Hunolt Sermons/Volume 12/Sermon 61

The holy martyrs teach us: 1. That, after their example, we should live according to the Christian faith; 2. That, after their example, we should die in and for that faith. Preached on the feast of the Innumerable Martyrs of Treves.

" Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee." (Deut 32:7)

Ancient city of Treves, trodden by the feet of Peter, the Prince of the apostles, brought to the true faith by the holy Empress Helena, confirmed and strengthened therein by the teaching of so many holy men, honored by the presence of SS. Athanasius, Jerome, Ambrose, Martin, Bernard, and others besides the saints that belong to thee, what wert thou fifteen hundred and odd years ago? I do not refer to thy outward glory and splendor, but to thy faith and Christian morals. Dost thou wish to know? If thy eyes cannot reach so far, then cast thy thoughts on the graves and coffins that surround us, and on the bones of thy forefathers hidden therein; then thou wilt see what sort of a city thou wert then, and what sort thou shouldst be now. I allude, my dear brethren, to the innumerable martyrs of Treves, whose bones rest in our midst, and whose feast we now celebrate. " Ask thy elders," ask these forefathers of thine, "and they will tell thee." What will they say? St. Ambrose, writing of the relics of the martyrs, uses words admirably suited to my purpose: " I honor the body that teaches me how to love my Lord, and shows me not to fear on account of His death." The same lesson is taught you by your forefathers, as I now mean to show you in their name.

They will tell you how holily they lived in this city, and teach you how to live according to their example: the first part. They will tell you how valiantly they died for the faith, and teach you how to die according to their example: the second part.

Holy forefathers! obtain for us from God, through the hands of the angels and of the virginal Mother of God, the grace to take your teaching to heart, and to live and die according to it.

As St. Thomas of Aquin tells us, God is not wont to raise any one to a great and exceptional dignity and grace unless he has first prepared himself for it by an especially innocent and holy life. Of all the children of men, Mary, the Blessed Virgin, alone had the highest honor of becoming the Mother of her Creator; and from this the holy Fathers draw the undoubted conclusion that she must have been free from all stain, even from that of original sin, and have been adorned with all possible virtues. Although the gift of prophecy and miracles cannot of itself make a man holy, yet it is a sign of holiness that rarely deceives; and of him who works real miracles, or foretells the future, we may say with confidence that he is a holy man, that he leads a virtuous and pious life; for otherwise God would not have endowed him in such an extraordinary manner.

My dear brethren, of all the graces and dignities to which a soul maybe raised after the death of Christ, the greatest and most evident is that of martyrdom. For what could be more glorious and noble for a man than to suffer and die for the honor of his God? What greater good fortune could one have than to be like the eternal Son of God, and to give his life and blood for Him who first gave His for us? Therefore the martyrs are also called blood-relations of Christ. What could be more desirable than to win that crown of triumph with which eternal happiness is so inseparably connected that to die the martyr's death and enter heaven is one and the same thing; so that it would be, as it were, an injury and insult to pray for a martyr who has given his life for the faith, as St. Augustine says. What more glorious than after death to shine in heaven like the stars with a special splendor; to be looked on by the other saints as the flowers of the Church militant; to be general protectors and defenders of the human race, as St. Basil says of the martyrs! If in heaven, that place of eternal glory, there were room for envy and jealousy, then would the angels grudge that grace to men, and wish that they, too, had mortal bodies, that they might suffer and die for their God, and so merit the glorious crown of martyrdom.

I am therefore not so much surprised that St. Francis Xavier and so many hundreds of his imitators should display such eagerness in going to India, Japan, and other savage lands, and labor and toil for so many years among barbarous and uncivilized people, suffering countless hardships and trials, looking, hoping, and praying earnestly for no other reward than the happiness and grace of being cut to pieces, burnt, beaten to death, or other wise martyred for Christ's sake. I am not surprised when I read of the holy martyrs despising danger, and giving themselves up to the tormentors, exciting the auger of the tyrants by mocking at and insulting the false gods, and freely and openly professing the Christian faith that they might be condemned to death and torments. And how grieved and afflicted some of them were when, contrary to their wishes, life was granted them! And with what joy and exultation others hastened to the torture as if they were going to a wedding-feast! And how, in the midst of their torments, they laughed and joked and rejoiced, and confessed that they found it more difficult to bear the exceeding consolation they experienced than even the atrocity of the tortures inflicted on them!

