Declaring ourselves for Jesus in the presence of others

Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Year A

by Fr. Tommy Lane

Thousands of pilgrims visit the Franciscan Monastery in Široki Brijeg every year, about one hour distant from Međugorje (Medjugorje). On February 7, 1945, the communist soldiers arrived and said, “God is dead. There is no God. There is no Pope. There is no Church. There is no need of you. You also go out in the world and work.” The communists forgot that the Franciscans were working; most of the Franciscans were teaching in the adjoining school. Some of the Franciscans were famous professors and had written books. The communists asked them to remove their habits. The Franciscans refused. One angry soldier took the crucifix and threw it on the floor. He said, “you can now choose either life or death.” Each of the Franciscans knelt, embraced the crucifix and said, “You are my God and my All.” The thirty Franciscans were taken out and slaughtered and their bodies burned in a nearby cave where their remains lay for many years. Today they are buried inside the Franciscan church. (this account continues below) In our Gospel today Jesus said, “everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” (Matt 10:32) The thirty Franciscan martyrs of Široki Brijeg are a powerful example of declaring oneself in the presence of others for Jesus. They lived something else Jesus also said in the Gospel: “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt 10:28)

We do not live under such difficult circumstances but the Church in our time is also suffering greatly. We have lost our sense of right and wrong because we are drifting away from God. When we drift away from the Truth it follows naturally that we don’t know the difference between truth and falsehood anymore. We do not know any more that sins are sins despite the fact that Paul wrote to the Romans that the whole human race has sinned as we heard in our second reading (Rom 5:12). A different type of martyrdom is needed now, “dry martyrdom” or we might say “white martyrdom,” showing by the way we live and what we say that we are declaring ourselves for Jesus in the presence of others, that the grace of God comes to us from Jesus as Paul wrote. (Rom 5:15)

Sometimes we hear it said that someone is following the crowd. The crowd now is running away from God because it is not cool to display one’s faith. The martyrdom needed now is not to follow the crowd. The crowd thinks being religious limits one’s freedom, curbs one’s enjoyment of life. The crowd, looking for pleasure at every moment, is lost unbeknownst to itself and does not realize that freedom and pleasure are only achieved by following God’s way. When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, the crowd greeted him and threw palms on the road before him and some even put their cloaks on the road before him. Five days later, the crowd asked for Jesus to be crucified and for Barabbas to be released. So much for the support of the crowd. Even the apostles gave in to the pressure of the crowd; when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, they abandoned Jesus and fled. In our first reading, Jeremiah said his friends had deserted him after he proclaimed a prophetic word from God.

Instead of following the crowd, the invitation to us in the Scripture readings today is to be strong and stand up for Jesus and for what is right even if it is unpopular. Our happiness will not come from following the crowd because the crowd is not happy. Our happiness will come from following God’s ways. Even if the crowd thinks you are out of touch, odd, or old-fashioned because you go to Mass, because you respect marriage as a sacrament and you follow God’s way, hold your head high. On the last day they will not judge you; God will. Jeremiah, as we heard in our first reading suffered dreadful persecutions because he would not give in to following the crowd, but he was fully aware of the presence of God with him. He said, “the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero.” (Jer 10:11) Remember the words of Jesus in the Gospel today: “everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”

Witnessing to Jesus and following God’s way also helps others in the crowd who are lacking courage to follow Jesus. One of the soldiers in the firing squad at Široki Brijeg later said, “Since I was a child, in my family, I had always heard from my mother that God exists. To the contrary, Stalin, Lenin, Tito had always asserted and taught each one of us: there is no God. God does not exist! But when I stood in front of the martyrs of Široki Brijeg and I saw how those friars faced death, praying and blessing their persecutors, asking God to forgive the faults of their executioners, it was then that I recalled to my mind the words of my mother and I thought that my mother was right: God exists!” That soldier converted and now he has a son a priest and a daughter a nun. As I said, witnessing to Jesus and following God’s way also helps others in the crowd who are lacking the courage to follow Jesus.

I conclude with the words of Jesus, “If anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 10:32)

A book I purchased either in Medjugorje or Široki Brijeg was the source I used for the martyrs of Široki Brijeg.

Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2002

This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.

More homilies for the Twelfth Sunday Year A

Do not be afraid: Jesus is our model in coping with anxiety 2008

Related Homilies: Taking a stand for Jesus

stories about witnessing to Jesus