Part one (12): Spirit of Martyrdom

91- Spirit of Martyrdom

them and treat them as such. For he said: "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, he is . . . my mother" (Matt. 12, 50). Martyrdom represents the most perfect operation and fulfilment of the will of God.

Therefore, the Son of God, speaking of His Father and the holy martyrs, says that He has marvelously wrought all that He willed in them: Sanctis qui sunt in terra ejus, mirificavit omnes voluntates meas i n eis. (Ps. 15, 3). He says, moreover, that "He will write also upon them a new name" (Apoc. 3, 12), which is Jesus. The holy martyrs imitated Jesus most perfectly in His life and in His death, while they were on earth, therefore they shall so admirably resemble Him in heaven as to be called Jesus, and even actually to be Jesus, in a certain and wonderful manner, through a perfect resemblance and a wondrous transformation.

7. He gives them His word: I will give to sit with me in my throne, as I . . . am set down with m y Father in His throne" (Apoc. 3, 21). And Holy Church, on the feast of every martyr, shows Him to us speaking thus to His Father: Volo, Pater, ut ubi ego sum, illic sit et minister meus. I will, 0 My Father, that where I am My servant should also be" (Brev. Rom., Corn. mart., 5 ant. ad Laudes), that is, he should dwell and rest with Me in Thy bosom and Thy fatherly heart.I am well aware that most of those promises made to the martyrs are also addressed to the other ut they are nevertheless addressed to the martyrs in token of a most special recompense, because they are Christ's own saints, who bear His stamp and Godly character, saints whom He loves with a r particular love, and to whom He gives extraordinary privileges.

O bounty! 0 love! 0 excessive love and goodness of Jesus for His holy martyrs! 0 Bountiful Jesus, how blessed are they whom Thou dost love and who love Thee in return! 0 how blessed are they who bear, in themselves a perfect image of Thy holy life and of Thy most loving death! How blessed are they who are called the wedding feast Of the Lamb: Beati qui ad coenam nuptiarum Agni Vocati sunt (Apoc. 19, g). How a belled are they who wash their robes in the blo~od of the Lamb: Beati qui lavant stolas suas in sanguine Agni(Apoc. 22, 14). How blessed are they who want no life on earth,

except tospend it all for the glory, and sacrifice it for the love of this most sweet Lamb, so worthy to be loved! And all the more so, because, to borrow the words of the Holy Ghost, this is the end of all fulfilment and perfection, the final and perfect consummation of all sanctity (John 15, 13); because man can do nothing greater for His God than to sacrifice to Him what he holds most dear, that is, his blood and his life , and to die for Him (St. Thomas, Summa, 2" ae, Q. 124, a. 3).

There are, however, various kinds of martyrs and martyrdoms. Those who are truly disposed and willing to die for our Saviour are martyrs before God in a certain sense, even though they may not actually die for Him. St. Cyprian affirms that those who are ready to die rather than offend Almighty God are also martyrs in a certain sense. St. Isidore says, furthermore, that to mortify the flesh and the passions, to resist unruly appetites and to persevere to the end in self-abandonment for love of Our Lord is likewise a kind of martyrdom. And, according to St. Gregory the Great, if, for pure and sacrificing love of Christ, one patiently suffers the privations and miseries of poverty, starvation, deformity or any other sore affliction; or else meekly endures insults, calumny and persecution, not returning evil for evil, but blessing those who harm him by hurtful words, and loving those who hate him, this also is a species of martyrdom.

But true martyrdom consists not only in suffering, but in loss of life. Consequently, death belongs to the essence and nature of full and perfect martyrdom. This means that it is necessary to die, and to die for Jesus Christ, if one is to be a real martyr, in the sense in which the word martyr is taken by Holy Church.

It is true that one may perform some action for love of Our Lord, or suffer for Him some pain which should in the ordinary course of events, cause death; yet he is miraculously preserved by the power of God. In this case, God, who delivered Him from the death he was ready to suffer, will not deprive him of a martyr's crown, even though he may live long and die a natural death, provided he persevere until the end in the grace and love of the God of martyrs. Witness St. John the Evangelist, St. Thecla, the first of her sex to suffer martyrdom for Christ, St. Felix of Nola, and others honored by the

Spirit of Martyrdom 93

Church as true martyrs, although they did not die in the clutches of the tyrants, or in the torments they underwent for Our Lord. In fact, they lived for many years afterwards and died ordinary deaths, having been preserved by a divine and extraordinary power from the death they were ready to endure for Jesus Christ.

But apart from such miraculous intervention preventing the occurrence of death, if one is to be a true martyr, he must die, and die for Our Lord Himself, or for the honor of His mysteries and sacraments, in defense of the Church, or in support of an article of Faith or a point of morals, or to avoid yielding to sin because it offends Him, or by the fact of loving Him so ardently that the sacred violence of His divine love actually causes death.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor, assures us that any act whatsoever, even if it be merely human and natural, can make us martyrs if referred to the glory of God and done for His love, and actually does so, if it happens to bring about our death (Summa, 2'a 2"e, Q. 124, a. 5, ad 3).

