Msgr Christian Pereira

In the Roman Catholic Tradition, rooted in the teachings of sacred scripture, we have a ‘buried’ power to serve human beings by enabling them to understand that it is possible to live our lives and to respond to the world in a noble and positive manner.

 This ‘power” is found in the practice of honouring our ancestors and paying tribute to those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. The practice has allowed us to find models and guides by which we can continue our pilgrimage through this world.

These ancestors are usually persons who no longer live in this world and hence are no longer subject to the possibility of changing the direction of the path of their lives. Some of these ancestors the “teaching Church” declared to be SAINTS [or in the words of the secular world, icons or role-models]. This declaration is normally made either by following the acclamation of the people or after a scientific analysis of their life and their relations in the known world.

The Church holds up these persons as exemplars of human behaviour. Furthermore, these exemplars (role-models or icons) help us to respond to the challenges of our times.

It has been some time now that we [as Church], contrary to the teachings of the scriptures, have been forgetting these heroes. We seem almost embarrassed by the thought of teaching others about “this cloud of witnesses”.

In an attempt to fill the vacuum, we have joined the rest of the secular world to seek models and heroes from among those who are still alive (or recently killed).

This creates confusion in the minds of many and causes our youth to be without clarity as to who really are “heroes”, “models” or examples by which we can live honourable lives.

It is my contention that while we remain committed to the transformation of our society, we must learn how others faced this challenge in the past and how we, patterning our lives on their example, can be forcibly committed to the issues of justice and social transformation that are securely rooted in our Church’s tried and tested tradition.

Conscious of the teachings of the scriptures and faithful to the Christian tradition, we must find ways to do the work that we are called to do and to do so without trying to glorify those whose lives are questionable and those whose legacy is still to be tested.

The Word of God and the teachings of the Church offer us much clarity on the pursuit of what is noble. The words of the prophet Micah: “Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” are just one such example.

The great temptation of our world today is for us to make people “heroes” for doing what they are supposed to do. Accordingly on the one hand, a batsman is glorified because he does what he is supposed to do; a gangster is glorified because his life takes a different direction for a few weeks or a few months; a drug lord is praised for the “good things” she does in a community; a politician is voted in because he gives workers an increase in wages regardless of their work performance.

Yet on the other hand, a strong person is dismissed because he is not a comfortable companion for his leader. How can someone become a hero simply because that person did “some” good? Are we not all expected to live good and honourable lives?  Is it not true that many people in our communities are doing so with no recognition?

They do so very often because of their efforts at following the “cloud of witnesses” and keeping their eyes and hearts focussed on the God of their salvation and not on the cameras and microphones of the media.

There is indeed value in understanding the circumstances of the modern reality… but with a little more effort we realise that even though things look different, nothing really changes under the sun!!! The more things change the more they remain the same.

The time is surely at hand for all of us to find the courage to look at the real models for human life and seek to dig deep into our Catholic tradition with a pride and joy that will enable us to find the real models and heroes to offer our youth.

Fearless men and women of integrity, let us redirect the course of our history and offer to our starving youths the real models by which their lives can find meaning and their journey can have purpose…

I end with a quote from Pope Benedict XVI taken from the book of meditations Benedictus – Day to Day with Pope Benedict XVI and published by MAGNIFICAT.

“The great feasts that structure the year of faith are feasts of Christ and precisely as such are ordered toward the one God who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush and chose Israel as the confessor of faith in his uniqueness. In addition to the sun, which is the image of Christ, there is the moon, which has no light of its own but shines with a brightness that comes from the sun.

This is a sign to us that we men and women are in constant need of a “little” light, whose hidden light helps us to know and love the light of the creator, God one and triune. That is why the feasts of the saints from earliest times have formed part of the Christian year…. Their light, coming from God, enables us to know better the interior richness of God’s great light, which very often we cannot comprehend in the refulgence of its glory.”