Last Sunday we heard the Father say at the Transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” What did the apostles then, and we now, so resist hearing? In Mark 8:31 and 8:34-35, we read, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be put to death, and rise three days later.” “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow in my steps. Whoever would preserve his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will preserve it.”

As St. Paul tells us in our second reading this Sunday, “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (I Corinthians 22-24). Christ crucified is the one who from the cross prays, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus with his life and death underlines what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors.” (Mt. 5:44). To love your enemies does not mean that you do not try to protect the innocent, but it does mean that you forgive those who persecute you. This is why we celebrate the faith of so many martyrs who died witnessing to the faith and forgiving their enemies. Among the Japanese martyrs, Paul Miki not only professed his belief in Jesus and the power of the resurrection, but he explicitly forgave the emperor and his soldiers who were crucifying Paul and his companions. As Tertullian said in the fourth century, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of faith.” This has proved true not only in the Roman Empire but in Uganda, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and other places. Our faith says that it will be true again today, for as St. Paul says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
(I Cor. 1:25). Fr. John