28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct. 13, 2013
Fr. Joseph Eddy, O. de M.
Today in Tarragona, Spain, 19 Mercedarian friars will be formally recognized as blessed and martyrs for the Catholic Faith. It is a very exciting time for our community. Three Mercedarians from the United States are attending the Beatification Mass.
Check out the new Mercedarian friars’ video of Pope Francis’ pro-life homily, given before he was Pope, below. The homily is heard against the exciting backdrop of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro recently.
These 19 priests and brothers of all ages were violently killed along with over 6 thousand clerical victims during the Civil War in Spain 1936-39. Few here in the United States realize how horrific this event called the Red Terror truly was. To understand the odium fidei or “hatred of the Faith” that caused men to kill their own countrymen is a complex task. Spain and Catholicism had been strongly linked since the people fought off 781 years of Muslim occupation, finally retaking their country in 1492.
Catholic Spain
From that point on to be a Spaniard was to be dedicated to the Church. Not everyone practiced their faith with zeal, but it was understood that nationalism and Catholicism were virtually the same. Naturally, some abuses did come from this as well as many blessings.
As the economy of Spain went bad in 1929, Communism began to move into the country. These “Reds” as they were called, had a hatred for everything that symbolized “Old Spain.” The Monarchy and the Church were recognized as relics from the past that had to be disposed of if the Utopia of Communism could be established fully. Communist tenants, by their very nature opposed all religions or at least wanted to make them irrelevant.
Laws against the Church
The persecution began from 1931-1936 with a number of laws and restrictions directed toward the Church. Things began to escalate when the Church was accused of supporting the Fascist regime lead by Francisco Franco. There began to be a sense that violence could erupt at any time.
What is one to do is such a situation? If we place ourselves in the shoes of clergy and faithful Catholics there were no real obvious answers. The laity and others began to fight back in different ways, but violence could not be avoided. It all exploded in 1936 with the burning of Churches and an attempt “to erase all trace of the Church in Spain.” The Mercedarian friars, like most religious, fled their religious houses and spread out so as to avoid the Red Terror that was coming. Beginning in 1936, religious and priests were hunted down and killed.
The religious took refuge in the houses of sympathizers, but they could not stay long. Many were eventually caught and put to death. The witness accounts are truly chilling: most were paraded through the streets and shot. Others, were thrown off cliffs or into deep wells. What was most amazing about the witness accounts was the martyrs’ “serene frame of mind,” their concern for the others before themselves, and the willingess to forgive their persecutors. The “Reds” tried to force the religious to blaspheme or to say “Long live the Revolution and Communism.” However, amazingly enough, almost every one of them died crying out “Viva Cristo Rey” or “Long Live Christ the King.” These heroic men did not fight back or attack their executioners, but instead offered themselves up as a Sacrifice.
The call of each of us
Each of us are called by our Baptism to be Priest, Prophet, and King. We are all called to the common priesthood in that we are to offer sacrifices to God, uniting our sufferings in life to the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Most of us are not called to the red martyrdom or to die for the faith, but this does not mean we cannot be martyrs. There is such a thing as white martyrdom, which is to carry our daily sufferings with courage and offer them up with Christ’s death. These opportunities are all around us from the daily grind of work, to family, to enduring the challenges that come from our commitment to marriage or religious life. Other times we are offered a special cross, such as illness which threatens to eat away at our resolve.
Being a baptized Catholic means that we bring all of these sufferings with us to the Mass and offer them up with the one sacrifice of Jesus perpetuated on the altar. This gives meaning to the sufferings that all of us must endure in this life. We do not look for suffering, but when it comes and we can’t avoid it we have an opportunity to offer sacrifice. Jesus in the Eucharist more than supplies us with strength to go forth back into the challenges of life.
To lay down one’s life
The recognition of martyrs by the Church offers us all an opportunity to reflect on the universal call to offer ourselves up with the Eucharistic sacrifice. Jesus says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” however this does not mean that it is the only way. For most of us are called to the daily martyrdom of offering up our sufferings with the Mass for the salvation of the World. Yes, suffering does come to us, but we see from the martyrs that Jesus can turn what is evil into a blessing. One day we hope to reign with the Spanish Martyrs in a place where there is no more suffering, no more tears, but only the fullness of life in Christ.