Mors Artis in Mickey's Diner

Neither the French nor the Jesuits will ever appear on my short list of favorites. However, I bow head and knee for this October 19th memorial of Sts. John de Brebeuf, Issac Jogues, and the North American Martyrs. They were Jesuit missionaries slaughtered in the mid 1600's by Huron and Iroquois.

Here is an excerpt from BreBeuf's private diary.

For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered.Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name. I vow before your eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, before your most holy Mother and her most chaste spouse, before the angels, apostles and martyrs, before my blessed fathers Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier-in truth I vow to you, Jesus my savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant.

I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit. For this reason, my beloved Jesus, and because of the surging joy which moves me, here and now I offer my blood and body and life. May I die only for you, if you will grant me this grace, since you willingly died for me. Let me so live that you may grant me the gift of such a happy death. In this way, my God and savior, I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

I doubt that any of us who read these lines will ever be called to experience the full blinding force of offering ourselves through a bloody death to the Father in union with His Beloved Son. However, we will all experience the little deaths which prepare us for the Final Journey.

Today I ate lunch at Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul. I am not in the habit of going there often, especially in midday. Too cramped. Too poor. Too crowded. Too real. Today I sat at the counter and watched and listened as a variety of small dramas unfolded around me. The man next to me had been attacked in his Frogtown apartment. A few seats down a young man worked pensively on some paperwork. I wondered why his brow was so furrowed. A variety of street people, all of us gathered with our various unseen troubles in that sheet metal shelter from the cold and damp, a few feet away from the Dorothy Day Center across the street.

I considered the disapointments which these folk around me were called upon to face. They were challenged to find warmth and shelter, food and love. My own small struggles pale by comparison, less basic, more narcissistic than theirs. But what we will all share in common is that this is the messy and seemingly unending road to Life, paved with little irritants and big stumbling blocks and fraught with worrisome events. And it all turns us to the Cross, and the One who died there for us.

Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name.

Warm Hand Luke

Today we celebrate Saint Luke, Evangelist and also Patron of physicians and artists. He brought a warm hand to his work, both in the healing arts and through his portrayal of Christ in the third gospel. Luke's gospel is widely recognized as very human in tone, highlighting our Lord's relationships with women and children, and encorporating memories of His blessed Mother in its infancy narratives. Luke's gospel focusses on the nearness of God and the universality of God's presence. Lukan missionaries are to proclaim "the kingdom of God is at hand for you" (Luke 10:9). Luke's second volume, the book of Acts, details the expansion of the Church into the Gentile communities of which Luke was a part.

According to Orthodox tradition, St Luke was the first person to complete three pictures of the holy Mother of God carrying the Child of God in her arms. He showed them to the Holy Virgin for approval, while she was still alive. She received these holy pictures joyfully and said: “May the grace of Him to whom I gave birth be within them!” Later, St Luke made pictures of the Holy Apostles and bestowed upon the Church this pious and holy tradition of venerating the icons of Christ and His Saints.

St Luke came from the city of Antioch the Great. Of noble birth, he particularly excelled in the areas of medical science and pictorial art. Under the reign of Emperor Claudius (c. 42 AD.), while he was caring for the sick around Thebes in Beotia, he met the Apostle Paul, whose ardent words convinced him that the absolute truth for which he had been seeking for so many years could indeed be found among the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Near his life's end the Apostle Paul recalled fondly the faithfulness of Luke in the face of desertion by so many others (2 Timothy 4:10-17).

After he had been separated from his master, Luke returned to Greece to proclaim the Gospel there. He again set up his abode in the Thebes area where he died peacefully at the age of eighty. Wishing to glorify His faithful servant, God poured a miraculous liquid over his tom

Is your God worth dying for?

Today we in the Roman Catholic tradition remember the martyrdom of St Ignatius of Antioch, third bishop of that city. The Eastern churches mark his day on December 20th.

Ignatius is best remembered for his seven letters writtern to the churches which lay across his path. These letters were penned and sent during his triumphal procession across the Empire through Asia Minor towards Rome. There he was martyred in the arena under the Emperor Trajan around the year 107 A.D. I choose to use A.D., Anno Domini, rather than the more PC but less Christocentric designation C.E., common era.

Ignatius is worthy of note for at least two reasons. First, his letters are the earliest extra-biblical witness to the important role of ordained clergy, bishop, priests and deacons, in the early Church. He wrote extensively to clergy and about their role as an alter christus, another Christ. But that is fodder for another post.

Today I want to consider Ignatius of Antioch as the prototype for the eventual cult of the martyrs, that early Christian desire to give the ultimate witness (Greek martyria) to Christ through death.

Ignatius himself wrote to the Romans:

" I am God's wheat, ground fine by the lion's teeth to be made purest bread for Christ....

No early pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. "

Isn't this approach a bit uncomfortable to our modern ears?

We associate martyrdom with fanaticism and fundamentalist religion. My stomach turned this past Saturday as I watched the opening scene of United 93. Part of my revulsion was a morbid fascination with the obvious piety of the skyjackers who drew dozens of people to their deaths after them. The overlay of prayer recitiation from the Koran was difficult to take, and more difficult to ignore. Such martyrdom is difficult for us in the West to undertstand.

However, Ignatius' similar strong desire to depart this life is in line with other ancient writers and the best of the apostolic tradition. This tradition is strongly witnessed by the bloody deaths of all of the Apostles, except John, who endured a living death of exile on Patmos.

More to the point, do you and I believe so deeply in the saving significance of Jesus Christ and His Church that we are willing to die for Him? We do so either daily by the mortification, putting to death, of our flesh or at the end of life by giving the ultimate witness for Him, the willing sacrifice of our lives. It's hard to accept, but even harder to deny, that our Lord demands such service.

What is God asking you to die to today?

Almighty God, we praise you for your bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, who offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that he might present to you the pure bread of sacrifice. Accept the willing tribute of our lives, and give us a share in the pure and spotless offering of your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever