What an opening\nshot that was in our first reading: \u201cBrothers and Sisters: In your struggle against sin, you have not\nyet resisted to the point of shedding blood.\u201d \nWhat a strong message that was for the faithful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in fact, in Paul\u2019s\nday, there were many who did suffer terribly for their faith; many who shed\ntheir blood. Yesterday, we heard about\nSt. Agatha. Because she rejected the\nadvances of the Roman Leader in Sicily, she was tortured mercilessly; they even\ncut off her breasts! But when they tried\nto burn her at the stake, an earthquake frightened off the Romans, and legend\nhas it that St. Agatha died in prison. I\nread recently that as many as 1 out of every 100 Christians in the first couple\nof centuries were martyred for their faith. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the\nfeast of St. Paul Miki and companions. Paul\nMiki was one of 25 Christians crucified on a hill above Nagasaki Japan in the\nlate 16th<\/sup> century following missionary efforts by Jesuits and\nFranciscans to convert the people of Japan. \nAll 25 were put to death just because they preached Christ. The Japanese wanted to root out the Christian\nmovement in its infancy in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One would think\nthat such a brutal campaign would have ended it; but when Christian\nmissionaries returned to Japan some 200 years later, they found over 1000\nChristians there- such strength of Faith. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n How about you and\nme? We live in an age when our Christian\nFaith is constantly being persecuted. Dozens\nof people have been killed by the sword in Iraq and Syria and Egypt just\nbecause they are Christian. Closer to\nhome, people are being arrested and sued for following their consciences on\nChristian doctrine. And there are people,\nsome even claiming to be \u201cCatholic\u201d, defending the \u201cright to choose\u201d to abort a\nbaby, and even to kill a newborn baby on the delivery table. They are popping corks and celebrating the passage\nof laws in New York that allow just that. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can we live\nour lives so that it makes a difference in such a messed-up world? Do we have to shed our blood to be saved? We are just citizens, not politicians or\nactivists, right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, we can certainly\nexpress ourselves to our elected officials; and we can vote. But you know, there is an even better way; one\nwhich really demonstrates our faith but isn\u2019t so drastic. It is one that Paul mentions to the Hebrews\nthis morning. Because Paul also says\nthis to the Hebrews: \u201cStrive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness\nwithout which no one will see the Lord.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n First peace. Yes, we can all be civil to each other and be\npeacemakers. But also \u201cFor that holiness\nwithout which no one will see the Lord!\u201d \nAh, now that is much more difficult- to live lives of holiness so that\neveryone sees the Lord in us. We are\nchallenged to live that way every day by acting civil to our neighbors; showing\nlove and respect in our families; worshipping the Lord and not secular things\non the Sabbath; and giving of our time, talent, and treasure to help someone in\nneed. Basically, our kindness must be\never present on behalf of the Lord, while all the time we hold fast to what our\nfaith is when we are challenged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And when is our\nfaith challenged? When others want us to\ngossip or gang up on someone; when others talk about the right to choose versus\nthe right to life and we sit by idly; when we are affronted by immoral and\nobjectionable material in the media and say nothing; and when an activity\ninterferes with the practice of our faith but we do it any way. Doing the right things in these situations are\nways we can \u201csee to it that no one is deprived of grace\u201d; and that \u201cno bitter\nroot spring up and cause trouble, through which many are defiled\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of us has\nthe opportunity to win the struggle against sin. For some, holding fast to their faith means\nshedding blood. For all, holding fast to\nthe faith is what it\u2019s all about. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time St. Paul Miki & Companions Heb 12: 4-7, 11-15; Mark 6:1-6 Deacon Larry Brockman What an opening shot that was in our first reading: \u201cBrothers and Sisters: In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.\u201d What a strong message […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[571,572],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}