Sermon of the High Mass of the Relic


D. Juan Perez Navarro

Allow me to begin the homily by thanking you for the invitation, once again, you have made me to participate and enjoy this endearing festival of the relic. On two previous occasions you have invited me to accompany you on this day: I came then as a representative of the diocesan Church. I come now as a representative of the Holy Cathedral Church, Mother of all churches in the diocese.

The valuable experience of participating in this festival has allowed me to verify that the religiosity of Banyeres de Mariola is tempered by devotion to the martyr Saint George. And in turn this devotion is fueled by the veneration of his relic, that you jealously guard, since his arrival in 1786.

Believe, on the other hand, that you are aware that you participate in a devotion to the holy martyr, that we could consider as the most primitive and universal devotion to a saint of the Church. Tradition indicates that George was a Christian soldier who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, around the year 303. There are already vestiges of his devotion in that same century 1 History tells us that he was canonized by Pope Gelasius in the year 494.

His figure was known throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages., It is at the beginning of the 11th century., when Saint George is linked to the crusades in the Holy Land. This relationship gives it the name of “Christian soldier”. And it is in this warrior condition that his devotion appears in our lands.. The first news is 1 096, in Aragon, in the battle of Alcaraz.

Since then, Saint George is linked to the kingdom of Aragon, and by the hand of the King of Aragon, don Jaime I the conqueror, His devotion arrives in the Valencian lands. For King Jaime, the reconquest of the kingdom of Valencia was carried out by the hand of Saint George, is due to the intercession of Saint George.

As well: That presence of Saint George in the recovery of Christian Spain, It is what you remember and venerate with your parties. However, this presence of the saint in Banyeres has an important component in the holy relic. The memory and veneration of the relic define your devotion to Saint George in a unique way. So singular that every year you solemnize these days of September with the feast of the relic.

You are going to allow me a concise reflection on what the relic of a saint, the relic of saint george, has a Christian demand for you.

We understand by relic, grammatically, the residue of a previous whole that remains and remains. It is an ancient remains that has not disappeared and that we hope does not disappear. Such is the scope of the invitation to unity, part of the body of a saint that remains awaiting the final resurrection. Keeping and venerating a relic must generate an attitude of vigilant custody of what should not perish.

As well: In the collection of treasures that we must keep, one with the relic of the holy martyr, I want to highlight two very important, which I list, not in order of importance, but rather by educational logic: first, Moors and Christians festivals that are born by and for the relic; and the second, a Christian quality of Banyeres that due to the devotion to the martyr Saint George must be marked with a martyrdom seal.

Parties. We are witnessing in recent times a phenomenon, what we could call the globalization of the Moors and Christians festival, if I am allowed in this case the use of such a current word. This form of party is spreading geographically, not so much because we export it, when others care about her without thinking too much. admires us, for example, that a festive melody from our lands has almost become a European parade march.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his recent Encyclical “Charity in truth” charity in truth”, when analyzing the different aspects of current human development, is found to continue with the phenomenon of globalization: the globalization of the financial world, multinational companies, the migratory flows that, together with the massive phenomenon of tourism, discolor national identities … The Pope makes it clear in the Encyclical that in the face of globalization “we must be its protagonists, not the victims, proceeding reasonably, guided by charity and truth”.

As well: when analyzing the globalization of culture, Benedict XVI asks that two actions be taken into account, one, that invading cultures do not destroy the cultures they find in their path. And another, that those same cultures, when offered abroad, Avoid the risk of losing your own identity.

The latter would be what we would have to take into account in the face of the strong attempt at globalization of the most significant cultural sample of our lands.: Party. Taking care of the secular identity of the party. Guard this precious relic with zeal.

Without any claim to be exhaustive, but rather saying out loud what all of us are clear about, we could enumerate some notes of the identity of our party.

First of all, The Moors and Christians festival has a religious origin. The festivities are a commemoration of the Christian reconquest of Spain in the hands of the Muslims. And in particular, the reconquest of the Valencian territories, that we relive in our parties, It was the work of the talented warrior and organizer of King Don Jaime. And we cannot forget that Don Jaime always rode, placing his trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary and in the martyr Saint George.. In the siege of Valencia, He established his reales in the Moorish castle of Enesa, which he immediately named the Puig de Santa María. And the same day of the signing of the surrender of the Moorish king of Valencia, the 29 of September, ten days’ before his solemn entrance into the city, sends the Archbishop of Tarragona, that accompanies you in the company, so that he recovers p&’56256;&’56785;to the Christian cult’ moorish mosque, “like cathedral, which is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady.

