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POPE FRANCIS GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter’s Square – Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Catechesis. The passion for evangelization: the apostolic zeal of the believer. 9. Witnesses: the martyrs
Gospel: Matthew (10:16-18)
16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles.
Dear brothers and sisters,
After talking about evangelization and about apostolic zeal, after considering the witness of St. Paul, the true “champion” of apostolic zeal, today we will turn our attention not to a single figure, but to the host of martyrs, men and women of every age, language and nation who gave their life for Christ, who shed their blood to confess Christ.
After the generation of the Apostles, they were the quintessential “witnesses” of the Gospel. The martyrs: the first was the deacon Saint Stephen, who was stoned outside the walls of Jerusalem. The word “martyr” comes from the Greek martyria, which in fact means witness. That is, a martyr is a witness, one who testifies to the point of shedding his or her blood. Very soon, however, the word martyr began to be used in the Church to denote the shedding their blood [1]. That is, a martyr can be one who witnesses every day. But later it was used for one who gives his/her blood, who gives his/her life.
The martyrs, however, are not to be seen as heroes who acted individually, like flowers blooming in the desert, but as the ripe and excellent fruit of the Lord’s vineyard, which is the Church.
In particular, Christians, through their fervent participation in the celebration of the Eucharist, were led by the Spirit to base their lives on this mystery of love: namely, on the fact that the Lord Jesus had given his life for them, and therefore that they too could and should give their lifes for Him and for their brothers and sisters.
A great generosity, the journey of Christian witness.
Saint Augustine often emphasized this dynamic of gratitude and the gratuitous reciprocity of giving.
Here, for example, is what he preached on the feast of Saint Lawrence: St. Augustine said “In this Church of Rome, he exercised the office of deacon; there he administered the holy chalice of the blood of Christ; there that he shed his own blood for the name of Christ.
The blessed apostle John clearly explained the mystery of the Lord’s Supper when he said, ‘Just as Christ laid down his life for us, we also should lay down our lives for the brethren’ (1 Jn 3:16).
Saint Lawrence understood this, my brethren, and he did it; and he undoubtedly prepared things similar to what he received at that table. He loved Christ in his life, he imitated him in his death”
This is how Saint Augustine explained the spiritual dynamism that inspired the martyrs. He said “martyrs love Christ in his life and imitate him in his death.
Today, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember all the martyrs who have accompanied the life of the Church. As I have often, they are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries.
Today there are many martyrs in the Church, many of them, because for confessing the Christian faith they are banished from society or end up in prison… there are many. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that “The Church considers martyrdom”, this discipleship, “as an extraordinary gift and as the fullest proof of love. Through martyrdom the disciple is transformed into an image of his Master by freely accepting death for the salvation of the world as well as his conformity to Christ in the shedding of his blood” (Lumen Gentium, 42).
The martyrs, in imitation of Christ and with his grace, turn the violence of those who refuse the proclamation into a great occasion of love, supreme, which goes as far as forgiveness of their own tormentors.
This is interesting: the martyrs always forgive their tormentors. Stephen, the first martyr, died praying, “Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do”.
Martyrs pray for their tormentors.
Although martyrdom is required of only a few, “all must be ready to confess Christ before men. They must be ready to make the profession of faith even in the midst of persecutions, which the Church will never lack, following the way of the cross” (Lumen Gentium 42). But were these persecutions of that time? No, no: today. Today there are persecutions of Christians all over the world, many, many. There are more martyrs today than in the early times. Many. The martyrs show us that every Christian is called to the witness of life, even if it does not go as far as the shedding of blood, offering himself to God and to his brothers and sisters in imitation of Jesus.
Finally, I would like to recall the Christian witness present in every corner of the world.
I am thinking, for example, of Yemen, a country that for many years has been plagued by a terrible, forgotten war that has caused many deaths and is still causing suffering to many people, especially children. It is precisely in this country that there have been luminous witnesses of faith, such as the Missionary Sisters of Charity, who gave their lives there. They are still present in Yemen today, helping the elderly, the sick and the handicapped. Some of them have suffered martyrdom, but the others continue, risking their lives, but continuing. These sisters welcome everyone, regardless of religion, because charity and fraternity know no boundaries.
In July 1998, Sister Aletta, Sister Zelia and Sister Michael were killed by a fanatic as they were returning home from Mass, because they were Christians.
More recently, in March 2016, shortly after the beginning of the still ongoing conflict, Sister Anselm, Sister Marguerite, Sister Reginette and Sister Judith were killed, together with some lay people who helped them in their work of charity among the least.
They are the martyrs of our time. Among the lay people who were killed, in addition to Christians, were some Muslim believers who worked with the sisters. We are moved to see how the witness of blood can unite people of different religions. One should never kill in the name of God, because for Him we are all brothers and sisters. But together we can give our lives for others.
Let us pray, then, that we may never tire of bearing witness to the Gospel, even in times of tribulation. May all the martyred saints be seeds of peace and reconciliation among peoples, for a more humane and fraternal world, as we await the full manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven, when God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). Thank you.
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Summary of the Holy Father’s words
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on apostolic zeal, we now turn to the example of the martyrs, those men and women of every age, nation and tongue who gave their lives in witness to the Gospel. In an outstanding way, the martyrs have given witness to the love that we celebrate in every Mass: the love that led Christ to give his life for us and that we, in turn, are called to imitate (cf. 1 Jn 3:16). While all Christians must be prepared to bear witness to their faith in the face of persecution, martyrdom is, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, “the highest gift and the supreme proof of love” (Lumen Gentium, 42). Martyrs for the faith in our time are even more numerous than in the early days of the Church. We can think, for example, of the two groups of Missionaries of Charity who, while serving the elderly and disabled in Yemen, were brutally murdered during the ongoing conflict in that country. May the example of the martyrs continue to inspire our efforts to bear witness to the Gospel as we await the coming of God’s kingdom of universal reconciliation, justice and peace.
