Suffering is ahead： A lesson from our Lord on preparing for martyrdom
Summary
As Christmas draws to a close, let s recall some of the lessons that the baby Jesus gives us about shedding our blood for Him. On the feast of St. Stephen, we celebrate the first martyr: St. John the Deacon.
Transcript
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Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a great friend of LifeSite News, said to me a few years ago,
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prepare your children for martyrdom. Martyrdom, I thought. It sounds kind of frightening and
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perhaps a little unrealistic for children in the West, maybe a few years ago. But with
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totalitarianism having sprung up all over the world, in fact, especially in the West in the
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last couple of years, especially in North America and Europe and beyond, I now see the foresight
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in Bishop Schneider's counsel and have actually begun to explain the concept to my own children.
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It may sound strange, this topic in the wake of Christmas, but let me show you how it makes
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perfect sense in light of the Little Divine Child of Bethlehem. This is the John Henry Weston Show.
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Let's begin as we always do with the sight of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
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No one knows what the future holds. You may live to be a hundred, or today, literally, could be your
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last day. Beyond that, it seems unlikely that the world is going back to the old normal. And do we
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even want it to go back to that old normal of abortion, same-sex marriage, pornography, trans
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children, and the uncrowning of Christ the King? Not that we want the new normal a la Klaus Schwab
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either. But it is increasingly appearing that if we want to reach the triumph of the Immaculate Heart
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promised by Our Lady of Fatima, the only way is through this mess, as Robert Frost may have said.
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And it shouldn't be a surprise. Our Lady of Fatima promised as much when she spoke of the final
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battle between our Lord and the reign of Satan, particularly referencing those of us who defend
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life and family. As Sister Lucia revealed, Our Lady said, and I quote,
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Don't be afraid. Because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always
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be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. It looks like suffering is
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ahead. And even if God were to destroy the wicked and restore Christendom tomorrow, still it'd be worth
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thinking about these things and preparing ourselves and our families to give up everything for Christ.
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After all, he told us, Pick up your cross daily and follow me.
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So, as Christmas draws to a close, and Epiphany Tide is with us, let's recall some of the lessons that
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the baby Jesus gives us about shedding our blood for him. It's true that Christmas is a time of great
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joy and hope and light shining in the darkness. But the birth of our divine Savior is actually marked
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with suffering, the blood of the cross, and a trail of blood. In the Gospels, our Lord says,
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I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that the fire being kindled, and yet I have a
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baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, he said, and how I am straightened until it be accomplished.
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You can read that in Luke 12, 49 and 50. In fact, right from the beginning, according to the Church,
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even in Our Lady's womb, our Lord thirsted for the cross. He came to suffer for mankind, to make
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propitiation on our behalf, and to restore us to God his Father. His life was filled with his longing
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to suffer for us. We all know that it began with the discomfort of the stable, but the sufferings of
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Christmas don't end with mere discomfort. When the baby Jesus is bound in swaddling clothes and laid
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in a wooden manger, do we not already see the suffering Christ bound by his enemies and then
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stretched out on the wooden cross? When we see him laid in a manger, the feeding trough for brute
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beasts, can we not hear him saying in the Gospels, he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me
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and I in him? And that's not all. Let's see the first guests gathered round Christ at Christmas,
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and you know, not so much the shepherds and the wise men. I mean the mystical guests of the cross
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manger suffering shown to us in the Church's liturgy in the days after Christmas. So let's look. On the 26th,
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we saw St. Stephen the Deacon, the first martyr. Now think about that. The first day after Christmas,
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we celebrated the feast of the first martyr, the witness who shed his blood for Christ. You remember
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the song, on the feast of Stephen, the snow lay roundabout. Well, that's it. On the 26th of
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December, the feast of St. Stephen. So what about the 27th? It was St. John, the beloved disciple.
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My namesake, thanks be to God. And while divine wisdom did not give him the crown of martyrdom
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per se, he was a martyr in his will. They actually tried. He was scourged and then thrown into a
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cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin gate in Rome. Yes, he was miraculously preserved. That would
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have killed anyone. But on his part, he accepted this as a martyrdom and willed to shed his blood
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for Christ. And then the next day, on the 28th, we are met by the holy innocents who shed their blood
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in the place of Christ. We all know of Herod the tyrant who killed all the baby boys in his rage
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against our newborn king. And they too are treated as martyrs by the church who sings of these sweet
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little infants playing with their martyrs' crowns and palms beneath the altar of God.
