🗓️ Feb 04St. John de Brito, Bishop

Saint John de Brito (1693), born in the high nobility of Lisbon, renounced the promises of the court to enter the Society of Jesus, inflamed by the desire to follow in the steps of Saint Francis Xavier in the evangelization of the East. Destined for the mission of Madurai, in southern India, he understood that the effective propagation of the Gospel required a radical inculturation; he thus became a Pandara Swami, adopting the rigorous asceticism of Hindu penitents, abstaining from meat, living in extreme sobriety, and dressing according to local customs to gain access to the upper castes and the people. His preaching in the Tamil language and his testimony of holiness converted multitudes, including Prince Tadia-Teva, whose conversion and consequent repudiation of polygamy enraged the Brahmins and the local political leadership. After suffering terrible tortures and exiles, he returned to the mission knowing that martyrdom awaited him, being finally beheaded in Oriyur; his life was a total sacrifice where, according to the biographer G. Schurhammer, he sought not human glories, but the conversion of souls, sealing with his own blood the faith he fearlessly confessed.

📜 Introit (Ps 63:11 | ib., 2)

Laetábitur justus in Dómino, et sperábit in eo... The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: and all the upright in heart shall be praised. Hear, O God, my prayer, when I make supplication to thee: deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy.

✉️ Epistle (II Tim 2:8-10; 3:10-12)

Lesson from the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to Timothy. Dearly beloved: Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, is risen from the dead, according to my gospel, wherein I labour even unto bands, as an evildoer; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with heavenly glory. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience: persecutions, afflictions: such as came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra: what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.

📖 Gospel (Mt 10:26-32)

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known. That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops. And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

💡 The Freedom of the Divine Word and the Courage of Martyrdom

Today's liturgy, in celebrating the martyrdom of Saint John de Brito, places us before the sublime paradox enunciated by Saint Paul in the Epistle: the apostle may be in bands as an evildoer, "but the word of God is not bound". This truth resonates deeply in the life of the saintly missionary who, even before the fury of the Brahmins and the capital sentence, made of his own life an unceasing preaching. The Gospel ratifies this audacity by ordering us not to fear "them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul", establishing the virtue of fortitude as the foundation of the confession of faith. Saint Augustine teaches that it is not the suffering in itself that makes the martyr, but the cause for which one suffers; thus, the cultural adaptation of John de Brito and his subsequent sufferings were not mere human strategies, but the incarnation of the charity that endures all things for the sake of the elect (Saint Augustine, Sermon 274). True Christian freedom, therefore, does not reside in the absence of physical coercion, but in total submission to Divine Providence, knowing that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered". Saint Thomas Aquinas reminds us that fortitude is the virtue that removes the obstacles that prevent the will from following reason, the greatest of these obstacles being the fear of death; by overcoming this fear, the martyr becomes the perfect witness of the Supreme Truth, for he values the spiritual good above his own temporal existence (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 123). The blood of John de Brito, shed in distant lands, becomes the eloquent proof that the Word of God, sown with sacrifice, breaks all chains of time and space, guaranteeing to him who confesses Christ before men the eternal promise of being recognized before the Father.