To read the texts click on the texts: Dt. 30:11-16; Jn 12:23-26
Today the
Society of Jesus celebrates the Feast of Jesuit Saints and Blessed, a day when
we remember well-known and not-so-well-known Jesuits who lived out their
Christian lives heroically. We may believe that the saints and blessed belong
to a former age, but at the end of the millennium, Pope John Paul II
commissioned a Martyrology for the 20th century, so that we might not forget
the exemplary love of God and neighbour shown by so many 20th century Christian
men and women. Jesuit provinces from around the world contributed the names of
members who suffered and, in many cases, died for the faith during various
persecutions.
Over three
hundred names were gathered, including familiar names like Blessed Miguel Pro
of Mexico, Fr. Alfred Delp of Nazi Germany, and Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria of El
Salvador. Thirty Jesuits died in Nazi concentration camps, and almost fifty
died at the hands of various Communist governments. In 1997 former Detroit
Province Jesuit Thomas Gafney was murdered in India because of his stance
against drug lords, and in 2001 Canadian Jesuit Martin Royackers was murdered
in Jamaica, defending his parishioners from gang violence and political
corruption.
Today we
remember especially all those Jesuits persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
and we pray that many more men will step forward and answer Christ's call to
serve Our Lord in the Company of Ignatius Loyola.
The
readings of today are aptly chosen for the feast. The grain of wheat has to
fall into the ground if it has to bear fruit. This has been proved decisively
in the life and death of Jesus and continues to be proved in the lives and
deaths of numerous Jesuit saints and martyrs who in their unconditional
following of the Lord have proved the truth of his words. It is their blood which
continues to nourish the soil on which the Church flourishes and grows.
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