Peter to Rot
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Today we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Peter To-Rot. He was born in Papua New Guinea, just north of Australia during the Pontificate of Pius X.
His parents were some of the region’s first converts to Catholicism. The parish priest thought Peter should become a priest, but his father, in hindsight, providentially encouraged Peter to become a catechist. By the time he was 21 he was a skilled teacher of the faith. At 24 he married Paula and they had three children.
In his Beatification Homily for Peter To-Rot John Paul II said: Inspired by his faith in Christ, he was a devoted husband, a loving father and a dedicated catechist known for his kindness, gentleness and compassion. Daily Mass and Holy Communion, and frequent visits to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, sustained him, gave him wisdom to counsel the disheartened, and courage to persevere until death. In order to be an effective evangelizer, Peter To Rot studied hard and sought advice from wise and holy "big men". Most of all he prayed – for himself, for his family, for his people, and for the Church. His witness to the Gospel inspired others, in very difficult situations, because he lived his Christian life so purely and joyfully. Without being aware of it, he was preparing throughout his life for his greatest offering: by dying daily to himself, he walked with his Lord on the road which leads to Calvary (Cf. Mt. 10: 38-39).
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In 1942, the Japanese military attacked and occupied his island. After a quiet start, repression grew violent. The Japanese banned all Christian worship, public and private, and decided to reintroduce polygamy among the people. All the priests were imprisoned in a concentration camp.
The only person left “in the field” so to speak was Peter and he immediately took up his responsibility: he baptized, visited the sick and the dying, assisted at marriages, and protected and guarded the Holy Eucharist. He knew the risks, but he was utterly convinced of the need “to give primacy to the things of God.”
In that Homily John Paul II continues: “During times of persecution the faith of individuals and communities is "tested by fire" (1Pt. 1: 7). But Christ tells us that there is no reason to be afraid. Those persecuted for their faith will be more eloquent than ever: "it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you" (Mt. 10: 20). So it was for Blessed Peter To Rot. When the village of Rakunai was occupied during the Second World War by the Japanese military and after the heroic missionary priests were imprisoned, he assumed responsibility for the spiritual life of the villagers. Not only did he continue to instruct the faithful and visit the sick, he also baptized, assisted at marriages and led people in prayer.
When the Japanese legalized and encouraged polygamy, Blessed Peter knew it to be against Christian principles and firmly denounced this practice. Because the Spirit of God dwelt in him, he fearlessly proclaimed the truth about the sanctity of marriage. He refused to take the "easy way" (Cf. ibid. 7: 13) of moral compromise. "I have to fulfil my duty as a Church witness to Jesus Christ", he explained. Fear of suffering and death did not deter him. During his final imprisonment Peter To Rot was serene, even joyful. He told people that he was ready to die for the faith and for his people.
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On the day of his death, Blessed Peter asked his wife to bring him his catechist’s crucifix. It accompanied him to the end. Condemned without trial, he suffered his martyrdom calmly. Following in the footsteps of his Master, the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn.1: 29), he too was "led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Cf. Is. 53: 7). And yet this "grain of wheat" which fell silently into the earth (Cf. Jn. 12: 24) has produced a harvest of blessings for the Church in Papua New Guinea!
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About the same time of the Martyrdom of Peter To Rot, Pope St. Pius X asked a group of Cardinals:
“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”
“Build Catholic schools,” said one. “No.”
“More churches,” said another. “Still no.”
“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third. “No, no,” said the Pope,
“The MOST necessary thing of all…is to form a group of lay-people who will be virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”
St. Pius X realized the most important thing to do is to form a kind of special forces - to prepare Lay People to have a deep friendship with Jesus in prayer, who know their faith, and who will lead their family and friends to Jesus just by living friendship with others. Pius X also said: “If there were one million families praying the Rosary every day, the entire world would be saved.”
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As Laity we must never ask again: “What is the Bishop or the priest doing about this or that?” According to the Second Vatican Council, the Bishop and the Priest are primarily “ordained to the sacred ministry” that is to the ministry of the Liturgy and Sacraments. Their role is primarily inside the Church, celebrating the Mass and the Sacraments.
The role of the laity is to transform everything outside the Church. To bring the light and power of Christ into their homes, families, professions and into the whole of secular society.
“The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in secular affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. (Lumen Gentium 31).
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Blessed Peter is inspiring but way beyond what we can imitate…
So here is what we are going to do:
Listen to this Rosary podcast because each day you will receive a bite-sized digestible portion of the Catholic faith so that you and your kids and grandkids and anyone else you share this with can learn the faith. That is precisely why we do the Rosary this way – so you can learn all the truths of the Catholic Religion in little chunks one day a time.
You will also learn how to meditate on your faith in the Rosary with the help of Mary. And when you have the daily habit of meditation then you will know what to think and say and do with your life.
Then gather together a small group of family and friends with whom you share life with regularly and talk about the things that matter most in life – especially God and your faith.
Finally, invite others to share life with you. Invite them to pray the Rosary with you. And invite them to talk about it when you are finished.
The Mission of the Movement of the Holy Family is that everyone has a group of family and friends with whom you share life and integrate your faith so that you can enrich one another by your gifts and stretch each other by your weaknesses. And this is the very place where you invite those who have lost sight of God so that they too may share in your joy.
We need to make the commitment to share life with a small group of people who enrich and annoy us. We need to do this consistently, regularly, that is habitually. We can only habitually do something with the resources habitually available to us. That is the home.
And that is why the Church was born in the home and the Church in crisis today will be reborn in the home.