Do you think, my dear brethren, that a great favor of this kind, of which even the holiest souls always acknowledged themselves unworthy, would likely fall to the lot of one who leads I will not say an un-Christian, dissolute life, but even of one whose life is not extraordinarily pious and holy? It is true that we read of martyrs who, having been suddenly converted from heathenism, received the great grace of dying at once for the faith; but we find hardly one instance of a Christian who, though illumined by the light of faith, had led a bad life receiving the grace of martyrdom, unless a wonderful repentance followed. We rather find instances of such Christians who, being come to the place of martyrdom, were terrified at the sight of the tortures prepared for them, denied the faith, abjured Christ, and became apostates. No! If the gift of miracles and prophecy is a sign of holiness, martyrdom, since it is a much greater grace, is a surer sign of a pious, holy, and God-fearing life. Nay, says St. Ambrose, the very death of the martyrs is nothing else than the reward of their pious lives.

O ancient, Christian Treves, what a pious and holy city thou must then have been in days gone by, and now deeply thou must have been written in the heart of God, since thou becamest the chosen arena, such as no other place in the world can boast of, from which, in the space of three days, while in other places many years would be required to perform so much, so many confessors and martyrs of Christ ascended at once into heaven, not by hundreds, nor by thousands, nor by eleven thousands at a time, but so many that till now there has not been found any one able to compute their numbers, and we must speak of them as we do of the stars in the firmament by the title of innumerable! The mayor and his councillors, officers and their soldiers, husbands and their wives, fathers and their sons, mothers and their daughters, masters and mistresses and their servants, old people and little children every one capable of walking or even crawling went forth and cried out in a loud voice (oh, ye angels, what an agreeable sound the words must have made in your ears!): " We are Christians; " Christ is our glory! Take our goods, our blood, our lives; you will never take Christ and His love out of our hearts! In a word, every single Christian in this city had the great honor and glory of dying for Christ, of gaining the crown of martyrdom, and of entering, with a vast crowd, into heaven; nor is there on record a single instance of apostasy.

Again, what a holy city thou must have been! True it is, O great St. Ambrose, that the death of the martyrs is the reward of their lives. What pious and holy lives, then, must not have been led by all the Christian inhabitants of this city, since they all merited to be rewarded by such a glorious martyrdom! Brow- er, in his history of Treves, gives them this praise, that they must have been of incredible holiness and innocence. Then were those golden times to be seen here which are presented to our contemplation by the virtues of the early Christians, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles and in other ecclesiastical histories, when in the faithful, different as they were by condition and state of life, there was but one heart and one soul: " And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul." When the minds of all were united in the bonds of the sincerest love to the greater praise, honor, and glory of God; when enmity could find no room nor dwelling-place, because there was no one to injure another, no one to nourish hatred, anger, or desire of revenge; when the words "yes " and "no " still held their value, and were able to confirm, arrange, and settle everything; when the cold-hearted words " mine " and "thine " had not set on foot so many dissensions, and when there was not even a suspicion, not to speak of a word of injustice: "Neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own;" when the old German faith, expressed by a grasp of the hand, was a far surer pledge than seals and letters and mortgage-bonds are now, when esteem, honor, and respect were paid, not to greater wealth, or a more noble descent, but to greater devotion to God and Christian piety; when a man's happiness was not measured by his riches, but by the heavenly goods he possessed; when the words were still true: "Our conversation is in heaven;" our conversation, our daily intercourse is with God; to Him as to our last end tend all our thoughts and cares; when the likeness to our poor, humble Christ crucified for us was to be seen in the manners and behavior of the faithful; when dress, conversation, eating, drinking, the education of children were all ruled according to the humble, holy gospel of Jesus Christ; when all accusation and suspicion of vices which the heathens might urge against the Christians were repelled once for all by the words: I am a Christian; when all sin and. temptation to unbecoming conduct was also overcome with the sole words: I am a Christian. happy times, what have become of you!

