Given on Sunday 6th October for Mass at St Pius X, St Charles Square with the blessing of an Icon of the 21 Libyan Martyrs.
I am very pleased to be here today and I thank Archbishop Angaelos for sending his representative to this celebration. Indeed, I have learned much about these martyrs of Libya from Archbishop Angaelos.
I also want to thank Alexandra, the author of the icon being blessed today, for the prayerfulness and beauty of her work. I thank Fr Peter Wilson, too, not only for his invitation but also for the leaflet he has prepared, giving an account of these great martyrs, the circumstances of their deaths, their names and something of the remarkable response of their families to this martyrdom.
In the readings today, we are given a celebration of family founded on marriage. The story of these martyrs, which we celebrate today, is a further witness to the importance of family life.
In the second reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, however, there is one line, that struck me as so appropriate for today: ‘The one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers.’
From this there are two lessons which we can draw.
The first is this: the 21 Martyrs we celebrate today died with the name of Jesus on their lips and in their hearts. They were one with the Lord, of the same stock, openly knowing and saying that they were, in Christ, brothers.
This was a faith they had learned at home, in their village of Al-Awar, and in their church.
It was a faith absorbed, like water into a sponge, in their family lives until it became part of their daily rhythm of prayer, together, in the liturgy of the Coptic Church.
All were members of that Church, except Matthew, the Ghanaian victim of his kidnappers. He told them that he would stay with those who had become his brothers. It is said that he stated: ‘I am a Christian’.
Please note that he did not say ‘I believe in Christ’, but ‘I am a Christian.’
This was who he was, in his inmost being, not to be denied, even if it meant death.
The words of St Paul resonate among us: ‘I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.’
The second lesson we can draw from today is this: The martyrs died with heaven within their reach, within view. They were ready to take that step into heaven.
The leaflet gives us the words of one of the families:
‘We feel their peace because we are sure our martyrs went to a good place in heaven. Simple and humble on earth, they have become great in heaven. They have lifted the heads of all Christians up and we are proud of them.’
Because of this astonishingly clear faith, their families were intent on showing the video of the martyrs’ deaths to visitors to their homes. They did so not with any sense of the horror of what was portrayed, but with pride, a pride arising in and from their faith.
The Coptic Liturgy plays its part in forming such faith. It takes its people to the threshold of heaven. One of the ways it does this is through the space inside the church being more clearly divided between congregation and sanctuary. In this way, both heaven and earth are present, divided simply by a veil, a simple curtain.
Again, from the leaflet the words of a visitor to the village:
‘I often stopped in the village church. I watched young people enter the church, go up to the barrier surrounding the altar, kneel down on the floor and after a short prayer, kiss the hem of the curtain. I could picture the martyrs doing the same, in the place where they had received the Eucharist in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice.’
In this we can see the bond between that the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified. We are of the same stock, we still on earth, he already in the presence of his Father.
Our liturgy does not have quite this same emphasis on the closeness of heaven, just the parting of a veil away. Maybe we focus more on ‘this vale of tears’ and Christ’s presence with us here. But the promise of the closeness of heaven is here with us too. Heaven is close to us in this very celebration of the Mass.
We sing the music of heaven, the music of the angels in the Gloria and the Sanctus.
We ‘behold the Lamb of God’ who is now at the right hand of the Father and present to us in this sacramental reality.
Here we come to the gateway to heaven, to ‘the supper of the Lamb’. Here we see glimpses of its glory.
This is the lesson given to us by these martyrs: that we are to live this life in the light of heaven and in the company of angels, and in the sure and certain hope of our final destiny.
We thank God for the witness of these martyrs, and of their families, and of the Coptic Church.
We ask God’s blessing, flowing from heaven through Christ Jesus, on our lives, our families, and society, that we too may live in its light, and we too may be crowned in glory.
Amen.
✠ Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster