Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. The Church celebrates this major liturgical feast in honor of their martyrdom in Rome. I invite us to reflect on the lives of these great saints and to consider the path of martyrdom. Perhaps their witness might inspire us to pursue a purer holiness, a deeper commitment to Christ this day, indeed even the goal of martyrdom.
Both Peter’s and Paul’s lives ended in martyrdom for the Christian faith. I once heard one of my mentors say that the goal of every Christian’s life should be martyrdom. Hearing this provocative statement, I was caught off guard and more than a little startled. He went on to say, however, that not every Christian will be killed for their faith, but that we are each called by Christ to give up our lives for the Gospel. We are called to go “all in,” to die to ourselves and to live fully and sacrificially for Christ. By the end of our lives, we should look very little like ourselves and resemble Christ as fully as possible. This is our end goal; this is martyrdom in the spiritual sense.
For Peter and Paul, to be a martyr was to voluntarily suffer death as the penalty for witnessing to and refusing to renounce their faith. Jesus calls us to die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. In Baptism, we die with Christ in the water before rising with him in newness of life. In baptism and in choosing to follow Christ, we suffer death voluntarily for his sake. Jesus tells us there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. How far are we willing to go to love unconditionally and sacrificially for another? This is a question of martyrdom.
A martyr is someone who is willing to sacrifice life itself for the cause of Christ. How does a person get to the point where this choice becomes natural, not to mention even possible? In order to voluntarily lay down my life, die to self, and take up my cross, I have to make Jesus Christ central in my life. Christ must take center stage, he must be my all-in-all, my greatest treasure, my first love, my priority, THE most important, critical, urgent, compelling force and focus of my life. Jesus Christ the King must take a seat on the throne of my life and reign there. Everything else in my life becomes ordered around Christ at the center. Everything else in my life bows to our Lord who has been given the primacy and the honor he is due. I can “die” to everything else because nothing else matters. Paul writes in Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him . . . I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death . . .”
I beg you to take in the impact of Paul’s words. Will you join me today in considering how far toward martyrdom we’re willing to go in our journey with Christ? Can you honestly say, with Paul, that whatever gains you’ve realized are now losses to you for Christ’s sake? Does the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord overwhelm and overshadow everything else in your life? Might we view everything that we’ve attained in life as garbage in order that we might more fully gain Christ and be found in him? Do you want to know Christ this intimately? Do you want to become like him in his death; can you offer him a permanent seat on the throne of your life? I do. Lord, please help me, I do.
At its most basic definition, a martyr is a witness. As we allow Christ to reign from the throne of our lives, our false self dies off, our True Self, created in the image of God, becomes more authentic, and Christ’s light radiates from that place of primacy that we’ve offered him. It is only in dying to self and living sacrificially for Christ that we become true witnesses, martyrs, for our Christian faith. It is only at this point that other people can see and recognize our witness. Will you take a deep breath with me, and courageously commit to follow Christ in this deeper way today? May we die and rise with Christ today in bold and joyful witness to the love of the Father, through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen!
Elizabeth Wells