You, in Banyeres, you carefully keep the religious rubrics that mark the festivals in our environment. But in your parties there are two notes that identify and distinguish them: the same party today, the festival of the relic, and the mass in the cemetery in memory of the deceased festeros.

We could say, in summary, to distort the religious component of the festival, would be equivalent to distorting and leaving the same party meaningless.

In second place, the party contains a long series of values, that a Christian believer must take into account, has to value, and has to promote. Primarily, the friendship of the festeros, that creates within the comparsas indestructible ties of human relationship, with all that this entails to consolidate coexistence in the town.

let's point out, then, the capacity for dialogue and understanding that festive coexistence generates. Without forgetting the wide openness of the party to the other, to the stranger. As well as the waste of gratuity that the whole party contains.

Let us also note the value of the meticulous festive organization, the exact rhythm of the parades, the massive participation not only of the active festeros, but of the entire spectator population.
“però festa i fester” are not just any things, I wish that someone has analyzed and studied somewhere what the party has contributed to giving us our own identity, own way of proceeding and prospering, of special characteristic of coexistence, to these lands of Moors and Christians.

Also keep this relic. Keep the valuable identity of your party.

And we noted before another relic of your heritage: this is, the martyrdom stamp he owes, mark your Christian quality. Veneráis a santo martir. etymologically, the word martyr, of Greek origin, means witness. Theologically, the word martyr designates the person who has testified in favor of Christ and his doctrine with the sacrifice, with the giving of his own life.

Every disciple of Christ must be a martyr, taken the word in its etymological sense: This is to bear witness to Christ, must be a witness of Christ.

But the word martyr acquires its maximum meaning when referring to the person who has given the maximum testimony: He has given his life to confess Christ.

Giving one's life is the Christian witness par excellence. Why this excellence of martyrdom over other testimonies of Christian faith??

First of all, because martyrdom is always preceded by a public confession of faith before a court or before executioners. further, because the martyrdom of a Christian imitates the saving death of the Redeemer, Jesus, on the cross. And it is that the martyr brings to fullness the reflection of Saint Paul: “I fulfill in my members what is missing from the passion of Christ”.

By last, because martyrdom makes present in the Church the power of the Holy Spirit, which is fully manifested in the very weakness of the martyr. Jesus himself announced it to us in the passage of the Gospel that we have just heard “Don't worry about what you're going to say or how you're going to say it. You won't be the ones talking, the Spirit of your Father will speak for you”.

Thus, martyrdom is a fact that marks the entire history of the Church. There were martyrs in antiquity and there are martyrs in our times. Martyrdom is the outcome, obliged, inescapable, of situations, continuously repeated, of confrontation of the Christian faith with what Jesus calls this century, this world.

Jesus, the quintessential martyr, he told his disciples: “A servant is no more than his master; if they have persecuted me, they will do the same with you”. Jn. 15,20.

But this harsh announcement from Jesus is linked to another announcement of future joy: it's a bliss: “Blessed are you when they insult you, persecute you and slander you in any way because of me. be happy and happy, that your reward will be great in heaven”. Mt. 15, 11-12.

The great role that the martyrs play in the Church consists in keeping alive the obligation that the Christian has to bear witness to his faith at any time.. In your ordinary life. And if it is necessary, with the giving of one's life.

here it is, well, the other great relic that you must venerate: you have imprinted on your souls since baptism the seal of a martyrdom. The life that the Christian begins with baptism is a mystery of death and resurrection, death to the life of sin and opening a new life with the risen Christ. Baptism impresses us, well, a martyr's seal.

As well, the undeniable reference of your Christian lives to the martyr Saint George must be gratifying so that your lives may be martyrdom. So that you enjoy a special ability to confess your Christian faith, with the example of your • lives and, when necessary, with paladin words

This is not the time to dwell on an exposition on the multiple situations in which as Christians we have to feel obliged to confess our faith.: the secularism that invades us, the claim to privatize the Christian faith, divergent social approaches with our moral principles, the same direct attacks on the Church or its people …

But if it's time, and it will always be, so that our lives are martyrdom, be a testimony of faith in Christ Jesus: in the family environment, in the world of work and business, in moments of leisure and fun, in relationship with friends.

And I end up asking Saint George, in this solemn feast of his relic in Banyeres, may it help you to jealously guard your relics as well: the identity of your party and the Christian condition of your baptism. The peculiarity this party, heritage of your people, must infect your own persons with Christian peculiarity.

May the holy martyr infect you always with an example, let it be a martyrdom, a testimony of the presence of Jesus Christ among you.

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