De Sagon: Just because we are free, we should not be persecuting other people
By Alexandria Grace Magno
As persecuted people, we should not be persecutors, UST Senior High School regent said during the commemoration of Red Wednesday last Nov. 23.
Rev. Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P emphasized during his homily at the Santisimo del Rosario Parish that being free does not give one permission to persecute other people.
“Sometimes we practice our faith but we are the ones persecuting, we are the ones who are very unkind to those around us. And even supposedly to the members of your family, you ended up being very unkind. You can’t be persecuting the very members of your family, you should love them,” he said.
De Sagon reminded everyone to be extra careful as the persecution today continues in a very “mild and subtle way.”
“[Indeed] there are Christians suffering everywhere. Not in the same way as before, but in a very subtle way…” he said.
The regent also highlighted that whenever we suffer in the name of the Lord, we should suffer happily.
“There is something much more, you don’t look at the suffering, you also look at the company. When you suffer, you are suffering with Christ,” De Sagon said.
This year’s holy mass is centered on the eight beatitudes from the gospel of Matthew,– “Blessed are the persecuted.”
The UST Main Building, Arch of the Centuries, and Carillion Bells were illuminated in red right after the mass.
The Red Wednesday campaign was first launched in the United Kingdom in 2016. Then in 2017, other dioceses in the Philippines started taking part in it.
Aid to the Church in Need, the official charity of the Pope for persecuted christians, initiated Red Wednesday as a way to pray for and raise awareness about Christians who experience hardship and persecution because of their faith.
In January 2020, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) recognized it as an official church event in the Philippines.
