Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 15, 2015 - Thursday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 3:7-14 and Mark 1:40-45]Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today," so that noe of you may be hardened by the deceit of sin. We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end. [Hebrews]
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015 ST. FRANCIS DE CAPILLAS, O.P., ST. PETER SANZ, O.P. AND COMPANIONS, DOMINICAN MARTYRS IN CHINA
Scriptures may vary at Dominican locales.
When I entered the Dominican Order back in the 1960's, I could name most of the canonized Dominican saints. Pope St. John Paul II put an end to that by canonizing groups of martyrs, especially missionaries, that included Dominicans. At one time we had one feast day that commemorated "Dominican Martyrs of the Orient." Now we have had to divide them up according to where they died: Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan! Most of these martyrs were from Spain or the Philippines. What is clear is that they did what the Letter to the Hebrews says to us today: "We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end."
Martyrdom can seem a far off reality from those of us here in the U.S.A. who are not likely to lose our lives because of our religious beliefs. However, right now in Iraq and Syria, martyrdom is a present reality. The same is true in Africa, especially in northeastern Nigeria. In celebrating martyrs of earlier ages, we remind ourselves that this is not just history of the past but a reality in our own times. We can encourage our brothers and sisters abroad by our prayers and donations Catholic Relief, but we can also encourage one another to persevere in faith here in our own culture. All too often in this land, it is not the person that dies but the faith itself because of hardened hearts. AMEN