📜 Saint Hippolytus, a Roman priest of the 3rd century, initially entered into a schism with Pope Callixtus but was reconciled with the Church while in exile in Sardinia, where he was martyred in 235. He shares his commemoration with Saint Cassian of Imola, a 3rd-century schoolmaster who, according to tradition, was martyred by his own pagan students, who pierced him with their writing styluses, turning the tools of education into the instruments of his martyrdom.
📖 Introit – Psalm 36(37):39-1Salus autem justórum a Dómino... The salvation of the just is from the Lord, and he is their protector in the time of tribulation. Be not emulous of evildoers; nor envy them that work iniquity.
✉️ Epistle – Hebrews 10:32–38
But call to mind the former days, wherein, being illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. And on the one hand indeed, by reproaches and tribulations, were made a gazingstock; and on the other, became companions of them that were used in such sort. For you both had compassion on them that were in bands, and took with joy the being stripped of your own goods, knowing that you have a better and a lasting substance. Do not therefore lose your confidence, which hath a great reward. For patience is necessary for you; that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little and a very little while, and he that is to come, will come, and will not delay. But my just man liveth by faith.
✨ Gospel – Luke 12:1–8
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers, shall be preached on the housetops. And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God.
🤔 Reflections
💡 Fear Him who has power to cast into hell. He told us this, not so that we might perish, but that by fearing, we might be cautious, and by being cautious, we might not perish (St. Augustine, Sermon 61). The reward is not given for simply starting, but for patiently persevering to the end, for patience is the root of all good things (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 20). The confession of faith is not merely an act of the mouth but also a testimony of life; for whoever confesses the Lord with his mouth must also confess Him with his works, so that the confession may be complete (St. Ambrose, Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, Book VII).
🕊️ The Gospel of Matthew (10:26-33) offers a direct parallel but deepens the exhortation not to fear by specifying that persecutors "cannot kill the soul," a theological detail not explicit in Luke's formulation, which states they "have no more that they can do." Furthermore, Matthew mentions the sale of "two sparrows for a farthing," whereas Luke refers to "five for two farthings," and Matthew includes the promise that whoever loses his life for Christ's sake will find it, an addition that directly links martyrdom to salvation.
⛓️ Saint Paul deepens the theology of confession mentioned in the Gospel by stating in Romans (10:9-10) that "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved," explicitly linking oral confession to interior faith and salvation. The exhortation not to fear those who kill the body echoes in his letter to the Romans (8:38-39), where he assures that neither death nor life, nor any creature "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord," expanding the promise of divine protection beyond physical danger to encompass all cosmic and existential forces.
🏛️ The Catechism of the Council of Trent complements the exhortation to the public confession of faith by teaching that the Apostles' Creed must be professed not only as an internal belief but as a duty of external witness, even at the risk of one's life, framing martyrdom as the supreme act of the virtue of fortitude, which overcomes the "fear of those who kill the body." The encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) of Pope St. Pius X, in condemning Modernism, echoes the warning against the "leaven of the Pharisees," describing Modernist errors as a form of intellectual hypocrisy that corrupts doctrine "not from without, but from within" the Church.