15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Matt. 13:1-23 The seed that fell on good ground yielded much
Full homily text: We all know what a martyr is. A martyr is someone who gives up his life for Christ. But we should know that the word “martyr” actually comes from a Greek word that means “witness”—one who testifies—one who swears that this or that is true—and so true that they would die for the sake of its truth.
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In other words—A martyr testifies not only to the truth of what he believes—but he testifies to the strength of his belief. A martyr says that the guarantee of the truth of his belief is his very life. He would rather give up his life for the truth than deny it.
What an incredible amount of strength and grace it takes for a martyr to be able to face down his enemies, stare them in the eye and say to them, “Your threats do not menace me. Your chains do not frighten me. Your bullets do not make me falter. I believe in the one Good God, and in Jesus His son and in Mary his Virgin Mother, and in the Catholic Church as His Body on Earth. I believe in the Catholic way of life as the only moral way of life. And I will not deny that truth—by my words or my actions even if it were to save my life.
Now the Church has always said that no one is obliged to seek martyrdom. Some saints did actively look for ways to die for the faith—or at least put themselves in danger. Like St. Francis of Assisi who actually traveled to the Sultan of the Muslims to try to convert him. St Francis knew that he was taking his life in his hands and in a certain sense, daring the Muslims to kill him. Well they did not kill him—the Sultan was amused at this little Catholic Monk from Italy—and he sent him home after listening to his preaching.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus—the saint we call the Little Flower—she hoped and prayed for martyrdom in the Mission fields far from her home. But she was never to get any further than the cloister of her convent and she died a natural death as a very young woman.
So even though we need not seek out martyrdom—when it comes calling in our lives we must be ready. We must be ready to suffer for the Faith—ready to even die for the faith. It was Jesus who said that if anyone denies Jesus before men, then Jesus will deny us before His father.
The willingness to be a martyr—the willingness to suffer martyrdom is simply a matter of love and loyalty. Would a husband be worthy of his wife’s love—would a wife be worthy of her husband’s love if they were not willing to die for each other? Could a parent be a true mother or father if they were not willing to lay down their life for their children? Of course not. That is how deep true love and true loyalty are. We guarantee with our lives the truth of our belief.
Martyrdom is coming
Now I mention all this because this summer we have had many feast days of martyrs—and we hardly ever get the chance on Sunday to talk about them. And that is too bad. It is good to remember the martyrs. It is a good thing to think about and meditate upon their strength and heroism—because that will strengthen us when our turn comes—and believe me—it is coming. And we learn from celebrating the feasts of the martyrs that the vast majority of people in the last two thousand years who died for the faith—were killed by their government—the king or the emperor or the president.
Yes these are the very people who tell us that because they are our government that they are our friends. They never tire of telling that as our rulers they just want to help us and take care of us. But they will kill you or imprison you just as quickly as it takes for you to say “No” to one of their ideas or schemes.
God comes before the government
It has always been thus. Why did the Emperor Nero tie Christians to poles and set them ablaze as light for his garden party? Because they said he was not God—but only Jesus was. Why do you think the French government slaughtered hundreds of nuns and laughed about it—because the nuns said there was a higher law than the Revolution.
Why do you think all those Mexicans were martyred by the Calles government in the 1920’s, from San Toribio—who was shot in his bed, to Padre Pio—who was executed in a prison—and along with the hundreds and hundreds of other Catholics? It is because they said that God comes before the government. They were harassed and persecuted and killed because they said that it is the Church who teaches the state and not vice-versa. That is why they were martyred. Yes, we are eventually going to have to suffer for the faith because we also say that the Church teaches the state and that God comes before the government.
They are going to come after us one of these days because we believe in Jesus and in the Catholic Church. And they do not.
They will come after us
The whole modern culture—by which I mean the government in league with the media and all the politicians and their celebrity friends—all the newspapers and opinion makers—the writers and actors—they will come after us precisely because we are against the things that they are for: divorce and birth control and abortion and killing of senior citizens and homosexual marriage. And they cannot stand us for that! The first thing they will do is mock us and ridicule us and isolate us. They will make us feel embarrassed to say that certain things are wrong and immoral. They will try to make us to think that we are old-fashioned and out of date and fanatical and a flock of silly geese. This is called a white martyrdom. We do not shed our red blood yet—but we do feel the hot stares and the mean glares and the hatred of those who want us not to say anything. This is the prelude.
After that will come the red martyrdom—when they tell us that we have no right to say Catholic things — when they forbid us to say publicly that something is immoral. That is when they will arrest us and put us in jail and maybe even execute us for being loyal to Jesus—and for loving Him even more than we love our own lives.
So martyrdom is not just something that happened a long, long time ago and which we celebrate on remote feast days in the middle of the week. Martyrdom is something we moderns live in our very bodies and in our hearts. Martyrdom—white or red, is our chance to be witnesses for Jesus—our opportunity to testify to His truth. And if we have to offer up our bodies as the guarantee of our belief—well then that is our sure path to heaven.