Every Christian is called to surrender his or her life for Jesus Christ. In the gospels, we read that he who would gain his life must lose it, and he that loses his life will keep it safe unto eternal life. This may be in small, little deaths or in the most eloquent witness to the reality of our Lord and Savior, in the actual shedding of our blood. As we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, we encounter these great saints, who through their very blood became the seeds for the flourishing of the Church. From age to age, the Church is built up through its martyrs and saints. This surrender to Jesus and His life is the holiness to which we are called. Christ is to be formed in us, and we are called to take up our cross and follow Him.
Saint Peter in Saint Peter’s Square, Rome
Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ
In the words of Saint Paul himself he read:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… For Christ’s sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. [i]
Saint Paul in Saint Peter’s Square, Rome
An Exhortation to Martyrdom
Saint Cyprian of Carthage wrote a great deal about the call to witness to Jesus Christ in martyrdom. He was the Bishop in Carthage during Decius’ reign as Roman Emperor, when Christian were being forced to sacrifice to idols under penalty of death. In his treatise An Exhortation to Martyrdom, he writes:
But now I have sent you the very wool and the purple from the Lamb, by whom we were redeemed and quickened; which, when you have received, you will make into a coat for yourself according to your own will, and the rather that you will rejoice in it as your own private and special garment. And you will exhibit to others also what we have sent, that they themselves may be able to finish it according to their will; so that that old nakedness being covered, they may all bear the garments of Christ robed in the sanctification of heavenly grace…Moreover also, beloved brethren, I have considered it a useful and wholesome plan in an exhortation so needful as that which may make martyrs, to cut off all delays and tardiness in our words, and to put away the windings of human discourse, and set down only those things which God speaks, wherewith Christ exhorts His servants to martyrdom. Those divine precepts themselves must be supplied, as it were, for arms for the combatants. Let them be the incitements of the warlike trumpet; let them he the clarion-blast for the warriors. Let the ears be roused by them; let the minds be prepared by them; let the powers both of soul and body be strengthened to all endurance of suffering. Let us only who, by the Lord’s permission, have given the first baptism to believers, also prepare each one for the second; urging and teaching that this is a baptism greater in grace, more lofty in power, more precious in honour— a baptism wherein angels baptize— a baptism in which God and His Christ exult — a baptism after which no one sins any more — a baptism which completes the increase of our faith— a baptism which, as we withdraw from the world, immediately associates us with God. In the baptism of water is received the remission of sins, in the baptism of blood the crown of virtues. This thing is to be embraced and desired, and to be asked for in all the entreaties of our petitions, that we who are God’s servants should be also His friends.[ii]
I am Yours … Only all Yours
And last but not least, from a contemporary saint, Mother Teresa of Calcutta often exhorted her sisters, coworkers, and priests to abandon themselves completely to the transforming love of Jesus. She writes this in a letter to a priest:
Keep giving Jesus to your people not by words but by your example, by your being in love with Jesus – by radiating His holiness and spreading His fragrance of love everywhere you go. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength. You belong to Him. Tell Him – I am yours – and if you cut me to pieces every single piece will be only all yours. Let Jesus be the victim and the priest in you.[iii]
Let us pray through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul for the Church and for the world:
Prayer to Saints Peter and Paul
“O God, Who has made holy this day
with the martyrdom of Thine Apostles Peter and Paul,
grant that Thy Church may in all things follow the precepts
of those from whom it first received the faith. Amen.”[iv]
“If persecution should fall upon such a soldier of God, his virtue, prompt for battle, will not be able to be overcome. Or if his call should come to him before, his faith shall not be without reward, seeing it was prepared for martyrdom; without loss of time, the reward is rendered by the judgment of God. In persecution, the warfare — in peace, the purity of conscience, is crowned.”[v]
Read Exhortation to Martyrdom by Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Images from pxhere and WikiMedia Commons.
“Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul.” Barnes Collection Online – Italian: Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/objects/4730/Virgin-and-Child-with-Saints-Peter-and-Paul/.
[i] “Romans 8:35-39 NRSVCE.” Romans 8:35-39 NRSVCE – – Bible Gateway. Bible Gateway. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2B8%3A35-39&version=NRSVCE.
[ii] Saint, Cyprian of Carthage. “Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.” CHURCH FATHERS: Treatise 11 (Cyprian of Carthage). New Advent. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050711.htm.
Preface: paragraph 3 & 4 Saint, Cyprian of Carthage. “Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.” CHURCH FATHERS: Treatise 11 (Cyprian of Carthage). New Advent. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050711.htm. Preface: paragraph 3 & 4
[iii] Saint Mother Teresa. “Letter to a Priest.” Issue #31.2 of The Sower. The Catechetical Review. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://review.catechetics.com/letter-priest?page=1.
[iv] Filz, Gretchen. “Peter & Paul: Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs for the Christian Faith.” The Catholic Company. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/peter-paul-martyrs-christian-faith-6083.
[v] Saint, Cyprian of Carthage. “Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.” CHURCH FATHERS: Treatise 11 (Cyprian of Carthage). New Advent. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050711.htm. Paragraph 13
Posted for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul | June 29, 2021
