(Editor’s Note: In his daily homily of April 21 at Casa Santa Marta, the Holy Father reflected on martyrdom and the Church. Elise Harris, writing for Catholic News Agency, summarized some of the events that underlay Pope Francis’ talk.
(Among those imprisoned for the faith is “Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, who in 2010 was convicted of violating Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, an allegation she denies,” wrote Harris. “Her husband and daughter traveled to Rome last week, where they met with Pope Francis and received his blessing during his Wednesday general audience.
(“In February the Islamic State released a video depicting the decapitation of 20 Coptic Christians after they had gone missing near the coastal city of Surt, also known as Sirte, in Libya.
(“On Sunday [April 19] another video was released by social media accounts associated with ISIS showing the mass executions of Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
(“In an April 20 message sent to Abuna Matthias, patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, Francis offered condolences and said that ‘it makes no difference whether the victims are Catholic, Copt, Orthodox, or Protestant….Their blood is one and the same in their confession of Christ!’
(“The Pope’s comment on the Christian boy burned alive referred to a 14-year-old Pakistani named Nouman Masih, who passed away April 15 after being set on fire by two unknown men. After inquiring about his religion, the men doused Masih in kerosene and set him alight.
(“April 16 marks the day that another tragedy on Francis’ list took place when 12 passengers on a migrant boat traveling from Libya to Italy were thrown overboard by fellow migrants for being Christians.
(“Reports indicate that a disagreement sparked among passengers on a rubber boat bound for Italy and carrying 105 people, during which 15 Muslim passengers threatened to abandon at sea the Christians, who came from Nigeria and Ghana, based on their faith.
(“After a fight broke out 12 of the Christians were thrown overboard to their deaths, while others survived the attack by resisting the drowning attempt and forming a human chain. The Italian coast guard has arrested 15 people in association with the attack.”
(Below is a summary of the Holy Father’s April 21 homily on the Church of martyrs. The Vatican’s news portal, News.Va, provided the summary from L’Osservatore Romano. All rights reserved.)
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In The Footsteps
Of St. Stephen
“Today the Church is the Church of martyrs,” said the Holy Father. And among these martyrs are “our brothers whose throats were cut on the beach of Libya; that young man burned alive by companions for being a Christian; those immigrants on the high seas thrown overboard for being Christians; those Ethiopians assassinated for being Christians.”
In the chapel of Casa Santa Marta on April 21, recounting the story of the first martyr, St. Stephen, Pope Francis recalled the many present-day martyrs: including those whose names we do not know, who are suffering in prisons or who are defamed and persecuted “by so many modern Sanhedrins,” or for living “the faith within their own family.”
The Pontiff began his homily by pointing out what all martyrs have in common: They are those “who in the history of the Church bore testimony of Jesus” without having “need of other bread: For them Jesus alone was enough, because they had faith in Jesus.” And, Francis said, “today, the Church makes us reflect and offers us, in the Liturgy of the Word, the first Christian martyr,” in the Acts of the Apostles, which speaks of St. Stephen (7:51-8:1a).
“This man did not hunger, he did not need to turn to negotiations, to compromises with other types of bread, to survive,” the Pope stated. With this manner “he testified of Jesus” until his martyrdom.
Referring to the previous day’s Liturgy of the Word, Pope Francis recalled that “yesterday the Church began speaking about him: Several ‘Freedmen’ of the Synagogue, arose and began to dispute with Stephen but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.”
In fact, the Pope explained, “Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and spoke with the wisdom of the Spirit: He was powerful.” And thus these people “instigated a few men to say that they heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God, and gave false testimony.”
With these accusations “they stirred up the people, the elders, the scribes: They came upon him, they seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin.”
The Pope pointed out that “the story of Stephen” is “curious” in that it follows “the same steps as that of Jesus,” meaning the tactics of “false witnesses” were used in order to “stir up the people and bring him to judgment. Today we heard how this story ends, because in the Sanhedrin, Stephen explains the Gospel of Jesus, he gives a long explanation.”
However, his accusers “didn’t want to listen, their hearts were closed.” Thus, “in the end, Stephen, with the power of the Spirit, tells them the truth: ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears’ — pagans, in other words — ‘you always resist the Holy Spirit’.”
“One of the characteristics of stiff-necked people before the word of God” is “resistance to the Holy Spirit,” the Pope explained, repeating the words of St. Stephen: “As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?”
Thus, Stephen “recalled many prophets who had been persecuted and killed for being faithful to the word of God.” Then, “when he confessed his vision of Jesus, which God showed him at that moment,” and as Stephen was “full of the Holy Spirit, they were scandalized and cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears.”
This, the Pope said, was a “real sign” that “they didn’t want to listen.” Thus, “they rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.”
This has always been “the story of martyrs,” even “those of the Old Testament, about whom St. Stephen was speaking in the Sanhedrin.” The problem is that “certain hearts never like the word of God; the word of God is bothersome when you have a hardened heart, when you have a pagan heart, because the word of God challenges you to go forth, searching and being fed with that bread that Jesus spoke of.”
“In the history of Revelation,” Francis affirmed, there are “so many martyrs who were killed on account of faithfulness to the word of God, to the truth of God.” Thus “Stephen’s martyrdom really resembles Jesus’ sacrifice.” And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, saying: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. How can one forget Jesus’ words on the cross: ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit’?”
Then, the Acts of the Apostles tells us that Stephen “knelt down and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’.” Again, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Here is “that Christian magnanimity of forgiveness, of praying for the enemy.”
However, of “those who persecuted the prophets, those who persecuted and killed Stephen and so many martyrs,” Jesus said that “they believed they were giving glory to God, they believed” that in doing so they were being “faithful to God’s teaching.”
And, the Pope said, “today I would like to recall that the history of the Church, the true history of the Church, is the history of saints and martyrs: the persecuted martyrs” and also the many who are “killed by those who believe they are glorifying God, by those who believe they have the truth: corrupt hearts, but the truth.”
Even today, “how many ‘Stephens’ there are in the world!” the Pope exclaimed.
He referred to recent accounts of persecution: “Let us think of our brothers whose throats were cut on the beach in Libya; let us think of that young man burned alive by companions for being a Christian; let us think of those immigrants on the high seas who were thrown overboard by the others for being Christians; let us think — the day before yesterday — of those Ethiopians, assassinated for being Christians.”
And still, he added, “so many others that we don’t know, who suffer in prisons because they are Christians.”
Today, Francis continued, “the Church is the Church of martyrs: They suffer, they give their lives, and we receive God’s blessing through their testimony.” And then, “there are also hidden martyrs, those men and women, faithful to the power of the Holy Spirit, to the voice of the Spirit, who make way, who seek new ways to help their brothers and sisters and to better love God.”
And for this reason they “come under suspicion,” they are “defamed, persecuted by so many modern Sanhedrins who believe themselves masters of the truth.” Today, the Pontiff stated, there are “so many hidden martyrs,” and among them are many “who, for being faithful, suffer greatly within their families, for their faithfulness.”
“Our Church is the Church of martyrs,” Francis reiterated, before returning to the celebration of Mass during which he said “the ‘first martyr’ will come to us, the first who bore witness and, even more, salvation to all of us.”
Thus, the Pope exhorted, “let us unite with Jesus in the Eucharist, and let us unite with so many brothers and sisters who are suffering the martyrdom of being persecuted, defamed, and killed for being faithful to the one bread that satiates, namely to Jesus.”
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