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Pope Francis: The Church Today Is a Church of Martyrs

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Vatican Radio - Aleteia - published on 04/21/15

Daily homily from Casa Santa Marta

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis today said that “ours is a Church of martyrs.” 

Speaking during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta the Pope recalled the many Christians who are currently being persecuted and killed for their faith.

Drawing inspiration from the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles which tells of the stoning and martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the Pope remembered “our brothers whose throats have been slit on the beaches of Libya”, he spoke of “the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was Christian”, he recalled “the migrants who were thrown from their boat into open sea” because, they too, were Christians.

Martyrs do not need “other bread”, the Pope said. “Their only bread is Jesus. And Stephen did not need to negotiate or find a compromise with those who put him to death.”

Reflecting on day's first Reading, the Pope also pointed out that Stephen’s witness was such that his persecutors ‘covered their ears and rushed upon him together.’

“Just like Jesus,” he explained, “Stephen had to deal with false witnesses and people’s anger.”

“Stephen,” he said, “reminded the elders and the scribes that their ancestors had persecuted other prophets for having been true to God’s Word, and when he described his vision of the heavens opening ‘and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’ they did not want to listen but threw him out of the city and began to stone him.”

“God’s Word is always rejected by some. God’s Word is inconvenient when you have a stone heart, when you have a pagan heart, because God’s Word asks you to go ahead trying to satisfy your hunger with the bread which Jesus spoke of.  In the history of the Revelation many martyrs have been killed for their faith and loyalty towards God’s Word, God’s Truth.”

Pope Francis continued comparing the martyrdom of Stephen to that of Jesus: he too “died with that Christian magnanimity of forgiveness, praying for his enemies.’

And those who persecuted the prophets, the Pope pointed out, believed they were giving glory to God; they thought they were being true to God’s doctrine.

“Today”, the  Pope said, “I would like to remember that the true history of the Church is one of the saints and the martyrs,” and of so many who were persecuted and killed by those who thought they possessed the ‘truth’ — whose heart was corrupted by a false ‘truth’.

“Today, how many Stephens there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya. Let us think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was a Christian. Let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other migrants because they were Christians. Let us think, just the day before yesterday, of the Ethiopians who were murdered because they were Christians… and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians. The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness.”

The Pope also pointed out that there are also many “hidden martyrs: those men and women who are faithful to the voice of the Spirit and who are searching for new ways and paths to help their brothers better love God.”

Pope Francis concluded saying they are often viewed with suspicion, vilified and persecuted by so many modern ‘Sanhedrin’ who think they are the possessors of truth.

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LiturgyPope Francis
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