{"id":1883,"date":"2016-08-10T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2016-08-10T08:45:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T12:45:00","slug":"the-need-for-martyrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-need-for-martyrs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Need for Martyrs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Lawrence. \u00a0He was a deacon under Pope St. Sixtus II and was martyred in 258 A.D. \u00a0Yesterday we celebrated the optional memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (aka Edith Stein) who was martyred during World War II. \u00a0Our Catholic Church has a long history of martyrs beginning with St. Stephen found whose story and what followed can be found in chapters 6-8 of the Acts of the Apostles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One might wonder why the church continues to have martyrs today. \u00a0Is there value in martyrdom? \u00a0All we have to do to see the value of martyrdom is go back and read the story of Stephen and what followed. \u00a0He was among six handpicked by the Twelve Apostles to be a deacon. \u00a0He was martyred for his faith. \u00a0After his martyrdom, the disciples spread because of the persecution. \u00a0They went out to new lands\u00a0but\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>they did not give up on their faith. \u00a0Because of the witness of St. Stephen, they continued to preach the gospel and the church spread out through new lands.<\/p>\n

I wonder\u00a0what the Church would be like today if there had never been martyrs. \u00a0Why? \u00a0The word\u00a0martyr\u00a0<\/em>literally means “witness”. \u00a0A martyr is so steadfast in their faith that they would rather die than abandon their faith. \u00a0This is needed in the world. \u00a0We need to see people who put their faith above all else. \u00a0The willingness of the martyrs to accept death has served to strengthen the faith of the people who saw their martyrdom and even for us today.<\/p>\n

The martyrs gave their all. \u00a0As we read in today’s first reading<\/a> from 2 Corinthians, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,\u00a0and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. \u00a0Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,\u00a0for God loves a cheerful giver<\/em>.” \u00a0The martyrs “sowed bountifully”, cheerfully giving their lives so that there will be a bountiful harvest of disciples.<\/p>\n

People are still being martyred today. \u00a0We must not let their voices go unheard. \u00a0I encourage you to spend some time in prayer thinking about what the martyrs mean for you. \u00a0I used to not think about the martyrs much. \u00a0Then, I was ordained a priest on June 30th, the Memorial of the First Roman Martyrs. \u00a0Now, I think about my service to God and the Church as my way of honoring the martyrs.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Lawrence. \u00a0He was a deacon under Pope St. Sixtus II and was martyred in 258 A.D. \u00a0Yesterday we celebrated the optional memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (aka Edith Stein) who was martyred during World War II. \u00a0Our Catholic Church has a long history of martyrs …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Need for Martyrs’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-un","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1885,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}