GREATEST PERFORMANCE

Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
Mt 25:1-13

We celebrate today the blessed memory of the popular Patron of Musicians, St. Cecilia. Cecilia is one of the seven women mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass or officially called, the Roman Canon. She lived in the 3rd century and was a virgin until her martyrdom. Because she refused to sacrifice to the idols, Cecilia was beheaded. According to the accounts of witnesses, when Cecilia was beheaded the sword used to decapitate her was not sharp enough to severe her head from her body with one blow. Cecilia, with her head dangling from her neck, was left in the street, and died after a few days only. Her suffering was so great and yet she was heard singing songs to God as she laid there on the road waiting for death. When she finally died, her fingers were found to be arranged thus: the index of her left hand pointing outward signifying that there is only one God while the ring, middle, and index fingers of her right stretched out representing the three persons in one God. She is popularly claimed to be the patron of musicians because she literally sang her way through death for the greater glory of the one and true God.

Most probably, because Cecilia is a virgin-martyr, the Gospel specifically prescribed today by the liturgy is the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Certainly, Cecilia falls under the category of the wise virgins. She was ready when the time came and went with the bridegroom inside the wedding banquet. Her witness to the Faith was a shining lamp that kept burning until finally the exact time when her Bridegroom, Jesus, took her by the hand and led her to the eternal wedding feast in heaven. The songs she sang in praise of God while waiting for death, as she laid on the road with her head dangling from her neck, kept the people around her awake in the Faith. It was the greatest performance of her life.

Our life may also be our greatest performance when it is lived for God. However, our greatest performance is not for a show that people may applaud us for. It is for the love of Jesus, our Spouse, who deserves always our best.

In all things we do, may the glory be to the Father, through Jesus, His Son, in union with the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.