October 19, 2021 - Optional Memorial of Saint John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues e companions, martyrs. Optional Memorial of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, martyr.
Tuesday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 5:12,15b,17-19,20b-21
Ps 40
Lk 12:35-38
Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned. If by that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.
Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Death entered the world due to Adam's sin, and all men belonging to Adam’s lineage received death as an inheritance from him. Jesus Christ, the new Adam, brings a new beginning into the world: acquittal and life came to all. This life given to us by Christ has no comparison with the previous one: we have received an overabundance of grace, an elevation of our human nature: we have become children in the Son, we have received the Holy Spirit and our inheritance is eternal life. Truly the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.
Psalm 40, chosen as the responsorial psalm, is a messianic psalm, which ends with the action of grace and the exultation of all those who seek God: May all who seek you exult and be glad in you, and may those who love your salvation say ever, “The Lord be glorified.”
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.” “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O Lord, know. May all who seek you exult and be glad in you, and may those who love your salvation say ever, “The Lord be glorified.”
However, the memory of how the letter to the Hebrews quotes this psalm tempers the joy of salvation, making us aware of the price Christ paid to give it to us, to elevate us to the dignity of children of God the Father and his brothers:
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law. Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:7-10)
Christ's victory over death, paid for at a very high price, requires from those who have been saved an attitude of attentive vigilance and loving expectation, since he will return to take his brothers, with whom he desires to share his triumph. Jesus describes earthly life as a night in which he will return: certainly, even if he always remains with us accompanying us in life and death, his definitive return will be a judgment of reward or condemnation. Blessed are those who have waited for him as obedient servants, carrying out their service with zeal and love!
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”
The image of the master who rewards the faithful servants by making them sit at table and serving them, is only a figure of the bliss that awaits those who, in this life down below, have always been ready, waiting for their master: they served Him in their neighbor and they joined themselves to Christ’s sacrifice in martyrdom. They united their obedience with their Savior’s, thus contributing to the salvation of all. Precisely to exemplify today's readings, we propose some texts by the Canadian holy martyrs and by Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, whose optional liturgical memorial is today.
Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit, is the most prominent figure among the eight martyred Canadian missionaries: he suffered martyrdom together with another Jesuit by the Iroquois in March 1649. Here is an excerpt from his “Spiritual Notes”:
For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered. Jesus, my Lord and Savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name. I vow before your eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, before your most holy Mother and her most chaste spouse, before the angels, apostles and martyrs, before my blessed fathers Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier—in truth I vow to you, Jesus my Savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy would offer it to me, your most unworthy servant.
I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit. For this reason, my beloved Jesus, and because of the surging joy which moves me, here and now I offer my blood and body and life. May I die only for you, if you will grant me this grace, since you willingly died for me. Let me so live that you may grant me the gift of such a happy death. In this way, my God and Savior, I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it. My God, even if all the brutal tortures which prisoners in this region must endure should fall on me, I offer myself most willingly to them and I alone shall suffer them all.
This vow of Jean de Brébeuf was evidently inspired by the Holy Spirit, because, without a specific intervention of God, he could not have sustained martyrdom, which was of an unprecedented horror and cruelty, as the Report left us by the Jesuit Father P.J.M. Chamounot testifies.
No less cruel or frightening was the young priest Jerzy Popiełuszko’s martyrdom in October 1984, which the liturgy celebrates today. The cause of the murder was that of “abuse of freedom of conscience achieved in the People's Republic of Poland”.
Here are excerpts from two sermons by Father Popiełuszko:
Thanks to Christ’s death and resurrection, the symbol of shame and humiliation has become that of courage, help and brotherhood. In the sign of the cross we, today, grasp what is most beautiful and most valuable in man. It is through the cross that one approaches the resurrection. There is no other way. And it is for this reason that the crosses of our homeland, our personal crosses, those of our families, must lead to victory, to the resurrection, if we join them to Christ who has conquered the cross (J. Popieluszko, The Way of My Cross: Masses at Warsaw, Translated by Michael J. Wrenn. Chicago: Regnery Books, 1986). [Our Translation]
May Holy Week and Easter be a time of prayer for us who present the crosses of our suffering, the crosses of our salvation: signs of the victory of good over evil, of life over death, of love over hatred. And for you, brothers, who feel hatred towards mercenaries in your hearts, it is time to reflect on the fact that force cannot win, even if it may triumph for a short time. We have the best proof of this at the foot of Christ’s cross. There was violence there too, there was hatred of the truth. But strength and hatred were overcome by Christ’s active love. Therefore, let us be strong in love, praying for our misled brothers, without condemning anyone, stigmatizing and exposing evil. As true faithful, we pray with the words of Christ, with the words he pronounced on the cross: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). And grant us, O Christ, to be sensitive more to the power of love than to that of oppression and hatred.” (Grazyna Sikorska, Vita e morte di Jerzy Popieluszko, Queriniana Editrice, Brescia, 1986, p. 67) [Our Translation]
As always, the strength of martyrdom had and will have a missionary fruitfulness superior to any form of preaching, because “the blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians”.