‘So what if we are persecuted?’

Much has been published about Sister Patricia Fox’s case, including a headline in Inquirer’s April 26 edition. Human rights and religious groups have expressed strong words denouncing the way she was treated.

I just wonder if we who have professed to follow Christ who was condemned, tortured and died a most horribly painful death … all of it unjustly, cannot see the joy and the honor that the martyrs and saints experienced when they went through pain, suffering, persecution, even unjust death. Can a servant be better than his master? Didn’t Jesus warn us that if we want to be his disciples we should be prepared to suffer as he did?

Then why all these reactions against the administration for what Sister Patricia went through, which was not really much… in fact nothing compared to what Jesus had to suffer for us? Should we instead be happy that one of us, a Christian and a consecrated person, has been chosen to follow the way of Jesus, albeit in such a small degree? So what if we are persecuted? So what if the Church is maligned? So what if we will be harassed and even killed the way thousands have been killed in the war against drugs? Archbishop Soc Villegas once declared that he was willing to die for justice and truth. What did Archbishop Villegas see that we cannot see?

Is it not about time we acted and behaved like true disciples of Christ that we proudly say we are and not complain all the time for mistreatment or injustices? Are we not supposed to carry the cross, and even be crucified on it? Is it not an honor for Sister Patricia’s congregation to have one of their sisters being so treated?

ANTONIO MARIA ROSALES, OFM, [email protected]