30 July 2022
Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Martyrdom bears the ultimate witness to Christ. In the first readings, Jeremiah has just spoken out against the people of Judah for straying from God’s Law, an indictment he knew would endanger his life. This Old Testament narrative about a prophet decrying local abuses sets the stage for John the Baptist. It is the mold into which John willingly submits himself.
In this light, consider the recent murder of two Jesuits in Mexico who risked their lives to protect a man seeking sanctuary in a parish. There was, of course, an air of tragedy around the event, another harrowing story in the unending cycle of cartel violence engulfing Mexico. But there was also light: two men who vowed their lives to Jesus Christ, during their final moments, undeterred by the threat of death, did the right thing. By doing so, they showed love in the way Jesus did himself.