The John-Henry Westen Show - Suffering is ahead： A lesson from our Lord on preparing for martyrdom

00:00:00.000 Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a great friend of LifeSite News, said to me a few years ago,

00:00:05.780 prepare your children for martyrdom. Martyrdom, I thought. It sounds kind of frightening and

00:00:11.720 perhaps a little unrealistic for children in the West, maybe a few years ago. But with

00:00:17.160 totalitarianism having sprung up all over the world, in fact, especially in the West in the

00:00:23.020 last couple of years, especially in North America and Europe and beyond, I now see the foresight

00:00:29.880 in Bishop Schneider's counsel and have actually begun to explain the concept to my own children.

00:00:37.240 It may sound strange, this topic in the wake of Christmas, but let me show you how it makes

00:00:43.240 perfect sense in light of the Little Divine Child of Bethlehem. This is the John Henry Weston Show.

00:00:50.220 Stay tuned.

00:00:59.880 Let's begin as we always do with the sight of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

00:01:14.200 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:16.620 No one knows what the future holds. You may live to be a hundred, or today, literally, could be your

00:01:23.420 last day. Beyond that, it seems unlikely that the world is going back to the old normal. And do we

00:01:31.440 even want it to go back to that old normal of abortion, same-sex marriage, pornography, trans 1.00

00:01:36.560 children, and the uncrowning of Christ the King? Not that we want the new normal a la Klaus Schwab

00:01:42.740 either. But it is increasingly appearing that if we want to reach the triumph of the Immaculate Heart

00:01:49.760 promised by Our Lady of Fatima, the only way is through this mess, as Robert Frost may have said.

00:01:56.820 And it shouldn't be a surprise. Our Lady of Fatima promised as much when she spoke of the final

00:02:02.300 battle between our Lord and the reign of Satan, particularly referencing those of us who defend

00:02:06.860 life and family. As Sister Lucia revealed, Our Lady said, and I quote,

00:02:11.360 Don't be afraid. Because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always

00:02:17.900 be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. It looks like suffering is

00:02:25.000 ahead. And even if God were to destroy the wicked and restore Christendom tomorrow, still it'd be worth

00:02:32.800 thinking about these things and preparing ourselves and our families to give up everything for Christ.

00:02:39.060 After all, he told us, Pick up your cross daily and follow me. 0.95

00:02:43.860 So, as Christmas draws to a close, and Epiphany Tide is with us, let's recall some of the lessons that

00:02:51.020 the baby Jesus gives us about shedding our blood for him. It's true that Christmas is a time of great

00:02:57.860 joy and hope and light shining in the darkness. But the birth of our divine Savior is actually marked

00:03:03.680 with suffering, the blood of the cross, and a trail of blood. In the Gospels, our Lord says,

00:03:11.720 I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that the fire being kindled, and yet I have a

00:03:19.660 baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, he said, and how I am straightened until it be accomplished.

00:03:24.980 You can read that in Luke 12, 49 and 50. In fact, right from the beginning, according to the Church,

00:03:33.140 even in Our Lady's womb, our Lord thirsted for the cross. He came to suffer for mankind, to make

00:03:39.900 propitiation on our behalf, and to restore us to God his Father. His life was filled with his longing

00:03:47.960 to suffer for us. We all know that it began with the discomfort of the stable, but the sufferings of

00:03:53.880 Christmas don't end with mere discomfort. When the baby Jesus is bound in swaddling clothes and laid

00:04:01.160 in a wooden manger, do we not already see the suffering Christ bound by his enemies and then

00:04:07.600 stretched out on the wooden cross? When we see him laid in a manger, the feeding trough for brute

00:04:14.700 beasts, can we not hear him saying in the Gospels, he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me

00:04:20.900 and I in him? And that's not all. Let's see the first guests gathered round Christ at Christmas,

00:04:28.820 and you know, not so much the shepherds and the wise men. I mean the mystical guests of the cross

00:04:34.660 manger suffering shown to us in the Church's liturgy in the days after Christmas. So let's look. On the 26th,

00:04:43.180 we saw St. Stephen the Deacon, the first martyr. Now think about that. The first day after Christmas,

00:04:49.920 we celebrated the feast of the first martyr, the witness who shed his blood for Christ. You remember

00:04:57.020 the song, on the feast of Stephen, the snow lay roundabout. Well, that's it. On the 26th of

00:05:04.340 December, the feast of St. Stephen. So what about the 27th? It was St. John, the beloved disciple.

00:05:10.800 My namesake, thanks be to God. And while divine wisdom did not give him the crown of martyrdom

00:05:17.980 per se, he was a martyr in his will. They actually tried. He was scourged and then thrown into a

00:05:24.700 cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin gate in Rome. Yes, he was miraculously preserved. That would

00:05:32.280 have killed anyone. But on his part, he accepted this as a martyrdom and willed to shed his blood

00:05:39.720 for Christ. And then the next day, on the 28th, we are met by the holy innocents who shed their blood

00:05:47.280 in the place of Christ. We all know of Herod the tyrant who killed all the baby boys in his rage

00:05:53.700 against our newborn king. And they too are treated as martyrs by the church who sings of these sweet

00:06:01.660 little infants playing with their martyrs' crowns and palms beneath the altar of God.

00:06:09.360 So is that all? Well, no. On the 29th, we're met by St. Thomas Beckett of Canterbury, who was killed

00:06:16.700 in his own cathedral. He too was a martyr. And while the others shed their blood for Christ, St. Thomas

00:06:22.980 shed it for Christ and his holy church, defending her liberty against state interference with the

00:06:30.980 life and mission of the church. What do you think St. Thomas Beckett would have said today when so many

00:06:37.680 of our supposed shepherds meekly obeyed the state in the lockdown, closing their doors and then going

00:06:43.920 along with this or that immoral dictate? So what is the baby Jesus teaching us through his

00:06:52.900 church about martyrdom? It's a gift. And that he bestows a gift on those whom he loves. He loves

00:07:02.300 his martyrs. He wants them to surround his crib. And he wants to hold them close to himself.

