Given at the Mass of institution of lector, acolyte and candidacy, celebrating the Solemnity of the Blessed Martyrs of Douai College at the Chapel of Allen Hall Seminary on 24th October 2020
Today we celebrate the feast of Blessed Martyrs of Douai and stand in continuity with them through St Edmund’s, Ware and now Allen Hall. Tomorrow marks the 50th Anniversary of the Canonisation of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. We heard today in the scripture, the warning of Jesus that his disciples would face persecution, the killing of Stephen, the first martyr, the trials of St Paul, and know of the suffering and life of the martyrs of Douai.
If we trace back this river of faithfulness to Christ, we come to the source of the encounter with each one of us, Jesus Christ. In the words of the concluding prayer, we pray that we will cling faithfully to Christ and labour for the salvation of all – to proclaim Christ in season and out of season.
As you will receive lector, acolyte, or candidacy, these are deepening steps into conformity with Christ: to be nourished by the scriptures, fed by the Eucharist, and to make the commitment to service to your dioceses. You are inspired and ask the intercession of the saints and martyrs of these places.
Today we heard of the stoning and death of St Stephen. I suggest you return and read the preceding and succeeding chapters. As Stephen teaches the crowd about Christ, we are told that he is ‘full of grace and power’ (Acts 6:8), that he is possessed of ‘wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking’ (Acts 6:10), that ‘his face was like the face of an angel’ (Acts 6:15), and he was ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 7”55). Meanwhile the listeners were ‘enraged and they ground their teeth at him.’ How many parallels we can identify between the death of St Stephen and the death of the martyrs whom we celebrate today. We can retrace the final steps of many of them on pilgrimage from the Tower along Oxford Street to Tyburn. Less well-known, Uxendon Hall, Harrow was the place where St Robert Southwell was arrested along with others. On this Feast, it is important to remember and pray for the families who provided the safe houses, often at great personal cost, but on whom the priests depended. This is perhaps a reminder that our ministry is lived in the midst of supportive families and friends.
The readings speak about the mystery of the cross but also the power of the Holy Spirit. St Paul writes to the community at Thessalonica, ‘Good News came to you… as power and as the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction’. Prayer is about becoming reliant and dependent on the Holy Spirit and discerning the hints and movements of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This depends upon firm foundations which the ceremonies today develop: the foundation of the Word of God as a ground of our being, the foundation of the Eucharist as food and drink for the journey, and commitment to labour for the salvation of all, in the rite of Candidacy and step towards the diaconate and priesthood in your dioceses.
This foundation of prayer is summarised in Evangelii Gaudium, 264, to which we can often return. Pope Francis writes:
‘How good it is to stand before a crucifix, or on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament, and simply to be in his presence! How much good it does us when he once more touches our lives and impels us to share his new life! What then happens is that ‘“we speak of what we have seen and heard’ (1 Jn 1:3). The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart. If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us. But if this is to come about, we need to recover a contemplative spirit which can help us to realize ever anew that we have been entrusted with a treasure which makes us more human and helps us to lead a new life. There is nothing more precious which we can give to others.’ (EG 264)
The three rites remind us that we do not receive them only for ourselves. They are to be both a source for us and empower us for mission and the service of others. We can be sure from today’s readings that preaching the gospel will meet opposition and that we must learn to grow in surrender to the Holy Spirit and trusting in the Father and the Son.
We offer people the Word of Truth, the Person who is Truth, Life and the Way, and seek to invite them into an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ.
Yet Pope Francis comments in Fratelli Tutti, ‘today’s world is largely a deaf world… At times, the frantic pace of the modern world prevents us from listening attentively to what another person is saying. Halfway through, we interrupt him and want to contradict what he has not even finished saying. We must not lose our ability to listen.’ (FT 49)
Our context is often one of meeting indifference, sometimes hostility, but it can be difficult to find the rich soil in which to plant the word of God. In many there is a stubborn resistance. There we will meet the cross, not in the same way as the martyrs but in a different and very real way.
We speak today of searching for a vaccine. For us the vaccine is prayer, thankfulness and gratitude. When we are men of thankfulness and gratitude, forged through prayer, then we can face the world and have the courage of the martyrs to keep proclaiming Christ with joy and through the beauty of the liturgy. Returning to Evangelii Gaudium, ‘The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed self-giving.’ (EG 24) From the deep well of living water, we gain the strength to ‘Go forth and announce the joy of the gospel.’