THE MARTYRS, SUPREME WITNESS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

Regarding the Salesian martyrs Madrid and Seville

Enrico dal Covolo

During the first centuries of the Church the cult of the saints began with the veneration of the martyrs and their mortal remains, usually kept in the Catacombs.

Later, especially beginning with the “Constantine era” of peace for the Church (313 AD.), the Christian community also developed the cult of holy monks and bishops. In fact once persecutions came to an end, “martyrdom of blood” was substituted by the so-called “martyrdom of conscience” (or “in the secrecy of the heart”), resulting in the following of Jesus more closely through imitation and the ‘sequela Christi’.

It is interesting to note that – beginning from the second century, until our own time – the term “martyr” (in Greek martys, which itself means witness, and is therefore relevant for any Christian) indicates only the faithful who have spilt their blood (effuso sanguine) because of their faith in Jesus Christ (in odium fidei). Thus a “simple” witness to the Faith, who has not passed through the crucible of persecution, is indicated with other terms, in particular “confessor”.

This simple etymological background supports the consequence that in the Church we can always discover the “supreme witness” to the faith, being the one who – like the Lord Jesus – has given his or her life to overcome evil and death.

Throughout the centuries, the Christian martyr has revived in the flesh the duel between life and death: the martyr dies with the King of life, and reigns together with him, living for ever. The sufferings and death of the martyrs are the most evident manifestation of the power of the Resurrection, since it is in the martyrs that Jesus Christ celebrates his Pasch and continues to overcome death.

Throughout history, until today, the martyrs have aroused in people contrasting attitudes varying from scorn to admiration.

There are those who – from Tacitus on – consider the martyrs fanatics or just plain crazy; and there are those who – as for example Saint Justin (+ c. 167) – are struck by their “fearless witness in the face of death”, seen as a “sign from on high”, a true and proper miracle.

Origen’s entire life (+ 254), he was one of the great theologians of the Church, is marked by a fervent wish for martyrdom: “If God could grant me the grace to be washed in my own blood”, he confessed in a celebrated homily, “I could leave this world in secure knowledge… they are blessed those who merit this” (Book of Judges 7,2).

As we can see from this witness, from the Church’s beginnings martyrdom is seen as a grace from God, even more than being man’s own merit. Saint Augustine (+ 430), to avoid the exaggerations of Christians who, like the Donatists, went against their idea of martyrdom, left us with a key phrase: Non poena, sed causa, facit martyres. It is not pain in itself, that is, physical death, but the reason – that is, the supreme and radical imitation of Christ – which makes martyrdom.

… and today

A few years ago, at the centre of the Grand Jubilee, John Paul II wanted to celebrate a solemn commemoration of the “martyrs of the 20^th century”, significantly at the Colosseum. It was the 7th May 2000.

On that occasion the Pope wanted to emphasise a true and proper “theology of martyrdom” which – going back to the experience of the Christian beginnings – runs through the centuries, and remains the best key to a profound reading and understanding of the meaning martyrdom in the Church and history.

“The experience of the martyrs and witnesses to the faith”, John Paul II said on that occasion, “is not only characteristic of the Church at its beginnings, but marks every period of its history. In the twentieth century, then, possibly even more than in the first century of Christianity, there have been very many who have witnessed to the faith often through heroic suffering. How many Christians in every continent, in the course of the century, paid for their love for Christ even by spilling their blood!”.

Effectively, according to statistics from Fides, just the ten years from 1990-2000 offers a total of 604 missionaries killed. The same news Agency tells that from 2001-2006 the total of pastoral workers killed has been 152.

These people, the Pope went on, “have undergone both ancient and new forms of persecution, have experienced hatred and exclusion, violence and assassination. Many countries with an ancient tradition of Christianity have become lands where fidelity to the Gospel is won at a high price”.

“The generation I belong to”, John Paul II continued, opening up an autobiographical slant, “has known the horrors of war, concentration camps, persecution… I myself am a witness, during my youth, to so much sorrow and trial. My priesthood, from the beginning, is part of the great sacrifice of so many men and women of my generation… So many! Their memory must not be lost, indeed it needs to be recovered and well documented. Many names are unknown; some names have been muddied by their persecutors, who sought to add ignominy to martyrdom; some names were hidden by their executioners. Christians, however, preserve the memory of a great many of them… So many refused to bow before the idols of the 20th Century, and were sacrificed by communism, nazism, idolatry of State and race”.

John Paul II then recalled the characteristic “paradox” of the Gospel, in which Christian martyrdom finds its deepest roots: “Whoever loves his life will lose it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25), and he explained that the martyrs “did not consider their own well-being, survival as values greater than fidelity to the Gospel. Indeed in their weakness, they strenuously resisted evil. In their fragility the strength of the faith and grace of the Lord shines out”.

The conclusion of this homily then becomes decisive, allowing each believer, as also every person of good will, to discover the authentic reasons why today we celebrate the memory of the holy martyrs: their inheritance, said John Paul II, “speaks with a voice more powerful than that of division… If we take advantage of this inheritance we do not do so just in part, nor even less in order to take revenge on their persecutors, but so that God’s extraordinary power may be made manifest, a power that continues in each age. And we do so, in our turn, based on the example of so many witnesses who prayed for their persecutors”.