For this reason, I advise and urge you to make a point of lifting up your heart to Jesus at the commencement of your actions, offering them to Him and affirming that you desire to do these things for His love and His glory. If the spiritual or bodily help you give to the sick, for instance, causes you to contract a mortal illness, and if you really gave your services or performed your duty to the sick out of love for Our Lord, you will share in the glory of the holy martyrs who are in heaven. And much more will this be true if you love Him with such strong and burning love that~ the intensity and power of holy love end by consuming your bodily life. This kind of death is a super-martyrdom, the noblest and holiest of all martyrdom. This is the martyrdom of the Mother of Fair Love, the most holy Virgin, Mother of God. This i s the martyrdom of great St. Joseph, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Theresa, St. Catherine of Genoa, and many other saints. It is even the martyrdom of Jesus, for He died not only in love and for love, but also from the excess and power of His love.

Xxxvi. Spirit of Martyrdom

All Christians, irrespective of their state in life, ought always to be prepared to suffer martyrdom for our Lord Jesus Christ. Several reasons oblige them to live in the dispositions and spirit of martyrdom.

1. They belong to Jesus Christ by an infinite number of bonds. They are bound to live for Him alone; therefore, they are bound also to die for Him, according to the words of St. Paul: "None of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose again; that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living" (Rom. 14, 7-10).

2. Since God gave us life and being for His glory only, we are bound to glorify Him as perfectly as possible, by sacrificing to Him our being and our life in homage to His life and His supreme being, and by proclaiming thus that He alone is worthy to be and to live, and that every other life should be immolated at the feet of His sovereign and undying life.

3. God commands us to love Him with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength, that is, with the most perfect love possible to us. Now if we are to love Him so, we must love Him to the extent of shedding our blood and laying down our life for Him. This is the highest degree of love, as the Son of God tells us: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15, 13).

4. From the very moment of His Incarnation, Our Lord had a most intense desire to shed His blood and to die for His Father's glory and our love; yet He was unable, at that time, to fulfil His desire by Himself, because the time appointed by His Father's ordinance had not yet come. SO He chose the Holy Innocents as martyrs, and accomplished, through them, His own desire, and, in a certain manner, died i n them. So also ever since He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, He has always kept the infinite desire to suffer and die for His Father's glory and our love. He can no longer suffer nor can He die a second death; nevertheless, He still desires to suffer and die

Spirit of Martyrdom 95

in His members, and seeks everywhere for souls in whom He can accomplish this desire. Hence, if we have any zeal at all for the accomplishment of His divine plans, we ought to offer ourselves to Him as candidates for His renewed martyrdom that He may find in us a means to quench that burning thirst in the fulfilment once more of His yearning to shed His blood and die for love of His Father.

5. As I have said, every Christian made a solemn promise at baptism to adhere to Jesus Christ, to follow and imitate Him and consequently to be victims consecrated and sacrificed to His glory. This pledge obliges us to follow and imitate Him in His death as well as in His life, and to be ever prepared to sacrifice our lives and all that we have, according to these holy words: "Because for thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter" (PS. 43, 22).

6. Jesus Christ is our Head and we are His members. We must live by His life, so, too, we are also obliged to die His death, since it is evident that the members must necessarily live and die by the life and death of their head, as St. Paul says: "Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies~-that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest i n our mortal flesh" (11 Cor. 4, 10-11).

7. But, above all, the most valid and compelling reason that imposes upon us the obligation to become martyrs is the most agonizing martyrdom suffered by our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, for love of us.

Our most lovable Saviour was not content merely to spend His whole life for our sake, but also willed to die for our love the cruellest and most ignominious death in the history of the world. He laid down an infinitely precious life, one moment of which was worth more than all the lives of angels and men. He would be ready, if necessary, to die over again a thousand times. He remains continually present > upon our altars both as host and victim, and there He is and will be immolated every day and every hour, until the Day of Judgment, as often as the divine sacrifice of the altar, bloodless and without pain, shall be celebrated until the end of time.

0 what goodness, what love! I am not surprised that three hundred thousand martyrs shed their blood and gave up their life for Jesus Christ. Christ Himself died for all men; surely, therefore, all men should die for Him. No wonder the holy martyrs, and all those to whom Christ has given to know and feel the holy fire of that divine love, which nailed Him to the Cross, possessed so burning a thirst and so flaming a desire to suffer and to die for love of Him. No wonder that so many glorious saints have actually suffered such frightful torments, with so much happiness and joy that the executioners grew weary of inflicting tortures before they wearied of enduring them, while their cruellest torments were nothing to them in the face of their insatiable desire to suffer for Jesus Christ. What does make me wonder is the coldness of our love for so lovable a Saviour, and what cowards we are in the presence of the least of sufferings! How strong is our attachment to so wretched and trivial a thing as earthly life, and how far we are from desiring to sacrifice it for Him Who sacrificed so noble and precious a life for us!

