“The martyr follows the Lord to the very end, freely accepting death for the salvation of the world in a supreme test of love and faith.” (Benedict XVI, August 10, 2010)
On reading about the Xaverian martyr’s life, I was trying to figure out what was shared in them and why they persevered until they gave their lives. Serendipitously, I discovered that they considered love as their modus vivendi in their spiritual and missionary life. Animated by this love, they lived with faith in the cruel moment that took their lives. Reflecting on this love, which is more than death according to Luc Ferry, three questions came to my mind. Who was the source of their love? What was the focus of their love? And how was their love lived? My reflection will be based on these three questions.
One of my colloquiums in Novitiate was consecrated to the consecration life. In that, I was asked by my novice master to reflect upon the beauty of consecration. The image was a song in French which says “choisir de donner sans reprendre, aimer et se savoir aimer.” It can be translated this way, “choose to give without taking away, love and know you are loved.” By consecration, the martyrs chose to love God and give him all their welfare. Their love for God was so unconditional that even death prevented them from saturating. In the time spent by Brother Faccin as a missionary, he prospered to convert his life to become the Eucharist in the hand of his God, as he signified in the letter to the general. Animated by that love and fortified by it, our martyrs became men and women of prayer as signaled in our constitutions 42. This union with their savior asked them to follow him in the way of the cross. Being a sine qua non-sign of all missionary life, the cross guides us every and by choosing this life, we decide to take it, love it, and follow Christ for the rest of our lives.
Moreover, the martyrs showed their love to God by loving their mission and the people to whom they were assigned. Their first martyrdom was the witnesses they shared with the people. The first martyr, Father Caio Rastelli, died of fatigue after one year and a half in China. Though old, the three sisters killed in Burundi were still witnessing God’s love through their deeds. For his love for the people, Father Alberto Pierobon suffered because he could not help the people with whom he was living. The same thing happened to Brother Faccin, who felt it challenging to leave the people in the milieu they were living in. He wrote: “There are many Christians, and they show their love on many occasions; how can we abandon them?”[1] With their witnesses, they affirmed the Idea of Anthony de Mello, who said, “An apostle is a witness. He is his message.”[2] By the gift of their lives, the martyrs showed their hope and love for God.
Furthermore, the love of the martyrs was seen in their quotidian life. One of Father Didone's letters to the catechists is a paradigm of how martyrs lived their faith. He wrote, “We, missionaries, are here in Fizi, far from our homeland, but God is everywhere, watching over us. Let us be strong! Do not fear that the missionaries will return home: they would rather die than abandon you.”[3]Martyrs, for all their lives, tried to be the consolation of God. They consoled people by alleviating and addressing their situation. Father Valeriano Cobbe did the same thing in East Pakistan, known today as Bangladesh when he taught people that “hard work was the best way to a dignified life.”[4] Though they were far from their countries, our martyrs decided to dedicate their lives for the sake of the kingdom of God. Their lives manifested God’s love for the people to whom they were assigned.
To conclude, I can infer that their love for their God led the martyrs to give their lives up to death. They were so connected with him that death could not browbeat them. With the gift of their lives, I learned that nothing can harm us when we are connected with God. Even though our sacrifices will cost us our lives, if we are in a perpetual union with Christ, we can still sing the song of "Glory to God" as the three children did in the book of prophet Daniel 3. By their intercession, we pray to God to give us the gift of final perseverance so that we will consider love as the modus operandi of our missionary lives.
[1] Xaverian missionaries, In Loving Memory, (Manila: International Theologate of Asia), 506.
[2] Anthony de Mello, Aller vers Dieu, 192.
[3] Xaverian missionaries, op. cit., 504.
[4] Ibid, 424.
