catherine of alexandria - 34th week monday 2013

Today is the fiesta of Leon with her patroness St. Catherine of Alexandria.  Catherine is also the patroness of Philosophers and Preachers because of her great learning and her eloquence.

Catherine was of noble birth by King Costus and Queen Sabinella, who governed Alexandria in Egypt.  Kag tungod sini nahatagan sia sing kahigayunan nga makatuon sing maayo.  Her superior intelligence combined with diligent study left her exceedingly well-versed in all the arts and sciences, and in philosophy.  And this brought her to Christianity.  She was converted and baptized.  When the Roman Emperor Maxentius persecuted the Christians this brave young lady went up to the emperor and denounced him for his cruelty.  He even challenge the emperor for a debate on the superiority of the Christian faith against the pagan religion.  The emperor called the best pagan philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate. Several of her adversaries, conquered by her eloquence, even declared themselves Christians and were at once put to death by order of the emperor.

Catherine was then scourged and imprisoned, during which time over 200 people came to see her, including the empress herself the wife of Maxentius; all of them were converted to Christianity and were subsequently martyred. Upon the failure of Maxentius to make Catherine yield by way of torture, he tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage. The saint refused, declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on the spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, this instrument of torture was miraculously destroyed. Maxentius finally had her beheaded.

It was said that her body was brought by angel to Mt. Sinai where a Christian monastery was built.  The monastery is called St. Catherine Monastery and it is still there even now after more than a thousand years.

Today as we start this seminary week and as we reflect on vocations especially to the religious life it might be necessary to recall the acts of these Christian martyrs.  It takes a lot of courage to be a priest or a religious sister.  It takes a lot of recklessness to decide to become a priest or a religious, a recklessness for God.  When I was about to be ordained in 1992 I hesitated.  I was so afraid and I was overcome with questions what will happen to me, who will take care of me when I am old, what will become of me?  I was calculating then.  You look at the list downstairs and you will find 1992 blank – no priest is listed on that year.  It was supposed to be me.  I did not move because I was very afraid.  It is in this context that I say that to decide to become a priest you need some kind of recklessness, reckless generosity  it took me another year to do it.

In this mass let us pray for the courage of Catherine of Alexandria, the courage of martyrs, the courage of shadrach Meshach and Abednego, the courage of widow in the gospel who gave everything that she has for God.  She was not calculating like me then, she was reckless but she did it for God.