What truth can there be in the claim that we are Christians and adore a crucified God, a God agonizing and dying upon a Cross, a God who for love of us gives up so noble and excellent a life, a God who sacrifices Himself every day, before our eyes upon our altars for our salvation, if we are not ready to sacrifice to Him all that we hold dearest in the world, and even life itself, which in any case belongs to Him by all rights? Surely we are not Christians if we are not in these dispositions. Therefore I say, and this will immediately be clear to anyone who gives a little thought to the truths I have outlined, that all Christians ought to be martyrs, if not in actual fact, at least in intention and in will. So true is this, that i f they are not martyrs of Jesus Christ, they will be martyrs of Satan.

Choose whichever of the two you love more. If you live under the tyranny of sin, you will be a martyr to your self-love and your passions, and consequently a martyr of the devil. But if you desire to be a martyr of Jesus Christ, you must strive to live in the spirit of martyrdom.

What is the spirit of martyrdom? It is a spirit that has five excellent attributes:

Spirit of Martyrdom 97

1. It is the spirit of strength and constancy which fears only God and sin, and cannot be shaken o r overthrown, either by promises or threats, by persuasion or violence.

2. It is the spirit of deepest humility, which feels only horror for the vain glory and publicity of the world, and loves contempt and humiliations.

3. It is the spirit of self-mistrust and of most firm confidence in Jesus Christ our Lord, our Strength, in whom all things can be done

4. It is the spirit of perfect detachment from the world and everything that is in the world. Those who are to sacrifice their lives to God must also sacrifice to Him all else besides.

5. It is the spirit of most burning love for our Lord Jesus Christ, who leads those animated by this spirit to do all and suffer all for love of Him, who did and suffered all for them. It so inflames them that, for love of Him, they consider mortification and suffering to be a paradise of joys, to be sought and desired while they avoid and detest the pleasures of this world as much as they would hell itself.

That is the spirit of martyrdom. Implore Our Lord, who is the King of Martyrs, to fill you with this spirit. Pray to the Queen of Martyrs, and all the martyrs, too, that they may obtain this spirit for you from the Son of God, by their holy prayers. Cultivate a particular devotion to the saintly martyrs. Make a point, also, of praying for all those who will have to,suffer martyrdom, in order that God may grant them the spirit and-grace of martyrdom. Pray especially for those who will have to suffer the persecution of antichrist at the end of the world, for it will be the most cruel and horrible of all persecutions.

Finally, strive to develop within yourself, by imitation, a perfect image of the lives of the holy martyrs and, what is more, the life of the King and the Queen of martyrs, Jesus and Mary, so that they may make you worthy to resemble them in death.

Xxxvii. Prayer to Jesus, King of Martyrs

0 Jesus, most worthy to be loved, prostrate at Thy feet in the very depth of my nothingness and i n union with all the humility, devotion and love in heaven and on earth, I adore, glorify and bless Thee as

the first and sovereign martyr of Thy Eternal Father, and King of all the martyrs. I adore and bless Thee i n the consummate martyrdom Thou didst suffer in Thy Passion on the Cross. I honor and reverence Thee i n the most dolorous martyrdom Thy most holy Mother sustained at the foot of Thy Cross, where her pure soul was pierced with the sword of anguish, where she suffered, in her mother's heart, the same martyrdom Thou didst endure in Thy sacred body. So, also, do I praise and magnify Thee in the various forms of martyrdom suffered by Thy saints, who endured so many and so great torments for love of Thee.

I give Thee a thousand thanks for the great glory which Thou didst give to the Heavenly Father and to Thyself by these martyrdoms which Thou didst undergo in Thyself, in Thy most Blessed Mother and in Thy saints. I offer Thee all the love, glory and praises which were rendered unto Thee by Thy most holy Mother and Thy saints in their martyrdom. What joy for our hearts to contemplate the infinite glory accorded to the Omnipotent Father by Thy sufferings and death, and the glory Thy Heavenly Father didst give to Thee because of the death and torments Thou didst suffer for Him and for us! What consolation to behold Thee so loved and glorified by Thy holy martyrs, and to see them so glorified and so loved by Thee and in Thee!

0 Jesus, object of all desires, Thou art no longer able to suffer or to die in Thyself; yet Thou dost still possess a most great desire to suffer until the end of the world in Thy members, to glorify Thy Father by the way of suffering and death, even until the end of time. Thou dost everywhere seek for souls in whom Thou mayest accomplish Thy designs. Behold us, 0 good Jesus, who now offer ourselves to Thee with all Our heart, indeed, with a thousand hearts and a thousand wills, that Thou mayest design to make use of us for that end. Behold my body is ready, with Thy grace, to suffer all kinds of tortures for the accomplishment of Thy desire, so that Thy most burning thirst to suffer and to die in Thy members, for love of Thy Father, may be somewhat slaked in us.

0 Most Adorable Jesus, since Thou hast created us for Thy glory