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Pharisee:
We, Phariseees believe that Elizabeth Masue Masuda-Almazan can not be considered a saint for she had not been true to her calling as an interpreter for the Japanese army. It is true that she may have had saved hundreds of Filipino lives but the fact remains that she was not sincere in dealing with her compatriots. In a war, accurate interpretation of what is being said and of the situation is a must for a designated interpreter as it may mean the loss of lives of Japanese soldiers. In Masue’s case she had not been sincere. To cite glaring examples, there is the fact that her best friend, Elizabeth Stocks-Fontillas is really an American intelligence Officer of the Resistance and it is quite disloyal and criminal for her to say otherwise. This woman even acted as a guarantor for her friend. We must understand that the Japanese Empire would like to put the Philippine islands under its East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere so that the archipelago can progress without the tyrannical Americans. Remember that the Treaty of Paris wherein the U.S. bought the Philippine Islands from Spain is a sort of “Traitado” or a treaty of betrayal. The actuations of Masue therefore undermined this wonderful plan of the Japanese to make Asia for Asians and not to fall undermined the colonialism of the whites.
As far as I can see, she deliberately extricated guerilla Modesto Ferdivillas, although he was already caught red-handed and admitted he had his “uncle’s” gun. She even went to the extent of lying that he was her future son-in-law even if Modesto was not even courting any of her daughters. The MAKAPILI and Kempeitai had worked so hard to rid the towns of these guerilla pests and this woman simply subverted their hard work. Masue therefore is not only disloyal to her emperor but is a traitor to her country. She is not even a good Buddhist for not doing the right speech and action. How can she be a saint?
Saducee:
We, Sadducees believe also that Elizabeth Almazan can not be considered a saint for the simple reason that she is too good to be true. Some of us are cynical why she did what she did in the sense that the failures of the parents, particularly in their silk trade in places out of Japan may have triggered her peculiar behavior of doing anything just so that she may not be considered a failure. Some of us however, are simply skeptical about her life story particularly that part which manifests her to be a visionary of the Virgin Mary. In fact, the rigors she experienced as an interpreter and its accompanying scenes of torture of the captives may have led her to a compensatory mechanism to cope with such demands. What seems to be admirable non-retaliatory responses and forgiving stances are illogical behavior which accompany neurosis or at worse, even psychosis.
Sad to say, her major life decisions had been illogical. For instance, instead of marrying a Japanese who is not even of her faith, she secretly married a foreigner against her family’s wishes which was in fact the reason why she stayed in Davao, in the first place. Then from being a respectable teacher r, she opted to be a farmer as her husband did. Given powers as an interpreter, she could have chosen a more comfortable life and could have easily vindicated her husband’s death but no, she didn’t have the reason to use such powers. She even nixed a reward being given her after the war in spite of her poverty because she doesn’t want to appear disloyal to Japan. What?! She had already betrayed her motherland countless times every time she would save an enemy. For us, she lived the la vida loca!
Roman:
We, Romans are forerunners in family jurisprudence. I am just surprised that someone you consider an exemplary woman could be so neglectful to one’s family. For one, it is family honor which a widow
vindicates if the family patriarch is assassinated. This is why many family feuds existed in Imperial Rome. We really had to vindicate someone killed in the family especially if it is the patriarch. And the Italians followed after us which is why we have violent but romantic stories like The Godfather. And speaking of the patriarchy and the patrimony especially reverence to the one chosen as the Emperor, we in fact, invented emperor worship when we made the first Caesar something of a god. And this proved very useful in unifying the empire and we are glad that Japan had emperor-worship because it really united Japan to become a great power to reckon with.
It is not just romancing with the past that we find Elizabeth Almazan’s behavior as disappointing. She only did not vindicate her husband’s death which we should have exalted but she also did not follow the dictates of the Shogunate because apparently, she did not worship the emperor because she was disloyal to him. But we understand that because she is more of a Buddhist than a follower of Shintoism. But then again never mind that but let us consider family law. Here we find Elizabeth Almazan guilty of neglecting her children because she would only leave the kids to the care of her eldest while she plays hero to guerilla captives. Such Christian-like foolishness is the reason why we fed the so-called martyrs to the beasts in the Roman circus.
Herodian:
Let’s face it like the two-faced Janus. Caesar was a tyrant and so were the other Caesars after him but we, lesser tyrants love them. Otherwise, how can we, lesser tyrants enjoy the world. Let’s really face it, we dream of a world with no religion nor country like what John Lennon did. Somehow, we Herodians see a small tyrant in this woman because she can operate as if she has no country and that religion, we feel is negligible to her as she married an Aglipayano, manifested herself a Buddhist so that perhaps she may not be obliged to go to the church and yet had her children baptized as Catholics. Perhaps with this eclectic irreligion, she had established a comfort zone where she can operate more freely and even made herself a heroine.
From a constructivist point of view, she is too clever such that she is now mistaken as a saint. Wasn’t Herod, the Great, a hero himself having constructed his palace in Masada and even the wonderful Caesaria Maritima which could be an architectural wonder, too? Herod never said he worshipped Caesar and yet Rome thought he was that loyal to place him on the throne.
Zealot:
It was a pity that Mrs. Elizabeth Almazan didn’t get the cue from her husband, Vicente Almazan was an Aglipayan and Aglipayans are Philippine Zealots even before there were guerillas. Their belief was fired by a strong nationalistic sentiment very close to our patriotic stance of freeing Israel from the shackles of the Roman empire. Gregorio Aglipay, the founder of the Philippine Independent Church could no longer stand the abuses of the Spanish authorities including those in the Catholic church., Himself, a priest he conceived that it would be better if the coffers taken by the Spaniards or any other foreigner be collected for the use of the Filipinos themselves. Hence, taking the cue from the Philippine Revolution, he fought side by side with the revolutionary army and established a church which is purely Filipino.
