Again in 2003 the Church saw her Martyrology enriched. Many of our brother and sisters missionaries met with a violent death and shed their blood for the proclamation of the Gospel and for their testimony of Christian charity: they are the only sign of hope amidst so much fatigue and suffering. They were killed for only one fault, because they were Christians. What to the world appears to be death, persecution and violence, in God is not a sign of abandonment but of strength and new life. This is why they are a re parable for the men and women of today!
They are witnesses which remind us of the early Church. The Acts of the Apostles tells us about a Church which is persecuted. Peter and Paul are persecuted; the first community of Christians is forced to flee the mother Church in Jerusalem and sooner or later they will experience martyrdom. Stephan, rich in missionary zeal, was stoned to death at the outset of his evangelising mission. Saint Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles and a main figure in mission was imprisoned and beaten several times. “Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; I was stoned once, shipwrecked three times; I passed a day and a night on the sea. I travelled continually endangered by floods, robbers, my own people, the Gentiles; imperilled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by false brothers; enduring labour, hardship, many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst and frequent fasting in cold and nakedness ” 2 Cor. 11, 24-27.
Still today the Church is called to imitate the Servant of Jahveh, the suffering servant, ably described by the Prophet Isaiah (cfr. 53,1-3; 42,7). The sacrifice born on Golgotha continues in time in the redeeming sacrifice of many sons and daughters all over the world.
Missionaries killed because of the Gospel, incarnate very well the image of the suffering Servant. Christ who gives his life for all. Familiar with every day life involved in all its situations they become with the sacrifice on the altar of the world a living parable for men and women today, a promise of new life, of salvation and hope which God offers through Christ to every person, accelerating the coming of “new heavens and a new earth where justice will reign for ever” (2 Peter 3,13).
Mission can only be carried out by a Church which is poor and persecuted, free to walk with the little ones and the poor and share the destiny of the oppressed. In fact the most fruitful time of mission is always the time of most suffering and persecution. The murder of missionaries, unlike the death of political leaders or entertainment personalities does not normally create uproar. But they are like leaven the humus of the earth: no one sees it happening but they fecund the field for new sowing. This is why they are not abandoned by God, nor are they abandoned by the Christian community, the Church which sees them as hope for a new world, a sign that God has not abandoned humanity and that the earth will find peace and serenity only in Him. In them the Church recognises a light which illuminates life and faith in present day history.
“Martyrdom – Pope John Paul II wrote in Incarnationis Mysterium, the Bull of Indiction for the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 – is the most eloquent proof of the truth of the faith, for faith can give a human face even to the most violent of deaths and show its beauty even in the midst of the most atrocious persecutions.” (November 29, 1998, n. 13).
This is why the day 24 March was chosen to remember missionary martyrs: 24 1980 March was the day when Bishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador in Colombia was shot dead while celebrating Mass. Our commemoration of the missionary martyrs strengthens our faith in Jesus the only Saviour, increases our hope for a world more just and fraternal and helps us to live the commandment of charity and solidarity towards the weakest and poorest members of society.
Rev. Giuseppe Pellegrini
Assistant of the Youth Movement of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy
(Agenzia Fides 20/3/2004)