Pinoy in Rome: At the Door of the Jubilee Year of Mercy (III)

By ROBERT Z. CORTES
December 24, 2015

Day 4: Santa Maria della Strada in the Church of Il Gesù

As one might already have suspected, considering that the 4th day of the novena to the Immaculate Conception falls on the feast of St. Francis Xavier (one of my favorite saints for reasons you will probably discern soon) and the patron saint of a bishop very close to me, I made it a point to go to the Church of Il Gesù to say the Rosary and do my prayer before his relic.

I knew from experience that the Gesù is often dark. I had always thought it a pity to be in such a magnificent church, yet unable to appreciate such beauty. I was hoping against hope that there might be a bit more light when I went, but it was even darker than I remembered. And to my shock, there was actually a Mass in the side chapel of St. Francis, and I could hardly hear the priest talking. "What? Is this how they value this saint, second in only to their Founder in importance?" I must confess I had those scandalized thoughts as I next-to-groped my way through the dimly lit nave, looking for the chapel of the Madonna.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the side chapel to the right of the sanctuary had more light than the rest of the Church – it was the Chapel of Our Lady. But I was even more pleased to see that the image venerated there was the "Santa Maria dellaStrada" - a very familiar appellation to me, even if I'm not from The Ateneo, because my friends from that area had introduced me to the image. There were also very nice paintings (new, I think) around the small chapel depicting scenes of Our Lady's life. There was two seminarians(an African and a South American) trying to translate the Latin verses written under each painting. From the agonized looks on their faces and the desperate hand gestures of the African, I could see they didn't have much luck. I was tempted to help them out but I had to focus on the Rosary.

Now as I was about to finish my Rosary, something remarkable happened. The entire Church was suddenly lit up. It was fully lit up and there, for the first time I saw the full glory of Il Gesù. O-M-G - for it would be taking the Lord's name in vain if I spelled that out in full; yet really, that was all I could say. I had hoped Il Gesùnow would be somehow brighter than my previous times there - but not this bright. Really, as many persons can attest, God doesn't do things by halves.

So for the first time, I saw how richly decorated was the statue of St. Ignatius. He is brocaded in jewels and venerated in an altar of rich lapiz lazuli and green marble. And while Pope Francis might be living very poorly, as did St. Ignatius, I don't think he'd object to this depiction of heavenly glory of his spiritual father and one of the Church's greatest saints.

Then there was the dome and the ceiling. When I spoke previously about Sant'Agnese's dome as the most magnificent yet I had seen, that was because I had not seen Il Gesù lit this way. And while I'm not about to take my wordsback, I must confess that Sant'Agnese's cupola now has a real contender. I also loved the main altar which showed the Holy Family.

But I now turn to the real object of my small pilgrimage, who is St. Francis Xavier. Il Gesù is not as fortunate as India which has the saint's incorrupt body.But it does have his arm, and I couldn't believe my fortune for having gone that close to see the "incorruption" for myself. But to explain that fortune I must go back to that Mass at the side chapel. That was actually a Spanish mass and was attended by some Basques, the people of St. Francis's region in Spain. Afterwards, they had their picture taken and seeing that one priest couldn't be in the picture since he had to take the picture, I told him in Spanish that I was willing to do it. My four semesters of Spanish in college is still quite useful.

So as a "prize" for my voluntary camera work, I was allowed to step right upto the relic. I was peacefully gazing at the arm when I heard some sort of sighing beside me: "Oh, the arm that blessed my people!" He was an Indian priest and was referring to the fact that this arm had baptized 300,000 Indians. I was friendly, of course, and asked if he was from Goa, where the saint's body now is, but no, he was from Kerala or some other place with a K. Anyway, I asked him to take this picture of me gazing at the relic, and he said, "K!" I wondered if had been texting with Filipinos, but I wasn't flippant enough to ask.

I spent the rest of the time praying before the relic and thinking about the saint's zeal for souls. I read that he had died when only 46 from exhaustion of all the apostolate he was happily doing. When I was done, I walked the vast expanse of the brightly lit Church still thinking and praying to get even a small part of this saint's zeal. As I reached the door, it opened and in came the reason for all the light: two cardinals - an Asian and an African - were about to celebrate a high mass on the great saint's feast day. On seeing that, I was secretly relieved that people here valued St. Francis after all – though I say that now in jest. The African cardinal looked at me and being no expert, I wasn't sure what to do. I simply nodded and smiled and he made a sign of blessing.

I was definitely pleased the cardinal did that, but now that I think of it I realize that his gesture was just a sign. It was a gesture that ought to remind me of all the wonderful things I had just experienced in that church. It was also a reminder of the gesture that had made St. Francis Xavier great - a reminder that I (and you) need to pass on all the blessings we receive to everyone we know if we want to be anywhere the glory of St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady, Santa Maria dellaStrada! Here's praying that they intercede for us to at least make the first step.