Lorenzo and his companions arrived in Japan to preach the Gospel, during the time of intense Christian persecution.
In my last two blog entries on St. Cosmas & St. Damian and St. Vincent de Paul, whose feasts precedes the feast of San Lorenzo, I pointed that the spirit of mission is one common factor among these saints, as Jesus' compassion, from which ministries of charity, such as the works of St. Cosmas, St. Damian, and St. Vincent de Paul, have evolved, has been the driving forces to send out missionaries to wherever there is a need of works of mercy.
For St. Cosmas, St. Damian, and St. Vincent de Paul, their primary works of mercy were the corporal works of mercy. For San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, it is more of the spiritual works of mercy, in particular, instruction.
In reflecting San Lorenzo's mission to Japan at the time of severe persecution, these words of Jesus from his mission discourse in Matthew 10 come up:
"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:16-22)
Unbeknownst to Lorenzo and his companions, they were sent out to Japan from Manila, Philippines, like "sheep in the midst of wolves". No turn back.
Soon after their entry into Japan through Okinawa, Lorenzo and his companions were arrested by Japanese officials and sent to Nagasaki for execution.
Like Japanese martyrs, such as St. Paul Miki and his companions, San Lorenzo and his companions from Manila kept praising the Lord for their opportunity serve Him in the most honorable way, by shedding their own blood, on their gruesome long journey to Nagasaki.
Imagine a bunch of captured soldiers were praising the Lord during the Bataan death march of 1942. How Lorenzo Ruiz and his companion, as well as Paul Miki and his companions, were during their respective excruciating journeys to executions in Nagasaki would seem like a group of captured soldiers marching on the Bataan death march, shouting and singing their praises to the Lord.
As a Japanese Catholic, who has been benefited from the seed of faith that he had planted with his own blood in my country, I have a special a feeling toward San Lorenzo. Also, as a person of Samurai ancestry, the way he responded to a Japanese executioner, tempting him into denouncing his faith to save his own life, really makes me consider Lorenzo as "Samurai" in Christian faith. The Lorenzo's way to chose death for his Lord, Christ, is what the Code of Samurai in the Book of Hagakure teaches.
For Lorenzo, as an exemplary Christian Samurai, his Lord to serve with his life was Lord Jesus Christ, while Japanese samurais had their respective feudal lords to serve likewise.
The Lorenzo's Samurai-like courageous faith also makes an interesting contrast to the coward faith of Padre Rodriguez in Endo Shusaku's "Silence". In this Japanese Catholic writer's historical fiction story, Padre Rodriguez apostatized for his fear of losing his own life. Though the way Endo wrote his story may suggest that the apostasy of Padre Rodriguez might serve its unique purpose for surviving to continue preach the Gospel underground. Maybe it is so. But, in light of the Samurai's spirit, it is Lorenzo, not Padre Rodriguez in Endo's "Silence", who is considered as honorable.
In honoring my favorite saint, San Lorenzo, also in light of the spirit of the Divine Mercy, I have contributed an essay to a publication of the Divine Mercy Community of Illinois. And, I thought that it would be a good opportunity share it here today, in honoring San Lorenzo.
Adelante!
******
Let the Divine Mercy Fuel Us to Serve the Lord as Lorenzo-like
Christian Samurais!
by Masa Nakata *
On September 23,
1637, in Nagasaki, Japan, when he was
given a chance to be set free upon renouncing his faith San Lorenzo told his
executioner: “I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for the
Lord; If I had a thousand lives, all these I shall offer to Him”. Leaving
these powerful words, after a series of gruesome tortures, Lorenzo offered up
his life.
As a
Japanese Catholic with Samurai ancestry, I find the Filipino Saint to be exemplary
in responding not only to the call of Jesus: “Whoever
wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and
follow me”(Luke
9:23), but also to the ideal set by the Book of Hagakure, the Code of Samurai:
“The Way of the Samurai is found in
death. When it comes to either/or, there is only the quick choice of death. It
is not particularly difficult. Be determined and advance. To say that dying
without reaching one's aim is to die a dog's death is the frivolous way of
sophisticates. When pressed with the choice of life or death, it is not
necessary to gain one's aim.”
In fact, San Lorenzo is a great
Samurai to Christ, the Lord. His faith
in Christ the Lord, is as strong as the loyalty of Samurai to his feudal lord
because the martyr’s faith withstood fear of death and agony of tortures. Because Lorenzo loved the Christ with all his heart and with all his soul and
with all his strength and with all his mind, he was as selfless as he was
willing to give up his own life for the Lord.
This is like how Samurais are trained to be selfless in the Zen Buddhist
tradition in order not to give into the temptation to betray their lords out of
fear of dying.
Our Lord Jesus Christ desires a steadfast
faith, like San Lorenzo’s. In fact, upon receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation,
we have become soldiers of Christ – Samurais for Christ, strengthened by the
Holy Spirit! In response to this desire
of our Lord, we must cultivate our faith to make it strong like the Christian
Samurai’s or San Lorenzo’s. If we are not like San Lorenzo, it really hurts our
Lord, because it means a compromise in our loyalty and discipleship.
In his message to St. Faustina
Kowalska, Jesus said: “Today bring to Me souls who have become
lukewarm, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart
most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of
Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out:
"Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will." For them,
the last hope of salvation is to flee to My mercy.”(1228).
To strengthen our faith, we must
respond to the calling of our Lord Jesus Christ to immerse ourselves in the
Divine Mercy, symbolized with the blood and water gushing from his wound marks.
By letting our souls be cleansed by the blood and water of Christ, the Divine
Mercy, we can courageously endure tribulations, no matter how agonizing they
may become, and joyfully offer up our own lives, as San Lorenzo did, like an
exemplary Samurai, in Japan.
Let us make this Divine Mercy
Community a gathering of Christian Samurais, like San Lorenzo, empowered by the
Holy Spirit and fueled by the Divine Mercy. Ad
Majorem Dei Gloriam!
(*The
writer is a Japanese Catholic with Samurai ancestry, a graduate of Loyola
University in pastoral studies, an active member of the Life in the Spirit
community in Chicago, and a devotee to the Divine Mercy)
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