Rosary Mysteries today: Annunciation Of Gabriel unto Mary, Visitation
of Mary to Elizabeth, Birth of our Lord, Presentation, Finding in the
temple.
Saints and feats celebrated today: Apolo; Artemas; The Conversion of
Saint Paul; Poppo; Praejectus; Publius; Juventius and Maximinus;
According to Butler’s lives of the Saints.
Catholic News Agency on today’s liturgy:
Conversion of St. Paul http://goo.gl/fb/zAFD
Psalm - Ps 117:1bc, 2 http://goo.gl/fb/NTPQ
First Reading - Acts 9:1-22 http://goo.gl/fb/uVjQ
Gospel - Mk 16:15-18 http://goo.gl/fb/dYzp
(Journey in a Broken World)
[I have based my research into Juventius and Maximinus upon the history
recorded in the great resource, the Butler’s lives of Saints, a great
work, we use even today, after it appeared in the 18th Century. The
version I am using is a mid 20th century abridgement with imprimatur.
Commentary herein is my own, and holds no imprimatur!]
The saints Juventius and Maximinus, Martyrs, January 25
That is true which testifies in the heart that: it was love of the
Christian soul and spirit, and therefore of Christ himself, which
caused these two compassionate saints their deaths, who, at the table,
while their evil master, Julian the Apostate, was at war against the
Persians, these two noted officers in his foot-guards, bemoaned the
terrible penalties, and unjust laws the Apostate Julian had put against
the Christians, and therefore against Christ himself.
Wishing instead for any punishment, extending even to death, rather
than see that which is holy treated with contempt, in the face of the
Christian persecuted, who by his life represents Christ, they could see
the sanity of their choice, and thus would not withdraw their just
criticism of the Emperor, by any means, nor would these just companions
of God who watches from heaven worship any created idol of man, by
sacrifices asked of them by the maniac emperor.
For their empathy with their brothers, which could have been ignored to
their advancement in the eyes of the world, these martyrs were scourged
mercilessly, and their estates, were cruelly confiscated by the
Christ-persecuting emperor. They were beheaded in prison in Antioch, on
this day the 25th of January, in the year 363 AD. Despite the great
risk endured for it, the Christians stole the corpses of these Godly
martyrs, and after the monstrous evil tyrant Julian was slain in his
campaign into Persia, on the 26th of June the following year, their
brave heroism was done justice through the construction of what must
have been a magnificent tomb. Of them St Chrysostom pronounced boldly,
“They support the church as pillars, defend it as towers, and repel all
assaults as rocks. Let us visit them frequently, let us touch their
shine, and embrace their relics with confidence, that we may obtain
from thence some benediction [blessing]. For as soldiers, showing to
the king the wounds which they have received for his battles, speak
with confidence, so they, by an humble representation of their past
sufferings for Christ, obtain whatever they ask of the king of heaven.”
The man who is prepared to die for his nation, his emperor or his wife
or that he loves- must first be prepared to die for them for the sake
of Christ whom he really serves, in his love of them, but should it
come between service to them and to Christ, likewise the Christian is a
soldier, who must willingly accept death rather than deny Christ.
Christ too is the Church, Christ too is the Eucharist, Christ too is
the Godly life of a saint. Christ must never be denied, neither in
private, nor in public, nor even in the heart of man.
It was their empathy with their brothers, whom they recognized as Holy
and worthy of dignity and respect, that drove these two great martyrs,
to firstly endure physical torture, and the taking of what they owned
by a bloodthirsty emperor, and finally, to endure even death. They are
justly martyrs, who die for the sake of their Christian brothers, for
as another feast of this day reminds us, the man who persecutes
Christianity, firstly persecutes Christ. For, as the bible rightly
claims, Christ is the head of the church, which is his true body. With
Apostles at the top, or today, their successors.
These martyrs are great men, yet the lesson of St Chrysostom must
neither be forgotten, for those who are righteous, God hears their
prayer, it is why we approach these, allowing God to answer them even
after they have been taken into death, and thus preaching the gospel in
our very prayers.
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Posted By scripturelink to South African Catholic at 1/25/2010 08:33:00
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