On the Firing Squad

Today is Valentines Day and If you are single, some friends and families maybe asking you already who will be your date or if you will have at all.  If you have none, in the Philippines, they will tease you by saying you are on the “firing squad”. It means you have no date! I don’t know how this terminology came about, but probably because if you are on the firing squad it means you are about to die and having no date or a special someone on a “love day” is somehow death indeed? Or so it seems.

True enough, without love there is no life at all. But certainly not having a date is another matter. Let me tell you a story of a man who was truly madly and deeply in love. His name is Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest at the time of grave religious persecution in Mexico. The churches were closed and priests went into hiding. He clandestinely celebrated the Eucharist and administered the other sacraments until finally the government arrested him.

“One of his companions, Fr. Pulido, said that he ‘had never seen such an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling.’ He was noted for his charity and ability to talk about spiritual subjects without being boring. Fr. Pulido remarked that there were two Pros: the playful Pro and the prayerful Pro. He was known for the long periods he spent in the chapel.” (catholic.org)

He was sentenced to death by firing squad without trial. “Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad were ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Cristeros, "Viva Cristo Rey!" -"Long live Christ the King!" When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him point blank. “(catholic.org)

Fifty-two years after his execution, the Pope visited Mexico and conducted an open air mass to a thousand Mexicans, an illegal act at the time of Miguel Pro’s life. He was beatified and declared blessed by Pope John Paul 2. The Pope said, “Neither suffering nor serious illness, neither the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away. Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.”

On Valentines Day… Love, yes. Date, not necessary. Have a date instead with God and like Blessed Miguel Pro, say, “Viva Cristo Rey!”

by aats