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So is that all? Well, no. On the 29th, we're met by St. Thomas Beckett of Canterbury, who was killed
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in his own cathedral. He too was a martyr. And while the others shed their blood for Christ, St. Thomas
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shed it for Christ and his holy church, defending her liberty against state interference with the
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life and mission of the church. What do you think St. Thomas Beckett would have said today when so many
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of our supposed shepherds meekly obeyed the state in the lockdown, closing their doors and then going
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along with this or that immoral dictate? So what is the baby Jesus teaching us through his
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church about martyrdom? It's a gift. And that he bestows a gift on those whom he loves. He loves
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his martyrs. He wants them to surround his crib. And he wants to hold them close to himself.
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These martyrs comfort him on his hard wooden crib. And surely the thought of their love comforted him
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as he hung on the wooden cross. The crown of martyrdom is no curse, but a great grace conforming those whom
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God chooses to their divine Savior. And you know, that's not even all. Eight days after this Savior
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was born, the octave day of Christmas, we saw the feast of his circumcision presentation in the temple,
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we might call it. Well, these few drops of blood, his precious blood, are of infinite value. This quick,
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sharp suffering, this would have been enough, the fathers of the church teach, to save all mankind.
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But the Christ child wants to shed all of his precious blood for us. And so he offers these first
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drops merely as a pledge of love and a promise of our redemption. This pledge is a token of all that he does
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for us. What have we done for Christ? What are we doing for him? What ought we do for him? Martyrdom is a
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grace that would allow us to give our whole selves for him. We see in his pledge again in Epiphany Tide,
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when we recall the three gifts brought by the Magi. The baby Jesus is given gold as a king and frankincense
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as a divine priest. But he's also given myrrh because he is a prophet and sacrifice. Even as a baby,
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in the carol about the three kings, myrrh is mine, sings Balthazar. Its bitter perfume breathes a life
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of gathering gloom, sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb.
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This precious resin, myrrh, was used for burial, and indeed Nicodemus bought 100 pounds of it,
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and of aloes for Christ's burial. Did Our Lady and St. Joseph recognize the bitterness of this gift?
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We can be sure that the Christ child knew what it meant. So even the Magi's gifts, which we just
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celebrated, and the Epiphany are marked with blood, calling us to mingle ours with Christ's.
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Pious Catholic parents of old could often be heard telling their children about the glorious martyrs,
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and even the crown of martyrdom, as a ticket straight to heaven, avoiding the sufferings of
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purgatory. And a particular glory in heaven to sit with the few martyrs that will be there. Well,
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probably many, but nonetheless. Some may dismiss that kind of talk today as pious legend, but you know,
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the doctors of the Church uphold this notion of going straight to heaven after martyrdom.
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St. Thomas Aquinas writes that, and I quote, pain suffered in this life voluntarily cleanses much
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more than pain inflicted after death, hence in purgatory. Why is this? Well, to explain it,
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St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Augustine, and I quote, if anything needing to be cleansed be found in
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those, meaning in those martyrs, it is cut off by the sickle of suffering, end quote. St. Augustine
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even says that it would be insulting to pray for the repose of the souls of martyrs. And let's
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remember, too, that martyr actually means witness. The martyr's witness to the love of Christ is the
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most effective means of spreading the truth of Christ. The third century writer Tertullian wrote
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these fierce and fiery words to the Roman Emperor and his government, and I quote,
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Your cruelty, however exquisite, does not help you stamp us out. The more often you mow us down,
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the more in numbers we grow. For the blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians.
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For who sees our stubbornness in the face of death without looking into the cause? Who,
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after this inquiry, does not embrace our doctrine? And when he has embraced it,
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who does not desire to suffer, so that he may share the fullness of God's grace and obtain from God
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complete forgiveness by giving in exchange his blood? For martyrdom secures the remission of
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all offenses. Tertullian added, It is for this reason that we return thanks on the very spot for
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your death sentences. That was Tertullian to the Emperor. My dear friends, if the only way is through,
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or as Churchill rendered it, if you're going through hell, then keep going. Let's not be afraid of
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martyrdom. Without going out looking for it or having delusions of grandeur of some kind,
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let's long for it. Our blood may be the means which God puts an end to wickedness.
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Life is very short. Eternity is very long. Perhaps the sufferings ahead will be fiercer and longer
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than those of these companions of the crib, but let's cleave to God with all of our love. Let's hope
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in him. Because we already have been promises, you know, that we won't be tried beyond our strength,
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that his grace will be sufficient for us, and that after those sufferings, however long they are,
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the eternal glory and joy of being with God will make them seem very short indeed. In St. Ignatius's
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spiritual exercises, Christ the King addresses these words to each of us, and I quote,
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So let's get ready to follow him, to count martyrdom as a blessing, and long for the crown,
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and to be counted among that glorious few who shed their blood for, and in invitation of,
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our Savior. For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston. May God bless you.
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