The point we would like to establish then, is the fact that Elizabeth Almazan, had she been an Aglipayan Zealot need not need the recognition of Rome as in the process of canonization. For us Zealots, it would be easy to recognize Nana Masay, as she is fondly called, as a heroine especially by the Zealots, Aglipayan or guerilla, of the town of San Narciso. In fact, part of Aglipay’s legacy is his being a warrior with his own troops and he didn’t need any holy attribution for that.
Further, we might posit that Masue had a “messianic complex” in saving the townspeople. Remember that even before Christ came as the Messiah, acceptable only to Christians, there existed already at least three “messiahs” who were ultimately killed without being able to deliver Israel from the Romans. People therefore with messianic complex need not be called saints as the behavior complex is not alien to psychology.
We, brothers however of the Sanhedrin believe that Elizabeth Almazan to be a saint. As far as we can see, the Pharisees contention that the East Asia Co-Prosperity scheme of the Japanese as a sincere development program for the Philippines is hogwash. Even if we don’t believe also in McKinley’s Benevolent Assimilation, we can not credit this propaganda stint which duped national heroes such as Aguinaldo and Ricarte. Nana Masay is wise enough to see through the Japanese atrocities as inhuman and barbaric and she was prudent enough to stop such carnage significantly. Nana Masay’s extrication of Elizabeth Stock-Fontillas is therefore as seen as a prudent action as she had experienced the freedom and peace of the Filipinos before her compatriots came to invade the islands. It was an invasion and not a “liberation” as they would like the Filipinos to believe. Even the act of saving Fertivillas, even if involved a white lie, is not an impediment to her cause as she acting prudently to save a life of a person and she was even a Buddhist at that time.
Sad to say, we also find the Sadducees contentions as erroneous since their cynicism is fueled by suspicious motives and so are their skeptic stances. We don’t see any false motives in her actuations but the sincerity of a civilized conscientious woman who does not like seeing her adopted people brutalized and killed like game animals. Such logic that stems from a civilized person whose conscience is clear about what is right and what is wrong is very logical even if it seems to what spring from the heart and not of the mind. Such logic is manifested in saints like St. Maximillian Kolbe, to name just one, to die in place of another who needed to take care of his family in the future. What logic is there in Jesus Christ to die for all of mankind in order to redeem them when He Himself is sinless?
The Roman should not lecture us on “family jurisprudence” for Roman Law did not stop the murderous crimes committed by Roman families, exemplified by their patricians, although by virtue, nobody is above the law. It was in fact the theme of St. Augustine when he wrote Civitate Dei (The City of God) that the real cause of the fall of the roman Empire was the Roman Divorce law which allowed the infighting among patricians and cracked the solid empire for the barbarians to come in. And we abhor the idea of emperor-worship as this is the very model of the Anti-Christ who will form one government and one religion when he comes. For us therefore, Nana Masay did not deliberately neglect her children but relied on her faith by leaving everything to Divine Providence as she tried to save the lives of people.
The Herodian proposition of eclectic irreligion is utterly absurd. Nana Masay’s comfort zone was never a factor as she plainly suffered too much. John Lennon may believe in some “Ono suckle he got” but such is not a case in her. It was very clear that she chose to be Catholic and therefore adhered to a religion and her decline of a certain money reward that would manifest her being a traitor to Japan shows clearly her concept of patriotism. She even wept for the Japanese soldiers inviting her to escape discerning that they would only die! Moreover, Herod may not be quoted as saying he worshipped the Roman emperor but his actions are implicit to the fact that he was doing everything to please him. In fact, Caesaria Maritima is his masterpiece for emperor adoration. But his palace in Masada betrays his real love for himself!
Lastly, we lament at the Zealot’s wrong logic of Nana Masay’s not having an Aglipayan zealot stance. It was clear that despite her love for Vicente, she didn’t choose to be Aglipayan. The faith that Christ taught does not only prepare one to love his country but to love Heaven and prepare dwelling there. Patriotism is therefore subsumed in one’s faith in God’s Heaven. The wise outlook is for one to consider himself an exile on earth and is longing to go back to his Creator in Heaven. Besides, Aglipay is not a prophet although he was priest. He lacked the prophetic insight of a universal church. His selfish nature is in fact revealed when he carried on his own armed force as a commander ignoring the rightful command of General Manuel Tinio designated by Aguinaldo for the simple reason that he had finished his college studies, that is why he qualified for priesthood, unlike the Nuevo Ecijano who was a college drop-out and besides for him, he was just a boy, he being the youngest general of the war. Aglipay would later learn how much the Americans respected this boy general who gave them unparalleled resistance.
Evidently, the brothers believe that Elizabeth Almazan had lived a holy life and unassumingly gave proof that she is already in heaven with the most beautiful lady she saw through her testimony of the last apparition. Her selfless dedication of saving lives and her humble, simple and sincere disposition find her blameless among the people of San Narciso. Only foolish people in their steep pride and illogical minds would find her far from the odor of sanctity worthy of honor in the altars of the universal church.
Simon Fe Dolor
Felipe Fortitudo
Benito Sanctitus
Bartholomew Es Graforti
Rico del Sol
