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| Joseph the Carpenter (c. 1642) by Georges de La Tour |
THE WORD OF GOD – AUGUST 13, 2021 REFLECTION
Liturgical Calendar Day: Saint Benilde Romançon,
Religious – Memorial
Scripture Text: Josh. 24:1-13; Matt. 19:3-12
When the unprepossessing religious brother of La Salle
passed away, the brass crucifix he had kept in his possession was given to the
carpenter who made his coffin. This unremarkable relic was the occasion for
miraculous occurrences, including the deathbed conversion of a man who refused
to receive the sacraments.
The signal events attracted the attention of the La
Salle community—religious, teachers, and students, among others, where the
religious brother had lived and taught. Interest in his life and example later
on spread throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church.
When he was beatified by Pius XII on April 4, 1948, the
pope declared that Brother Benilde—undistinguished, whether by intellectual gifts,
physical attributes, or special talents—became holy by enduring “the terrible
daily grind” and by “doing common things in an uncommon way.”
The saint once said that it was only with the help of
Mary, the Blessed Virgin, that he had been able to prevent himself from
murdering his most difficult students.
He is a model of the “hidden life,” the expression used
by spiritual writers to describe the life of Jesus before he began his public
ministry. When our Lord Jesus Christ grew up with his parents, Saint Joseph and
the Blessed Virgin, at Nazareth, he was known only as the “carpenter’s son” (Matt.
13:55). He who is holiness itself carried on for most of his life in a Galilee
backwater, completely unnoticed.
Many saints testify to the greatness of the hidden
life.
Right after Saint Charbel Makhlouf had been laid to
rest in his grave, a bright light shone around it for 45 nights. Exhumed by the
monks, his body was found to be incorrupt, exuding what appeared to be a
mixture of perspiration and blood which worked miracles. If not for these
extraordinary events, the saint would have remained unknown to the world.
In 2019 a movie entitled “A Hidden Life” was released
about a conscientious objector in Nazi Germany. Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian
farmer, married with four children, one born out of wedlock, was guillotined in
1943 because of his refusal to take up arms for a war he didn’t believe in.
“I can only act on my own conscience,” he said. “I
have considered my family. I have prayed and put myself and my family in God’s
hands. I know that, if I do what I think God wants me to do, he will take care
of my family.”
Declared a martyr by Benedict XVI on June 1, 2007, Franz
Jägerstätter was beatified on October 26, 2007.
Do we also pursue holiness, hidden and unnoticed? Consider
that the admiration of the world vanishes…but that the glory of heaven is
forever.
Public domain image
ReplyDeleteImage link:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Tour.jpg
Gonzalinho
MARTYR OF CONSCIENCE
ReplyDeleteTerrence Malick’s A Hidden Life brings together a German-speaking cast, a slew of Oscar buzz, and reintroduces us to the man who brought the browbeat SS-Sturmbannführer from Inglorious Bastards to life—actor August Diehl. August has played several roles across the spectrum of World War II Germany, from a gestapo officer and a hardened NS general to a Jewish concentration camp prisoner incarcerated for forging baptismal certificates. He now stars in A Hidden Life as Franz Jagerstatter, the forgotten martyr and devout Catholic who saw the evil of Nazi Germany before many else did.
...Who was Franz Jagerstatter?
Franz Jagerstatter, born in St. Radegund, Austria in 1907, was a farmer with a quiet but intense religious conviction. Apart from a few stints in mining, he served as a sacristan at his parish, ringing the occasional bell and preparing weddings and funerals for no extra compensation.
In the film, Franz enjoys rural life with his wife and their daughters after Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938. During his military training in 1940, he notices the evil underlying the Nazi regime and arrives home dead-set on refusing to fight for the army in the future. Such was the case in real life. He declared his refusal to fight when he was summoned back to the Linz barracks in 1943, where he was held in custody, transferred to Berlin-Tegel to await trial, and condemned to death for sedition.
Franz thought participating in something so evil would be more enslaving than having chains binding his hands. Before his execution on August 9th 1943, he wrote that “neither prison, nor chains, nor sentence of death, can rob a man of the Faith [Roman Catholic faith] and his free will.”
...What is his legacy?
A slew of people in the film question Franz’s decision to surrender his life. Even the judge sentencing him to death attempts to dissuade him, positing that no one will hear of him and his bravery. The truth is, Franz did remain largely forgotten after his death in 1943. Only until sociologist Gordon Zahn stumbled upon St. Radegund and published Franz’s biography in the 1960s did people hear of his martyrdom. Twenty years after his death, Franz’s case would influence the Vatican’s decision on conscientious objection to military service (Gaudium et spes). In 1997, the regional court in Berlin nullified his death sentence and in June 2007 his birth town laid a Stolperstein, a concrete cube that commemorates victims of the Nazis. That October, Franz’s wife and children gathered at the Linz Cathedral for his beautification by Pope Benedict. Let’s not forget that he also has his own postage stamp.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30202012/a-hidden-life-true-story-franz-jagerstatter/
—Isabella Garces, “A Hidden Life Tells the Harrowing and Heartbreaking True Story of Franz Jagerstatter,” Esquire, December 14, 2019
Gonzalinho
[Saint Maximilian Kolbe] was canonized in 1982 as a martyr by Saint John Paul II and therefore holds the official title of martyr in the Roman Catholic Church.
Deletebegin
The question of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom was vigorously debated at the time of his canonization precisely because there was no indication that he was put to death out of hatred for the faith (odium fidei), the criterion for martyrdom. At the time of his beatification, St. Maximilian was considered a confessor and not a martyr. However, when it came time to canonize him, Pope John Paul II personally authorized naming him a martyr. His reasoning was that systematic hatred for the human person—such as that displayed by the Nazi regime—constitutes an implicit hatred for the faith.
…There are other indications that in recent decades the Church has been developing its understanding of martyrdom beyond the traditionally strict criterion of odium fidei.
On April 24, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in which he stated:
begin block quote What has changed are the cultural contexts of martyrdom and the strategies ex parte persecutoris [on the part of the persecutors] that more and more seldom explicitly show their aversion to the Christian faith or to a form of conduct connected with the Christian virtues, but simulate different reasons, for example, of a political or social nature.
It is of course necessary to find irrefutable proof of readiness for martyrdom, such as the outpouring of blood and of its acceptance by the victim. It is likewise necessary, directly or indirectly but always in a morally certain way, to ascertain the odium fidei of the persecutor. If this element is lacking there would be no true martyrdom according to the perennial theological and juridical doctrine of the Church. end block quote
end
https://www.catholic.com/qa/if-st-maximilian-kolbe-offered-his-life-to-save-a-fellow-prisoner-was-he-truly-a-martyr
—Catholic Answers Staff, “If St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his life to save a fellow prisoner, was he truly a martyr?” Catholic Answers
According to this expanded understanding of martyr, odium fidei may be implicit, that is, it is expressed in forms not consisting in direct or explicit opposition to the martyr’s profession of their Roman Catholic faith.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/05/why-is-joan-of-arc-saint.html
Gonzalinho
According to the foregoing, which offers us a renewed understanding of martyrdom in the Roman Catholic Church, Franz Jägerstätter may be considered a martyr. As a witness to the moral obligation of conscientious objection even to the point of death, he is accurately described as a martyr—a martyr of conscience.
DeleteGonzalinho
“beatification” not “beautification” by Pope Benedict
DeleteGonzalinho