📖Epistle (II Cor 6:4-10)
Brethren: Let us shew ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armour of justice on the right hand [the sword to attack] and on the left [the shield to defend]; by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things.
✝️Gospel (Lk 11:47-51)
At that time, Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees: Woe to you who build the monuments of the prophets: and your fathers killed them. Truly you bear witness that you consent to the doings of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres. For this cause also the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the altar and the temple: Yea I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
✨Reflections
🏛️Today's Gospel reveals a timeless truth about the nature of disbelief and hypocrisy. Our Lord condemns the Pharisees not for honoring the prophets of the past, but for making it an empty spectacle while rejecting the living prophecy before them: Christ Himself. By building tombs for the righteous murdered by their ancestors, they gave the appearance of piety, but their hearts were complicit in the same murderous spirit. St. Cyril of Alexandria explains that by rejecting Jesus, they "filled up the measure of their fathers' wickedness" and proved themselves heirs to their perversity, not their faith (Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Homily 84). This warning echoes through every age. It is easy to venerate the saints of past centuries, admire their sacrifices from a distance, and build basilicas in their honor. The true challenge, however, is to recognize and welcome the voice of God who speaks to us today, through the "prophets and apostles" He continues to send: the Magisterium of the Church, modern saints, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our own conscience.
⛓️The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians offers the perfect counterpoint to this hypocrisy, describing the authenticity of the apostolic life through a series of paradoxes. The true minister of God is not defined by external honors or monuments, but by his ability to persevere "in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses." The lives of St. Chrysanthus and St. Daria are a literal embodiment of this passage. Considered "deceivers" by pagan society for proclaiming an unseen King, they were "yet true." They seemed to have "nothing," renouncing wealth and status, yet they "possessed all things" in Christ. This is the logic of the cross, which inverts all the world's values. St. Augustine teaches that the pilgrim Church on earth lives amidst the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God (The City of God, Book XVIII, Chapter 51). The Christian's joy lies not in the absence of suffering, but in union with the suffering Christ, who transforms dishonor into glory and poverty into spiritual wealth. The martyrs are not sad victims, but victorious witnesses, "always rejoicing" because their possession is God Himself.
🩸Today's liturgy, therefore, unites the blood of the ancient prophets with that of the Christian martyrs, revealing a single, continuous spiritual battle. The "generation" to which Jesus refers is not only that of His contemporaries but every generation that closes itself to the truth. The blood of Abel, the first righteous man, cries out from the earth, and to this cry is joined that of all the martyrs, including Chrysanthus and Daria, whose sacrifice on the Via Salaria became the seed of new Christians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith" (CCC 2473), for it is a testimony that seals with one's own blood the belief in eternal life. As we honor these holy martyrs, we are not merely building memorials to the past; we are being called to examine our own fidelity. Are we those who only adorn the tombs, or are we those who, like Chrysanthus and Daria, are willing to live the paradoxical truths of the faith, becoming ministers of God "by the armour of justice," bearing witness to the Truth that the world always persecutes but can never defeat?
➡️See English version of the critical articles here.