st. rose of lima
St. Rose was born in Lima, Peru in the year 1586. She is the contemporary and friend of St. Martin de Porres, St. John Macias and and San Toribio de Mongrovejo - all of them from Lima, Peru. When I was younger St. Rose was one of those saints whom I came to know of. And I remember quite fondly now, that time when my grandmother told me her story. Actually I forgot everything she told me except the fact that she came to be called Rose because of her beauty, a beauty she would later see as an obstacle in her desire to love and serve God. And so, she one day got some pepper and lye and rubbed these on her face to make her less beautiful. That’s all I can remember actually from the stories of my grandmother. Later my knowledge of her would be augmented by reading her story, how she would serve the poor in her neighborhood even to the extent of bringing the sick and caring for them in her room; how she would fast three times a week in imitation of St. Catherine of Sienna; how she pleaded with her father to grant her desire to become a nun with her father wanting her to marry; how she defied his father by becoming a recluse in their home; and how she accepted the compromise made with her father allowing her not to marry, so as to vow herself to perpetual virginity, and agreeing to the other end of the bargain by staying at home and become instead a member of the third order of the Dominicans, thus forgoing her dream of becoming a nun.
Two things come to mind in our reflection on the life of St. Rose of Lima.
First, vanity can be an obstacle to service and love of God. Imagine the beautiful Isabel, her former name. She was called Rose by her friends because of her beauty. One day she looked at the mirror, and what she saw, she did not call beauty, but an obstacle, an obstacle that prevented her from serving God in her nieghbors. So she got herself some pepper and lye and rubbed these on her beautiful face. Thus, she removed what she deemed was a hindrance that was slowing her down in her service to God.
How many of us would do that now at a time when we have this unholy and sometimes unhealthy preoccupation of making our skin white with glutathione and placenta? How many of us would dare to do something when the criterion for job applicants requires a pleasing personality, which first and foremost require a pleasing face? Come to think of it we may end up without a job. No, I am not advising you to do exactly what St. Rose did to her beautiful face. But it would be good to ask, what are my vanities, what are my self-indulgent traits and even demands that hinder me in the call to love and serve God in others?
Frankly I love to say mass in this chapel not just because Fr. Boboy sends me the colecta you give in this mass for the seminary. Aside from that I like this place because it is air-conditioned, the only place where I can say mass without sweat, figuratively and literally. Added to that, I have a stipend to bring home. But when I was assigned in the cathedral we had agreed to say mass every time somebody died in the parish and so I found myself saying masses in places where I could not even stand straight without banging my head on the second floor. I said masses in house too small only the dead and myself are inside and the rest are outside peering through the door and windows. I said masses in houses with pigs serving as choir, and providing the incense because there was a pigpen nearby, so the pigs go oink, oink oink throughout the mass and to think that I was complaining loudly of the choir then at the cathedral; or masses at the bank of a smelly creek in a house that stood on stilts and shaking dangerously we have to vacate the mass goers outside while the dead and me were left inside. I said one of my fastest masses then because I could not imagine myself in a house which may collapse any time into the creek and me falling into the water, holding to dear life on a casket. Imagine saying masses in the places I just mentioned in contrast to saying masses in a massive cathedral or in an air-conditioned chapel? My days in the cathedral then were punctuated many, many times with prayers like, Lord, please don’t let them die otherwise I will be obliged to say mass to them and I hate it. It is too inconvenient.
In this first point we ask: what are my vanities that are preventing me from serving God and neighbor? What are my self-indulgences and demands for personal self-serving conveniences that hinder me in my service to God and people? Vanity can be an obstacle to service and love of God. What are these vanities?
Second point, asceticism always accompanies true Christian service. Asceticism is described as a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals. Asceticism is abstinence. To abstain is to restrain the wants, the desires and pleasure of our bodies. My body craves for something good and pleasurable. I restrain it, I do not give in, I discipline it, I sacrifice, so that I can attain a higher good. It is not sacrificing for sacrificing’s sake but it is a sacrifice done for a higher good.
The asceticism of St. Rose is evident. She fasted so that she can give more to those who have less. She forgo rest and leisure so that she can have more time to serve those who need her help. She did not marry and vowed herself to virginity so that she can be available to as many people who come to her. She was an ascetic and for this she was able to acquire freedom - the freedom to love, the freedom to be generous, the freedom to be of service to others. Asceticism always accompanies true Christian service. I am not in anyway saying that you vow yourself to virginity. For most of you here that is already too late, and besides most of you here are called to the vocation to establish a family. But the principle remains the same though in varied degrees. Asceticism will always remain a requirement to true Christian service. It can be a call to detachment to something or someone, it can be a call to sacrifice something for someone, it can be an abstinence from something so that you can be more generous, so that you can have more time for others, so that you can be more free to serve. What are these attachments, what are these wants that you need to reign and restrain yourself from? What are these sacrifices which you have to make? A sense of asceticism always accompanies true Christian service.
Many years back during one of our Halloween parties, I acquired for myself a skull, made of plastic which nobody wanted to claim ownership of. So that skull ended with me and it still in my room wherever I am transferred. I bring it around because it is a good reminder of how I would look like when I die. It helps me not to worry too much when a pimple grows on my face or wrinkles appear here or there. It keeps me focus on the fact that all things will come to pass. Ars est longa, vita est brevis. The work of man is long, life is short. The good that we do, our service and generosity to people will outlive us.
It is good to note that what remains of St. Rose is a cranium, part of her skull, displayed in the convent of the Dominicans in Lima Peru. Now without beauty, without majesty, but her works and example outlived her.
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