My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the martyrs who we commemorate today died in 1900 at the hands of a fanatical uprising, anti-foreign rising in China, and much of the hatred that may or may not be justified, the Chinese were responding to encroachments, the European powers that were present there were taking more and more of their land and this generated great anger which was directed at those who were present, Europeans who were present in China at the time and a lot of these were, of course, missionaries. So the martyrs today who we remember, St. Gregory Grassi and companions, were among the 25 to 30,000 Catholics who died during this revolution. We live, as you know, in an age of martyrdom. Father John Hardon, whose process of beatification is being pursued at this time and who gave many talks and retreats and did a great deal of writing at the end of this last century, so the end of the 20th century, he frequently pointed out that the 20th century was the bloodiest century and created more martyrs than all the 19th centuries prior. And we have reason to be prepared for martyrdom in our lifetime. The current unrest in the world is being directed, a lot of the anxiety of peoples is directed against the church and against the faithful. And so we have to pray for the grace of courage, the courage of martyrs who, in the face of threat to life and limb, remained faithful. Our Lord in the gospel today prepares us for this. If we can be comfortable, become comfortable in some sense, with the fact that the world hates Christ and hates Christians, if we can accept that and not evade that truth, then we can begin to live the life of martyrdom, of witness, which is what martyr means, to give witnesses, a principal Christian duty.
And what motivates St. Gregory and companions, there were on this day in this particular event, there were 30 altogether Franciscans who were gathered up on that night of July 5th in 1900.
There were seven women missionaries, the Franciscan missionaries of Mary, who were the proto-martyrs of their congregation. Most of these who died in this particular execution were European, but there were also some Chinese and some who were not Franciscans. But what motivated all of them who voluntarily laid down their life was love of Jesus. And that's what we have to seek, love of Jesus that becomes so central to our life that we would prefer to show our love for him than to preserve our own self. So love of Christ greater than love of self.
The first person to have that kind of love was our Blessed Mother, who was willing to sacrifice her wish to be a virgin, even, in order to do the will of God to welcome Christ.
She was privileged, uniquely, to become a mother and preserve her virginity.
But the joy of motherhood was always marked by the sorrow of the loss of a child.
She knew from the beginning that her child would be sacrificed, and so she is, with Jesus, a co-victim.
And that victim is the Redeemer, which makes her the Co-redemptrix.
She was the first and the greatest disciple of Christ, and these Franciscan missionaries of Mary can attest that it was through following the example of Mary and under the spirit or with the spirit of St. Francis, who wanted to conform himself to Christ crucified and was given those stigmata, that they found that love strong enough to conquer death and to face suffering.
And this was all for love. They were punished, really, for loving Christ.
And so, let us pray in this age of martyrdom, that should God will and give us the grace to have that opportunity, that we have a love great enough for our Lord and a confidence in his promises, that we too can be counted among those martyrs that were recounted in the book of Revelation from the first reading.
We pray that all of our names are written in the Book of Life and for the grace to imitate Jesus and Mary, even to the point of laying down our lives, if God should will it.
And then our joy will be great in heaven. Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.