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181938

Vincenz Serrano

ENLIT 12 GG

September 24, 2018

FAITH

Faith, Love, Time, and Dr. Lazaro by Gregorio Brillantes is a story about a country doctor

who doesn’t believe in faith, love, and time. Dr. Lazaro, the protagonist of this story, doubted his

faith because of events such as his eldest son’s death and the experiences he encounters while

working as a country doctor. He chose to immerse himself in his job, to the point wherein

everything is routine, and he is like a robot, seemingly indifferent and emotionless towards

everything, even to his own family.

Dr. Lazaro and his young son, Ben, are called in the middle of the night to help a poor

family whose newborn baby who has a terminal case of tetanus. The journey they take towards

the family’s home, however, becomes meaningful most especially to Dr. Lazaro, whose beliefs

and disbeliefs about God, faith, hope, love, and time seem to haunt him with an intensity – all

because he sees a wide chasm between him and his son in terms of how they see life. Dr. Lazaro

has lost so much faith in God and life due to the life he has led, while Ben, who is intent on

becoming a priest, seems so positive and optimistic with life.

The theme of this story leans on faith and how it changes a person. Doubts in your beliefs

will rise when certain events happen in your life. Dr. Lazaro’s character is directly affected by the

events that happened in his life. The numerous cases he handled, where life seemed so fragile,

got him cold-hearted, when the profession he loved became an obligation over time and had him

doubting his faith to the Almighty. But what made him seemingly indifferent from the sufferings all
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around him was the death of his eldest son and how he died. The eldest son committed suicide

and from then on, the very thought of him, pains him. So, to live despite the pain he became

indifferent. His faith in the Lord came crumbling down from the loss of his son and the sufferings

the patients in the county hospital experienced that it affected how he treated others and how he

treated his family. It was Dr. Lazaro’s circumstances that made him who he was in the story and

why he was insistent that his son become an engineer or a doctor rather than become a priest or

become more religious like his mother.

Dr. Lazaro sees Ben as this person full of light and hope that reminds him of his younger

self, before the cruelty of life changed his views and made the idea of God an abstract concept

and a mysterious being, causing their relationship to drift further and further apart. The ride on

the way to the patient is one of the few times where Dr. Lazaro had a chance to talk to Ben and

really get to see his character. You can see how Lazaro was cynical of Ben’s worldviews and his

profound faith in the Lord through his responses to the conversation that they had. Yet when

Lazaro saw the lay baptism Ben performed for the dead patient, his psyche was startled by how

much of a believer his son, how much good his son has for the world around him. It was at that

point where he was reminiscent of how he was before everything.

The story of Dr. Lazaro is a story that I can relate to. The mysterious ways of the Lord are

a great factor in my relationship with Him as well. It is because of the obscurity of His actions that

faith is tested, and our character adapts to life that different people lead. In the end, despite being

shown the light that Ben exudes, Lazaro doesn’t change his character. Indifference has become

part of his character already and it isn’t easy to let go of what is accustomed. For Lazaro, what

happened that night is not as traumatizing or as eye-opening compared to the what happened in

his past to change his faith and outlook in life back to the way it was. Faith needs something

drastic for it to be shaken and torn apart for it is a big part of you that makes you who you are as

a person.
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WORKS CITED

Brilliantes, Gregorio. “Faith, Love, Time, and Dr. Lazaro.” The Distance to Andromeda.

Benipayo Press, 1960 Edition, pp. 29-40.

Falcon, Enrico Joseph R.