Follow!

Today’s Gospel follows... after yesterday’s Gospel, part of the wondrous journey through God’s word we make by means of the Lectionary. By chance, however, (if it is chance) this Gospel expresses magnificently what we know of those whose optional memorial we celebrate today, the martyrs of China.

In the Gospel, Our Lord says,
"When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment
what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you."

When he canonized these martyrs, just a few years ago, the Holy Father quoted the last words of some of these martyrs, who were teenagers, as they are being tortured and killed: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian" and "The door of heaven is open to all."

If Christ has made us this promise, and these boys and girls so gloriously embraced that promise all the way to the most painful of deaths, how can we not be braver in speaking and witnessing to the truth of Christ?