See there, Christians of Treves, such were your ancestors, such the holy times, "the holy manner in which they lived! The elder Tobias asked the angel, disguised as a pilgrim: " I pray thee, tell me of what family or what tribe art thou." And Raphael answered: " I am Azarias, the son of the great Ananias." Then replied Tobias: "Thou art of a great family." The same I may say of you, citizens of Treves, with all respect, when I cast the eyes of my mind on those great forefathers of yours, nor need I enquire further of what family you are descended; you are of a great family, of a great and holy race! Meanwhile let each one of you reflect on the life he has been hitherto leading, which is known to himself alone. Of what good to me will be this great title of honor and glory and descent from such holy forefathers, if my morals and life do not harmonize with theirs? For in that case I should be like some decayed scion of worldly nobility, who can only point to the ancient escutcheon of his family, while in himself there is no trace of nobility, and his outward conduct and behavior resembles that of a peasant rather than of a noble; and as often as he looks on the portraits of his heroic ancestors he receives a sharp and secret reproof from their dumb images, that upbraid him on account of his unworthiness. Of what use for my eternal salvation will be the holiness of so many, nay, in numerable forefathers, if I have not received any portion of their virtues? Did not Absalom go to hell, although David was his father? Could Manasses have atoned for his sins and blotted them out by merely pointing to the good works of his father Ezechias?

No; it is my own life that must bring me to heaven; my own works for which I shall have to answer. If my soul is not in the state of sanctifying grace T am an enemy of God, and merit everlasting fire, although amongst my forefathers there are countless friends of God in heaven. Nay, on that very account my tepidity in the divine service is less to be excused, for I am all the more bound to lead a holy life the more saints have gone before me with their good example. " Ask thy elders, and they will tell thee." Therefore as often as you hear mentioned the innumerable martyrs of Treves, as often as you come to this place sprinkled with the blood of a number of them, to honor their relics, ask yourselves: How did those holy forefathers of ours live? How do we live? And they would speak inwardly to you, and tell you and teach you how, after their example, you should live piously, chastely, humbly, temperately, justly, zealously, holily in the true faith. " Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee." They will show you also how you have to die for the true faith, as we shall see in the

But why should I delay here to explain to you the manner in which your forefathers died? As we have seen already, they all gave up their possessions, their blood, their lives in defence of the Christian faith, and allowed themselves to be done to death most cruelly. This one fact should suffice. When I consider the circumstances of their glorious death how savagely the executioners raged against the innocent; how meekly, cheerfully., and willingly the soldiers of Christ went to the painful martyrdom then it seems to me that I behold that cruel massacre of the Jews described in the First Book of Machabees, second chapter. The tyrant Antiochus had resolved either to extirpate the Jews altogether or else compel them to become idolaters. First of all, therefore, he sent to the chief man of the Jews, that renowned hero of Scripture, Mathathias, thinking that if he could be gained over the rest of the people would offer no opposition. "Thou art a ruler," said the messengers of the king to him, " and a great man in this city. Therefore come thou first, and obey the king's commandment,. . . and thou and thy sons shall be in the number of the king's friends, and enriched with gold and silver and many presents." God forbid! cried out Mathathias: " God be merciful unto us; it is not profitable for us to forsake the law, and the justices of God. Every one that hath zeal for the law ... let him follow me." Who is more clearly represented by this prince than Palmatius, the then mayor of Treves, or, as he was called in those times, the prince of the city? He it was whom, with the other councillors, the bloodhound Riccius Varus attacked with promises and threats in order to induce him to deny the Christian faith. Oh, he exclaimed, God be merciful to us, and keep us from such a shameful crime! No, that I will never do in all eternity! " Every one that hath zeal for the law let him follow me." My dear fellow-citizens, keep fast to the law in which you have hitherto lived so zealously; follow me, and let us give up our lives, and die together, rather than depart a hair's breadth from our God and His law!

