Matyrdom, the Christ logic

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 29, 2022: Remembering the beheading of John the Baptist

Jeremiah 1: 17-19; Mark 6: 17-29

Once, discussing about martyrdom with a group of youngsters, one asked me, 'why should they go upto martyrdom?' In the same tone I replied, 'they don't go up to it, it comes after them!'

Martyrdom is not a given-up mode of life. It is a fruit of living one's life to the full till the end, never losing the core purpose of that life for even a moment. Martyrdom is not an option to choose. It is a consequence of the choices made, absolute choices for truth and righteousness. It is a philosophy in itself, a totally different logic. 

St.Paul would boast about this often saying, there is a different kind of a logic that is at work in us... the logic of Christ. The first person who lived by that logic even before Christ our Lord, was John! Infact, Christ called him the greatest of those born of a woman. The sufferings of this world are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in the Lord, St. Paul would remind us. 

Be a servant to be the Leader, be the least to be considered the best, be ready for the Cross in order to taste the true love of God... this is the logic we are refering to. Identifying ourselves with Christ is a serious affair, a risky task. We would either be judged "strange"or "challenging". Many went through this ordeal due to this Christ logic... Jesus himself was affected by that. They called him 'possessed' and 'out of his mind', just as they called John, a man of the wilderness! Finally they villainised them and killed them both!  

Applying today the Christ logic... what do we expect of the world? Persecutions and pressures: what would be our response to them? In today's culture of hatred and violence, what would our style be? Do we dare to make Christ logic our own, in our daily, concrete situations? That would be our daily martyrdom.