00:07:09.300 These martyrs comfort him on his hard wooden crib. And surely the thought of their love comforted him

00:07:16.700 as he hung on the wooden cross. The crown of martyrdom is no curse, but a great grace conforming those whom

00:07:24.380 God chooses to their divine Savior. And you know, that's not even all. Eight days after this Savior

00:07:32.940 was born, the octave day of Christmas, we saw the feast of his circumcision presentation in the temple,

00:07:40.300 we might call it. Well, these few drops of blood, his precious blood, are of infinite value. This quick,

00:07:49.740 sharp suffering, this would have been enough, the fathers of the church teach, to save all mankind.

00:07:56.180 But the Christ child wants to shed all of his precious blood for us. And so he offers these first

00:08:03.120 drops merely as a pledge of love and a promise of our redemption. This pledge is a token of all that he does

00:08:12.280 for us. What have we done for Christ? What are we doing for him? What ought we do for him? Martyrdom is a

00:08:20.380 grace that would allow us to give our whole selves for him. We see in his pledge again in Epiphany Tide,

00:08:29.760 when we recall the three gifts brought by the Magi. The baby Jesus is given gold as a king and frankincense

00:08:39.280 as a divine priest. But he's also given myrrh because he is a prophet and sacrifice. Even as a baby,

00:08:47.460 in the carol about the three kings, myrrh is mine, sings Balthazar. Its bitter perfume breathes a life

00:08:55.700 of gathering gloom, sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb.

00:09:04.920 This precious resin, myrrh, was used for burial, and indeed Nicodemus bought 100 pounds of it,

00:09:13.480 and of aloes for Christ's burial. Did Our Lady and St. Joseph recognize the bitterness of this gift?

00:09:20.880 We can be sure that the Christ child knew what it meant. So even the Magi's gifts, which we just

00:09:29.640 celebrated, and the Epiphany are marked with blood, calling us to mingle ours with Christ's.

00:09:38.520 Pious Catholic parents of old could often be heard telling their children about the glorious martyrs,

00:09:44.260 and even the crown of martyrdom, as a ticket straight to heaven, avoiding the sufferings of

00:09:49.600 purgatory. And a particular glory in heaven to sit with the few martyrs that will be there. Well,

00:09:56.520 probably many, but nonetheless. Some may dismiss that kind of talk today as pious legend, but you know,

00:10:04.820 the doctors of the Church uphold this notion of going straight to heaven after martyrdom.

00:10:10.540 St. Thomas Aquinas writes that, and I quote, pain suffered in this life voluntarily cleanses much

00:10:18.320 more than pain inflicted after death, hence in purgatory. Why is this? Well, to explain it,

00:10:26.440 St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Augustine, and I quote, if anything needing to be cleansed be found in

00:10:34.820 those, meaning in those martyrs, it is cut off by the sickle of suffering, end quote. St. Augustine

00:10:41.000 even says that it would be insulting to pray for the repose of the souls of martyrs. And let's

00:10:47.560 remember, too, that martyr actually means witness. The martyr's witness to the love of Christ is the

00:10:55.500 most effective means of spreading the truth of Christ. The third century writer Tertullian wrote

00:11:01.240 these fierce and fiery words to the Roman Emperor and his government, and I quote,

00:11:07.080 Your cruelty, however exquisite, does not help you stamp us out. The more often you mow us down,

00:11:15.220 the more in numbers we grow. For the blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians. 0.95

00:11:22.040 Tertullian continued,

00:11:24.880 For who sees our stubbornness in the face of death without looking into the cause? Who,

00:11:31.080 after this inquiry, does not embrace our doctrine? And when he has embraced it,

00:11:36.060 who does not desire to suffer, so that he may share the fullness of God's grace and obtain from God

00:11:42.600 complete forgiveness by giving in exchange his blood? For martyrdom secures the remission of

00:11:49.360 all offenses. Tertullian added, It is for this reason that we return thanks on the very spot for

00:11:57.460 your death sentences. That was Tertullian to the Emperor. My dear friends, if the only way is through,

00:12:07.960 or as Churchill rendered it, if you're going through hell, then keep going. Let's not be afraid of

00:12:13.240 martyrdom. Without going out looking for it or having delusions of grandeur of some kind,

00:12:18.020 let's long for it. Our blood may be the means which God puts an end to wickedness.

00:12:25.640 Life is very short. Eternity is very long. Perhaps the sufferings ahead will be fiercer and longer

00:12:32.580 than those of these companions of the crib, but let's cleave to God with all of our love. Let's hope

00:12:38.740 in him. Because we already have been promises, you know, that we won't be tried beyond our strength,

00:12:44.420 that his grace will be sufficient for us, and that after those sufferings, however long they are,

00:12:50.440 the eternal glory and joy of being with God will make them seem very short indeed. In St. Ignatius's

00:12:58.300 spiritual exercises, Christ the King addresses these words to each of us, and I quote,

00:13:04.240 So let's get ready to follow him, to count martyrdom as a blessing, and long for the crown,

00:13:30.020 and to be counted among that glorious few who shed their blood for, and in invitation of,

00:13:37.180 our Savior. For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston. May God bless you.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - January 07, 2022

Suffering is ahead： A lesson from our Lord on preparing for martyrdom

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