The Martyrs

A Christian who lays down his life out of fidelity to Jesus Christ: choosing to die rather than renounce the faith. The Greek word «martyr» literally means «witness». His death is the supreme testimony: no one lays down his life for what he does not believe from the depths of his soul (Christian witness).

Saint Stephen, one of the first seven deacons, stoned to death for proclaiming Christ, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. He died following in the exact footsteps of his Master: forgiving his executioners and commending his spirit to the Lord. It is no mere coincidence that the Church celebrates his feast on December 26, the day immediately following Christmas: having celebrated Christ's birth, the Church turns at once to the first disciple who gave his life for Him.

In two unmistakable characteristics:

• The martyr dies, but never kills: he endures violence, but never inflicts it. He dies forgiving, like Stephen and Christ upon the Cross.
• He does not seek death morbidly nor glorify violence: the martyrs faced death with a supernatural peace that astonished their executioners.

The fanatic coerces and imposes; the martyr bears witness and leaves the other person free.

Because of Jesus' own words: «Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends». The martyr becomes completely configured to the Master, who freely embraced death for the salvation of the world (Redemption). Martyrdom is not a tragedy that overtakes a victim; it is an act of supreme self-giving.

Not from mere human temperament or willpower. Benedict XVI explained it clearly: martyrdom «is not the result of human effort, but the response to a call and an initiative of God; it is a gift of His grace». That is why history records child martyrs, elderly martyrs, and martyrs of timid natural disposition. Far from suppressing freedom, martyrdom elevates it: the martyr is the freest person on earth, sovereignly free even before the earthly power that can extinguish his physical life (grace, freedom).

To confess Christ boldly, yes; martyrdom in the strict physical sense is a special gift God reserves for some. Yet whoever is faithful in small things will be faithful in great ones: the martyrs reached the total gift of self along the everyday road of small fidelities. No one improvises a martyrdom (fortitude, loyalty).

It bore fruit then, and continues to bear fruit today. «The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians», Tertullian famously wrote in the second century: Roman persecutions, far from extinguishing the Church, caused her to spread across the empire. The life of a martyr «requires no lengthy arguments to convince»: history records dramatic conversions of executioners struck to the heart by the serene peace of their victims (early Christians).

Yes, and in numbers likely exceeding those of the first centuries. In various countries around the world, Christians risk their lives daily simply to attend Mass or refuse to renounce their faith. It is a reality rarely featured in mainstream headlines, which demands of us at least two responses: praying constantly for them, and never taking our own freedom of worship for granted as though faith cost nothing (Church).

Saint Josemaría asked himself which martyrdom is greater: that of one who dies in a single moment for the faith, or that of one who «spends his years working with no other aim than to serve the Church and souls, growing old with a smile, unnoticed». And he concluded: «For me, the martyrdom without spectacle is more heroic». There is an authentic martyrdom accessible to everyone: the quiet, continuous surrender of daily duties (holiness).

Small daily contrarieties: waking up early, traffic jams, an abrasive colleague, plans that get disrupted. «How many who would let themselves be nailed to a cross before the astonished gaze of thousands cannot bear christianly the pinpricks of each day!», wrote Saint Josemaría. Accepting them with interior peace and offering them to God unites the ordinary Christian with the martyrs: a different measure, but the exact same love (pain, patience).