown by the crowds at the national shrine in Sto. Tomas (Batangas), Manila Cathedral, and UST, apparently the most beseeched for favors such as healing, landing a job, solving a desperate problem. (My daughter has faith in Padre Pio’s ability to heal wounds as well as broken wallets; who knows, healing for the broken hearted as well?)
My housekeeper – she was two numbers short of hitting the R900 million jackpot, thus entitling her to a consolation prize of R2,800 – has yet to be acquainted with the miracles attributed to St. Pio’s intercession, but she had a little miracle to report last Friday. Coming home from the palengke, she breathlessly exclaimed, “Kamatis R19 only, from 90 a kilo! Lettuce 700 to 300, repolyo 220 to 100!” With the same enthusiasm, a banker was offering 3.2 percent interest on time deposits for two years. Unusual!
But who doesn’t need a miracle? My son’s teacher teaches that we should pray for Moses’ intervention: “He’s so old we forget he’s a saint, so his list of petitions is short.” Is there a traffic jam up there? The faithful believe that, to fast-track their prayers, favor-seekers should pray for the recently departed and souls awaiting beatification. Have millennials – granting they do pray – heard of Richie Fernando, a Filipino Jesuit scholastic who died saving many schoolchildren from a grenade attack in Cambodia in 1996? The Jesuits have started the ball rolling for the martyred Richie’s beatification. The word is, “Various expressions of devotion to Richie have sprung up not only in the Philippines and Cambodia but other places as well.” In short, miracles?