First possible Kapampangan saint # 16 Felipe Songsong would be the last person youd expect to see kissing the feet of others. He belonged to the most influential family in Macabebe, Pampanga. He once served in the Spanish royal army, and he rebelled against that same royal army during the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660. The Jesuit missionaries referred to him as “Don Felipe,” but Sonsong would have none of it. Calling himself “a worm” and “the most vile creature in the world,” Sonsong acted like a slave among servants, “placing himself below everyone else” in the mission, including even the teenage boys like Pedro Calungsod (who was only 13 while Sonsong was already pushing 60). Sonsong “could not bear to hear others praise him and speak well of him.” If he heard someone say something good about him (usually about his holiness), Sonsong would reply that “he was not the kind of person others thought.” He did everything “not to be seen or esteemed by men, but only by God. He considered everyone a superior, not only theoretically but in practice, treating everyone with humility and respect like they were his superiors.” If the priests tasked him with something together with the other lay companions, and those lay companions showed any repugnance or even the slightest reluctance to carry out the task, Sonsong would treat them “with firmness, although he did this with the proper respect and submissiveness, asking them pardon afterward if they had been offended.” But he reserved his greatest humility towards the Jesuit priests, whose hands he always kissed and before whom he would “bow his whole body to the ground” even when kneeling would have sufficed. He did this in imitation of Christ who kissed His apostles feet at the Last Supper--the same act of humility that has inspired generations of priests, bishops, cardinals and even popes to kiss the feet of their parishioners and constituents during Holy Week rituals.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 23:21:42 +0000
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