By Most Rev Antonysamy Peter Abit,
Bishop of Sultanpet
Hate-speeches and hate-violences against religious, caste and gender minorities are sadly common these days in India and in other parts of the world. Both the innocents and those who raise their voice against injustice are the worst prey. There is someone who was and is the victim of such hatred on this globe. That is Jesus Christ! It is not only the physical person of Jesus who was hated and despised in the land of Palestine but also his spiritual body, that is, the Church/disciples (Acts 9:5;1 Cor 15:3) continue to suffer daily martyrdom all over the world (cf. 2Cor 4: 4-12). As such Jesus continues to suffer; and thus he is the living martyr!
In his life Jesus showed this nature of eternal martyrdom. June: the month of Martyrs! The liturgical calendar of June is filled with martyrs, starting with Justine Martyr, also remembering the greatest martyrs, like St. Peter and St. Paul and the first martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. Indeed, we honour them with high esteem as their blood became the seed of the church (Tertullian, Apologeticus, 50).
However, we should remember that all these martyrs, then and now, follow the eternal martyr Jesus Christ. Jesus on Calvary showed his extraordinary martyrdom when his heart was pierced, not to confirm his death but to manifest his love and mercy for the victimized world!
Evangelical Witness!
Jesus’ sermon on the mount stands on top of his evangelical message which ends in inviting us to follow, not just Himself, but the heavenly Father (Mt 5:48) and in all the previous 47 verses of this chapter Jesus shows who the heavenly Father is: merciful, loving, forgiving, just and holy. In this chapter itself Jesus gives witness to the Father by his evangelical preaching. The nature of God the Father’s love and concern for sinners, the sick and despised is very well shown by Jesus in his parables of the “Lost” (Lk 15). He said very emphatically that whatever he says and does is from the Father (Jn 5:19-21) and thus gives a very vivid witness to God the Father through his evangelical mission.
This is much more evident in his address to the Father:” I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you have given to me to do” (Jn 17:4; 14). This evangelical mission and witness brought him severe challenges and conflicts which he overcame with a spirit of martyr!
Missionary Witness!
Jesus took upon himself all the challenges/conflicts of life for a mission. When he predicted his suffering and death Jesus very clearly said that he was setting his mind on divine things (Mt 16:23), that is: “to give his life for many” (Mk 10:45). The divine mission which he undertook to fulfil is not to live for himself but to “fall into the earth and die” (Jn 12:24) so that ‘he will draw all people to himself’ (Jn 12:32).
This motivation, even in the severe situation of shedding his blood-sweat at Gethsemane, urged him to seek the will of God the Father (Lk 22:47). And this missionary journey for him was not a compulsion or a painful process but a willingly undertaken mission as he himself said: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father” (Jn 10:18).
Sacrificial Witness!
We are aware of the great blood-martyrdom of Jesus in Calvary, nailed to the cross. A Roman soldier pierced his side (heart)and at once blood and water came out (Jn 19:34). In the mind of the Romans and Jews this should have been a fatal blow to Jesus; but for Jesus it was a life-giving act to all his believers. Just as Adam’s rib (pleura) gave life to the formation of woman Jesus’ broken rib gives to his believers sacramental life of baptism (water) and Eucharist(blood) that sanctifies them from sin and sustains them for a life of discipleship (cf. Raymond Brown, The Gospel according to St. John, II, 953). Here Jesus proves his sacrificial witness by taking upon himself ‘the Lamb of God’ who takes away the sins of the world(Jn 1:19). His ‘blood and water’ here signifies his spirit of compassion as that of the ‘living water’ flowing from Jerusalem (cf. Zech 14:8).
The Martyred Sacred Heart!
This fact of the sacrificial witness of Jesus, who is ever full of compassion and love (Mt 11:19) is very much underlined in our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion which is very popular all over the world, especially in the East, should not remain only with our prayers and petitions in the church but should reflect in our life of mercy, compassion and forgiveness as in the model of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Our constant commitment to our Christian faith/principles is to be in the footsteps of Jesus the great witness to the Father and to his mission by heroically facing all the challenges/conflicts of personal, family, social and political life. In our daily trials and tribulations we are not alone, nor do we claim personal martyrdom; it is Christ Jesus who becomes a martyr in us! This life of our enduring witness will make Jesus alive as the living martyr, because “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).