Today, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Paul Miki
and Companions who, in 1597, were martyred by crucifixion in Nagasaki, Japan. The Entrance Antiphon for the liturgy reads
as follows: “Holy men shed their
glorious blood for the Lord; they loved Christ in their life, they imitated him
in their death, and therefore were crowned in triumph.” Today is also the feast of the martyrdom of
St. Dorothy, a resident of Caesarea, Cappadocia, who was martyred in 303 when
she refused to sacrifice to the gods during Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of
Christians. Not just men, but many women
“have shed their glorious blood for the Lord; they [too] loved Christ in their
life, they [too] imitated him in their death, and therefore… [are] crowned in
triumph.”
Martyrdom continues to this very day—men and women tortured
and put to death for their faith in Christ Jesus. There are other forms of
martyrdom, besides shedding of one’s blood. There is the martyrdom of
love. Selfishness is put to death for
the sake of another. Harsh words are
sacrificed so others live “richer” lives through the patience, kindness, and
mercy of another. A betrayal of the
innocence of a child is aborted, when a child is not sold to sex traffickers,
drug traffickers, slave owners because someone courageously refuses to
cooperate with evil. There is the
martyrdom—the dying to fear—when a spouse seeks help for her/himself instead of
continuing to enable abusive behavior. These are not martyrs who put to death
their hopelessness, their powerlessness and lovingly choose to do what Jesus
would do for the good of another and/or of themselves. There is the daily
giving of oneself for the sake of one’s family—not a martyrdom of shedding one’s
blood but of giving the best of oneself for the sake of one’s children.
Persons who do these things are loving Christ in their life,
imitating Christ in His death whereby He poured out His love for us. And, yes,
these persons will be “crowned in triumph.”
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