Relics’ visit seen as an opportunity to reflect on the life of St. Therese

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu archbishop emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal hopes that the third visit of the pilgrim relics of St. Therese in the Philippines will make people appreciate the little things in life.

Vidal reminded the people to reflect on the life of St. Therese in finding little ways as more important than those great things made.

“Our daily concerns can sometimes overwhelm our instinct for what is truly important in life. We look for the great and spectacular things, without knowing what we really want. We miss out on the more important things because we are preoccupied with so many trifles,” Vidal said.

Vidal celebrated the welcome Mass during the arrival of the pilgrim relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus at the Carmelites Monastery in Mabolo, Cebu City.

Vidal said that the world has trained the people to look out for the great and the spectacular that even the little children nowadays are no longer content with little toy cars.

Vidal describes St. Therese’s autobiography, “Story of a Soul”, as something that reveals a heart that rejoices in little acts of kindness, in random acts of love, in the sweet affection of her parents, in the trifles she and her sisters are sometimes preoccupied with.

“The greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the little child. This path is so obvious but everybody took it for granted, everybody but St. Therese. Only someone like her, however, could have seen this little way, for she was someone who appreciated the little things in life,” Vidal said in his homily.

He said St. Therese already understood what is important at a tender age. It is not the honors one acquires or the material things one possesses, but those daily concerns that a child craves for.

According to Vidal, St. Therese felt overwhelming love of her family that her greatest trial was the breakdown of the family she loves.

St. Therese experiences her dark night of the soul after she was afflicted with tuberculosis and hearing about her father’s mental breakdown, where she held on to nothing more than the remaining strands of her life, Vidal said.

He added that it is with no doubt, that St. Therese learned her first lessons about the more important things in life from her loving family

St. Therese’s little way, according to Vidal, is precisely the tenets the Gospel teaches, which is to give and not to count the cost, to forgive and therefore receive forgiveness as well, to love and not to judge, to be merciful as the Heavenly Father is merciful.

“May this visit of St. Therese bring us to appreciate the little things in life. Remember, in the eyes of God, the little things are truly the more important ones,” Vidal ended.

Masses will be offered at 6 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. today and tomorrow.

There will be a solemn procession at 7 pm on Thursday from the Carmelite Monastery to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.

A farewell mass will follow at 9 pm which will be celebrated by Archbishop Jose Palma. After the mass the relics will be brought back to the monastery for the vigil.

Another mass will be celebrated at 2 am to be followed by a farewell ceremony at the Naval chapel to send off the relics to Bohol. The relics which came from the Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux, France arrived in the Philippines last December 15 for a four-month tour.

It is scheduled to visit more than 48 archdioceses and dioceses in the country including Cebu.  (FREEMAN)