Tuesday 28 September 2021
Tuesday of week 26 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Wenceslaus, Martyr
or Saints Laurence Ruiz and his Companions, Martyrs
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Tuesday of week 26 in Ordinary Time
From a letter of St Polycarp to the Philippians
Christ set us an example in his own person
Let the elders be compassionate, merciful to all, bringing back those that have wandered, caring for all the weak, neglecting neither widow, nor orphan nor poor, but ever providing for that which is good before God and man. Let them refrain from anger, let them show no partiality, let them not judge unjustly. Let the love of money be something alien to them. Let them be slow to believe evil of anyone, let them not be hasty in passing judgement; for they must know that we all owe the debt of sin.
If then we pray the Lord to forgive us, we also ought to forgive, for we stand before the eyes of the Lord and of God, and we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, and each must give an account of himself. So then let us serve him with fear and all reverence, as he himself commanded us, and as the Apostles did, who brought us the Gospel, and as the prophets did, who foretold the coming of our Lord. Let us be zealous for good, refraining from offence. Let us keep away from the false brethren and from those who bear the name of the Lord in hypocrisy and deceive empty-minded men.
For everyone who does not accept that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an anti-Christ and whoever does not accept the testimony of the Cross is of the devil; and whoever perverts the oracles of the Lord for his own desires and says that there is neither resurrection nor judgement, – that man is the first-born of Satan. So let us leave behind the foolishness of the crowd and their false teaching. Let us turn back to the word which was delivered to us in the beginning, keeping watch in prayer, persevering in fasting, beseeching the all-seeing God to lead us not into temptation, even as the Lord said, The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Let us then persevere unceasingly in our hope, and in the pledge of our righteousness, that is in Christ Jesus, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, but for our sakes he endured all things so that we might have life in him. Let us then be imitators of his endurance, and if we suffer for his name’s sake let us give glory to him. For this is the example which he gave us in himself, and this is our belief.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Wenceslaus, Martyr
A statue, probably by Peter Parler, in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague.
From the first old Slavic legend
The throne of the king who judges the poor faithfully will be made firm for ever
At the death of Vratislaus the people of Bohemia made his son Wenceslaus their king. He was by God’s grace a man of utmost faith. He was charitable to the poor, and he would clothe the naked, feed the hungry and offer hospitality to travellers according to the summons of the Gospel. He would not allow widows to be treated unjustly; he loved all his people, both rich and poor; he also provided for the servants of God, and he adorned many churches.
The men of Bohemia, however, became arrogant and prevailed upon Boleslaus, his younger brother. They told him, “Your brother Wenceslaus is conspiring with his mother and his men to kill you.”
On the feasts of the dedication of the churches in various cities, Wenceslaus was in the habit of paying them a visit. One Sunday he entered the city of Boleslaus on the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and after hearing Mass, he planned to return to Prague. But Boleslaus, with his wicked plan in mind, detained him with the words: “Why are you leaving, brother?” The next morning when they rang the bell for matins, Wenceslaus, on hearing the sound, said: “Praise to you, Lord; you have allowed me to live to this morning.” And so he rose and went to matins. Immediately Boleslaus followed him to the church door.
Wenceslaus looked back at him and said: “Brother, you were a good subject to me yesterday.” But the devil had already blocked the ears of Boleslaus and perverted his heart. Drawing his sword Boleslaus replied: “And now I intend to be a better one!” With these words he struck his brother’s head with his sword. But Wenceslaus turned and said: “Brother, what are you trying to do?” And with that he seized Boleslaus and threw him to the ground. But one of Boleslaus’ counsellors ran up and stabbed Wenceslaus in the hand. With his hand wounded, he let go of his brother and took refuge in the church. But two evil men struck him down at the church door; and then another rushed up and ran him through with a sword. Thereupon Wenceslaus died with the words: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit!
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Saints Laurence Ruiz and his Companions, Martyrs
A statue of St Lorenzo Ruiz at the 26 Martyrs Museum, Nagasaki.
From a sermon by Pope John Paul II at the beatification of the martyrs of Nagasaki
In shedding their blood they offered God a great act of worship and love
According to his Gospel promise, Christ is truly acknowledging, in the presence of his Father in heaven, those faithful martyrs who acknowledged him before men.
The hymn of glory to God which has just been sung by numberless voices is an echo of the Te Deum sung in the Church of Santo Domingo on the evening of December 27, 1637, when the news arrived of the martyrdom at Nagasaki of a group of six Christians. Among them were the head of the mission, Father Antonio González, a Spanish Dominican from León, and Lorenzo Ruiz, a married man with a family, born in Manila extra muros: in the suburb of Binondo. These witnesses had also in their turn sung psalms to the Lord of mercy and power, both while they were in prison and during their execution by the gallows and the pit, which lasted three days.
Faith conquers the world. The preaching of this faith enlightens like the sun all who wish to attain the knowledge of truth. Indeed, although there are different languages in the world, the power of the Christian tradition is the same.
The Lord Jesus by his blood truly redeemed his servants, gathered from every race, tongue, people and nation, to make them a royal priesthood for our God.
The sixteen blessed martyrs, by the exercise of their priesthood – that of baptism or of Holy Orders – performed the greatest act of worship and love of God by the sacrifice of their blood united with Christ’s own Sacrifice of the Cross. In this way they imitated Christ the priest and victim in the most perfect way possible for human creatures. It was at the same time an act of the greatest possible love for their brethren, for whose sake we are all called to sacrifice ourselves, following the example of the Son of God who sacrificed himself for us.
This is what Lorenzo Ruiz did. Guided by the Holy Spirit to an unexpected goal after an adventurous journey, he told the court that he was a Christian, and must die for God: “Had I many thousands of lives I would offer them all for him. Never shall I apostatise. You may kill me if that is what you want. To die for God – such is my will”.
Here we have him summed up; here we have a description of his faith and the reason fοr his death. It was at this moment that this young father of a family professed and brought to completion the Christian catechesis that he had received in the Dominican Friars’ school in Binondo: a catechesis that cannot be other than Christ-centred, by reason both of the mystery it contains and the fact that it is Christ who teaches through the lips of his messenger.
The example of Lorenzo Ruiz, the son of a Chinese father and Tagala mother, reminds us that everyone’s life and the whole of one’s life must be at Christ’s disposal.
Christianity means daily giving, in response to the gift of Christ who came into the world so that all might have life and have it to the full.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.