Celebrating Martyrdom in the Christmas Season

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas day and continue to celebrate with joy through this special liturgical season. We have many wonderful feast days in the Christmas octave. Yesterday was St. Stephen, today is St. John, tomorrow is the Holy Innocents, and Friday is St. Thomas Becket. What’s interesting is that martyrdom is celebrated in these feasts (St. John was not martyred but is said to have been a martyr of the will in that he was willing to die for Christ). Why do we celebrate the feasts of martyrs during the Christmas season?

This is a thought-provoking matter, especially because the baby Jesus is called the Prince of Peace in scripture (see below). Martyrdom is obviously not peaceful. So, after musing, I came up with a few thoughts.

First, I think it’s important to recall why Jesus became man in the first place. The Incarnation and the life of Jesus is a great and splendid mystery. He came into the world to die for our sake; his purpose, vocation, and mission was to save us from the destruction of sin. So, Jesus’s birth is joyful and brings us hope for the future. Yet, we remember what will happen with his life and by extension, what will happen to those who pick up their cross, follow him, and die for their faith.

The lives of these and all the martyrs remind us of the suffering involved in following Christ, as well as the suffering Christ underwent for us. In the Gospel reading from yesterday, Jesus warns his disciples that they will be handed over because they are Christ-followers (Matthew 10:17-22). This is the reality; being Christian is difficult. But it is well worth it because in the end, we have eternal life with Christ, the Prince of Peace, who will rule forever.

Second, Jesus was born into a world which has many evils. Think of Herod, who ordered the killing of all the baby boys, the Holy Innocents, under the age of two. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but Herod, like all of us, had a free will. Tyrants will do evil things when their power and authority are threatened.

Regardless, Jesus remains always as the person who brings us peace, comfort, and consolation. The important thing to remember, as the martyrs demonstrate, is to be faithful to the Lord and to remember his victory with hope. Christmas is a good time to renew our willingness to follow him through his entire life and conform ourselves to his holy way of living.

Lastly, the death of the martyrs is a death to the world, but birth in eternal life. We are born into this world, as Jesus was, but that is not the end of the story. So, may we follow after Christ in life, death, and, eventually, resurrection!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6-7).