On the Witness of the martyrs
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.
from Psalm 116:
What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
n the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
The Church remembers, today, the feast of St. Polycarp. He was the bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of St. John, the beloved Disciple and the teacher of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. We remember him, probably, because he was a martyr. In just his lifetime the Church moves from the Apostolic to the post-Apostolic age. Polycarp's life and teaching connected his community to the living preaching of Jesus and his disciples. With his death the special teaching of living eyewitnesses gave way to the inspired teaching of Bishops and the courageous witness of the martyrs. That teaching and witness continues to connect us to the living and teaching of Jesus.
While the Age of the Apostles is long gone, the age of Martyrs, it seems, is with us still.
On February 12, 2005, Sr. Dorothy Stang, of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, was gunned to death by two assailants in the Amazonian rain forest, and so entered into the glorious company of Christ and his martyrs.
Sr. Dorothy had, for a number of years, lived and worked among the people of Anapu, Brazil defending them, their way of life, and their rain forest-home from encroaching loggers. At the time of her death, Sr. Dorothy was reading passages of the scripture to her assailants.
Who knows if she had the courage of the martyrs. At the age of 73, she did have the courage to live among the poor, far away from the comforts of home in Ohio, and she did share her life and faith there. It might not have taken courage to live there, maybe only gratitude, curiosity, generosity of heart. But, when the time came, she was at the other end of a hail of bullets; with courage, or without courage, she stood there against darkness and allowed Christ to triumph in her apparent weakness.
She may have been a very ordinary woman, just like any of us, and the staggering lesson we may be meant to learn in this horrible event, is that God's call to witness, may be very spur-of-the-moment and over in a flash. Sr. Dorothy lived a life of gratitude, informed by the life of Jesus and nourished by the psalms like the one quoted here. Maybe that is the only preparation any of us ever get for God's service.
Every one of us is precious to God. That is the real message of Sr. Dorothy's long ministry and sudden death. Let us thank God for the witness of the life and ministry of Sr. Dorothy, let us pray for her quiet repose, for the consolation of her sisters, family, and friends, and for the true needs of the people she loved and served in her last years. May God welcome her into His Mercy, and may she pray for us, there, until we join her in the Beatific Vision and the Feast of Heaven.
Who knows if she had the courage of the martyrs. At the age of 73, she did have the courage to live among the poor, far away from the comforts of home in Ohio, and she did share her life and faith there. It might not have taken courage to live there, maybe only gratitude, curiosity, generosity of heart. But, when the time came, she was at the other end of a hail of bullets; with courage, or without courage, she stood there against darkness and allowed Christ to triumph in her apparent weakness.
She may have been a very ordinary woman, just like any of us, and the staggering lesson we may be meant to learn in this horrible event, is that God's call to witness, may be very spur-of-the-moment and over in a flash. Sr. Dorothy lived a life of gratitude, informed by the life of Jesus and nourished by the psalms like the one quoted here. Maybe that is the only preparation any of us ever get for God's service.
Every one of us is precious to God. That is the real message of Sr. Dorothy's long ministry and sudden death. Let us thank God for the witness of the life and ministry of Sr. Dorothy, let us pray for her quiet repose, for the consolation of her sisters, family, and friends, and for the true needs of the people she loved and served in her last years. May God welcome her into His Mercy, and may she pray for us, there, until we join her in the Beatific Vision and the Feast of Heaven.
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