Our Lord Jesus Christ never lost battles: “In the world you will have tribulations, but trust, I conquered the world.” (John 16:23) declared the Lord at the vigil of His apparent defeat on the cross. And his promise extends to the Church that he founded: “The gates of hell will not prevail against her.” (Mt 16:18)
Of all the persecutions, the Church leaves purified and magnified, from all the falsehoods she triumphs. Meawhile, the antichrists ruin themselves over these twenty centuries, The Church survives them.
Georges Chevrot, in his work “Simon Peter” has some words that merit being reproduced here: “Already in the times of St. Augustine of Hippo the enemies of the Church declared: “The Church will die, the Christians had their ‘epoch’.. Upon which the Bishop of Hippo responded: “However, there are those that die every day and the Church remains standing, announcing the power of God to the succeeding generations
’20 years more’ – said the unhappy french philosopher Voltaire –, ‘and the Catholic Church will have ended…’ 20 years later Voltaire would die and the Catholic Church continues living. […]
Still, from Celso, in the third century, there was not one generation in which the grave diggers will not pass by the tomb of the Church; and the Church lives. The notable writer Charles Forbes René de Tryon, count of Montalember said it, magnificantly, in 1845, in thena Câmara dos Pares: ‘Despite all the calumny, subjugates or betrayal, the Catholic Church has eighteen centuries a victory and a vengeance assured: her vengeance is to pray for them; her victory is to survive them'”
Even the painful spectacle of the martyrs should not discourage us, before their example must serve us in encouragement and guidance. Martyrdom means “witness” and in truth, it is the greatest testimony of faith; and therefore, the Lord associates it to the most heartfelt promises of glorification and fecundity.
Refering to the martys of the century that just passed, John Paul II said: “The Church always encounters, in her martyrs, a seed of life.” Sanguis martyrum, sêmen Christiano-rum (Tertuliano, Apologeticum 50, 13: PL 1, 534): this famed law annouced by Tertullian, subject to the test of History, always shows itself to be true. Why would it not be true also in the century and millennium that we just began? Perhaps, we may be accustomed to seeing martyrs from afar, treating them as a category of the past associated especially with the first centuries of the Christian era. The Jubilee commemoration unveiled to us a surprising scene showing our time to be particularly rich in witness, who knew, now one way, now another, to live the Gospel in situations of hostility and persecution, often giving the supreme proof of blood. “
Father Inácio José do Valepe.inacio.jose@gmail.com