The Scripture says further of the Jews that when Mathathias left the city a great multitude assembled in the desert, near at hand, and there courageously awaited the approach of the enemy, and allowed themselves to be put to death without saying a word, much less did they make any attempt to repel violence by violence, as the text says: "They answered them not, neither did they cast a stone at them, nor stopped up the secret places, saying: Let us all die." Again a clear image of the courage of the Christians of Treves. For when Palmatius and his councillors had been beheaded for Christ's sake in this place, the uncontrollable rage of the tyrant was let loose on the people the next day. The latter did not run into the wilderness, like the Jews, but awaited death joyfully in and before their houses. I have often thought, my dear brethren, when reading this history: Is it true that they who were martyred here were innumerable? They must surely have known already how Riccius Varus acted towards the Christians in other places, and how cruelly he caused them to be put to death; and they must have heard from the neighboring people of his approach with his army. Why, then, did they not take measures to oppose him? Why did they not close the gates? Could they not have defended themselves at least for a considerable time, and made it very difficult for him to take the city, and even have made away with a goodly number of their enemies? Or, if they could not make up their minds to do this, could they not have escaped in time? Who can doubt it? But, no! these brave soldiers of Christ knew how to fight in a far different manner; their idea was, not to run upon the enemy, sword in hand, but rather to lay down their arms and run of their own accord on the arms of the enemy: " Neither did they cast a stone at them, nor stopped up the secret places." When the Roman soldiers, with their generals, came into the town, gallows, stakes, and instruments of torture were prepared on all sides; wherever the eye was turned it fell on some evidence of cruelty; the clang of sharp swords and knives resounded everywhere, the lead was melted, the boiling oil and pitch prepared. The countless inhabitants of Treves looked on at all this; they were told that these preparations were for them if they would not consent to renounce the faith of Christ. Yet they beheld them without dismay: "They answered them not; " their only reply was a shout of exultation, whereby they encouraged each other to constancy, and urged on the executioners, " saying: Let us all die." Then the slaughtering, hanging, boiling, roasting, cutting, and butchering went on; no state or age was spared; all suffered, from the first to the last, so that the streets ran with blood, and, as history tells us, the Moselle was crimsoned for the space of ten thousand paces. noble river, never wert thou more beautiful than when thou wert adorned with the precious blood of these holy martyrs! Never wert thou laden with more costly wares than when thou didst bear on thy bosom the bodies of those heroes of the faith, the inhabitants of Treves! See, my dear brethren, how bravely your ancestors fought for the faith of Christ and His honor.

But what am I doing? I had hoped, perhaps, to inspire you, too, with the idea of dying for God and the faith, after their example. Now I am afraid that I have done quite the contrary, and that I have terrified you, or made you despair of ever dying such a death. For some will say: Would that we were so fortunate as to give up our lives by martyrdom for Christ's sake! But where is the opportunity? Where are the tyrants, the persecutors? The Christian religion is now free; how, then, can we become martyrs? And the greater number of you will perhaps say, with a sigh: What! must I run on the points of swords and spears, and into fire and flames? Must I allow myself to be so terribly tortured? Ah, I am far too delicate and tender for that! But be of good heart, Christian brethren! Your holy forefathers are ready to assist you from heaven in all the combats that await you; for there is no doubt that they now have a far greater care of the salvation of their descendants than of their temporal prosperity; and besides, they do not expect so much from you; they do not require you to endure such torments as they had to withstand; they are content with far less.

In olden times people of all classes went to St. John the Baptist, and, moved by the consideration of the austere life he led, and with hearts softened by repentance, they asked him: " And what shall we do? " What answer did John give them? Did he tell them to go and lay aside their soft clothing, to put on a rough camel-hair garment, to lie on the bare ground, and eat nothing but locusts, drink nothing but muddy water? No; nothing of the sort; for otherwise most of them would have shrugged their shoulders, and gone away from him in disgust. Are you soldiers? he said; " do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man, and be content with your pay.": You who are superiors, be mild and gentle towards your inferiors; citizens, be kind and loving towards each other; let him who has more share with him who has less. Thus the holy man, who led such a severe life, imposed a far lighter burden on others. In the same way you can imagine your holy forefathers speaking to you from heaven: Dear fellow-citizens and children! lift up your eyes to heaven; see where we are now. Come, hasten to this far better fatherland, where we await you! The only death we expect you to suffer in order to imitate us is that moral death which Jesus Christ, our sovereign Master, requires of all Christians in the gospel; that, namely, you die every day more and more to the world and its wicked customs and vain goods, to the flesh and its sinful lusts. You can be martyrs if you mortify your evil passions and inclinations, if you restrain anger, oppose inordinate love, bear injuries with patience, treat with meekness him who has done an evil to you, and pardon your enemies from your heart, as St. Bernard teaches you: " You can be a martyr without suffering the stroke of a sword, if you preserve your mind in patience."

