Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today we celebrate Saints Andre Dung Lac and his companions, 117 martyrs all together who died from the 17th, they died over the span of the 17th through the 19th centuries in Vietnam.
There were amongst them bishops, priests, and lay people.
One of the companions was Saint Paul, and he described his prison experience as a true image of everlasting hell, and yet for him,  this experience of great torment was at the same time an anticipation of heaven because he was not alone.
Let me read this to you here from his letter written to the seminarians of Ke Vinh in 1843.
He says, I, Paul, in chains for the name of Christ, wish to relate to you the trials besetting me daily in order that you may be inflamed with love for God and join with me in his praises for his mercy is forever.
The prison here is a true image of everlasting hell, to cruel tortures of every kind, shackles, iron chains, manacles, our added hatred, vengeance, calumnies, obscene speech, quarrels, evil acts, swearing, curses, as well as anguish and grief.
But the God who once freed the three children from the fiery furnace is with me always.
He has delivered me from these tribulations and made them sweet for his mercy is forever.
In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am by the grace of God full of joy and gladness because I am not alone.
Christ is with me.
Again, this true image of everlasting hell was for the saints, an anticipation of heaven because they knew they were not alone.
And just this one thought that I'd like to focus on and share with you.
God, upon creating Adam, says it is not good for man to be alone.
In fact, it is evil for man to be alone.
It is hell for man to be alone.
We think about it.
It's our greatest fear to be unknown, unloved, alone.
It's the greatest torment of hell.
It's a separation from God.
And though it's crowded, and though it is crowded, it's a lonely place because all those in hell hate one another, they have no love for one another, they are totally separated from one another and alone in a crowded place.
Hell for man to be alone, heaven to be united to God and to neighbor.
And earth, though, okay, we're probably, we're not going to undergo the same torments as the Vietnamese martyrs, which were quite atrocious.
But nevertheless, for each and every one of us, earth will be a valley of tears.
These tears can be bitter if we have to shed them alone, or they can be sweet, as St. Paul tells us, if, if we realize we are not alone, and we are always with God.
Earth, therefore, no matter what its tribulations are, no matter what its trials are, can always be in anticipation of heaven if we only remain united to God, as the martyrs did, as the martyrs unite us, as the martyrs rather remind us we should live our life.
It's not good for man to be alone.
God certainly does not want us to be alone.
And if we remain united to him by grace, the more we remain united to him by grace, the more we anticipate heaven, the more we are not alone here on this earth.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.