You, married people, can be martyrs if in conjugal love and fidelity you bear your daily cares and troubles for God's sake with humility and contentment. You, unmarried people, can be martyrs if you constantly overcome temptations against purity, carefully guard your eyes and other senses, avoid dangerous occasions, and keep your purity untarnished; for, according to St. Jerome, " to keep chastity uninjured is in itself a martyrdom." You rich and wealthy can be martyrs if you do not allow your selves to become the victims of the spirit of avarice; if you keep your hearts detached from riches, and are diligent in the works of charity and mercy to the poor. You can be martyrs, ye poor, sick, and suffering, if you are always satisfied with the will of God, unite your sufferings, sickness, and trials with the passion and death of Christ, and bear them till death for His sake. You can all be martyrs if you regulate your lives according to the Christian law, and never let joy or sorrow separate you from it. " The whole life of the Christian," says St. Augustine, " if he lives according to the gospel, is a cross and a martyrdom." Thus live, dear children; thus die; it is the way to heaven. Oh, if you only knew what indescribable joys we experience here, how richly we are repaid and rewarded for the little we have endured for Christ, you would stretch forth both hands with eagerness to the cross and to suffering. More than blessed pains and torments, what a short time you lasted! what a long, immeasurable eternity of happiness you have won for us! Ah, come, hasten after us, that we may make you partakers therein! See, my dear brethren, how little your holy forefathers require of you to imitate them, and to enable you to rejoice with them in heaven. I have represented them as speaking to you them selves, that their words may make a deeper impression on you.

How have we profited by this teaching hitherto? How far are we still removed from living and dying in that manner? Ah, we sometimes feel a desire for martyrdom; we boast that we are ready to give up our possessions and lives for our faith and heaven, if it were necessary; and yet we often refuse to undergo a slight trial or mortification for that faith and that heaven. Well do we boast, says Tertullian; which is the easier: to give up our lives, or to restrain an evil passion or inclination? Which is the easier: to shed our blood, or to bear a word of contradiction in silence? Which is the easier: to renounce all our possessions, or to restore ill-gotten goods? Which is the easier: to give up at once and forever all our friends and relations, or to despise human respect when the honor of God and His holy law require us to do so? Which is the easier: to stretch our neck forth to the axe, or to break our obstinacy, in order to give way to another, and humble ourselves? Which is the easier: to be publicly crucified, or in private to beg forgiveness of our neighbor whom we have injured? Which is the easier: to love our enemies who take away our lives, and with them all we have, or to smother our anger, and receive in love and friendship the brother who has done us some slight harm? It is evident that this latter is far less difficult and troublesome. And yet it seems sometimes so hard and intolerable to us that we transgress the Christian law, and deny Christ by our actions, when there is question of suffering a slight mortification. And we dare to boast that we are ready to lay down our lives in torments for the sake of Christ and His doctrine! We have reason rather to be ashamed and confounded when we think of our past conduct in this respect.

" Now, therefore, my sons," said Mathathias to his children, and methinks Palmatius and all the martyrs of Treves say the same to us, my dear brethren, " be ye zealous for the law, and" in future, and always, " give your lives for the covenant of your fathers," which they entered into with Christ, "and call to remembrance the works of the fathers, which they have done in their generations, and you shall receive great glory and an ever lasting name." The remembrance and consideration of their exploits should encourage you never to deflect from the way of virtue and constancy in life or in death; then great shall be your fame. "You, therefore, my sons, take courage, and behave manfully in the law." Yes, holy forefathers, so let us answer; in future we shall endeavor to do this with all diligence, and, relying on your help and intercession, always try to live piously to the end as you lived, to die daily according to the spirit as you died according to the body, that we may one day come where you now are, that is, to heaven. Amen.