1 December 2018
Memorial of Saints Edmund Campion and Companions, Martyrs
Edmund Campion, the brilliant man whose martyrdom we celebrate today, was born in London in the midst of the English reformation, just as the Society of Jesus was being formed in distant Rome. He was baptized a Catholic, but as the church around him became Protestant, so did he, since he wished simply to remain a part of the Church, the body of Christ, which he concretely knew through the community where Christ had been preached to him. For Edmund, remaining with the ecclesial community of his youth was not primarily a question of saying “no” to the pope, but of saying “yes” to the place where the good news was offered to him and where he knew the wonders of the grace of God working through the community. Although Protestantism may be seen as a “protest,” for many of its adherents what is at the core is not a “no” to Catholicism, or the world, or whatever, but a “yes” to Jesus. For this reason, perhaps it would be better to speak of Christian “confessions” rather than “denominations.” A “confession” identifies itself by what it “confesses,” what it says “yes” to, whereas a denomination identifies itself on the basis of what it distinguishes itself from (and therefore says “no” to).
It was the earnestness of Edmund Campion’s “yes” that led him to be ordained an Anglican deacon while pursuing studies at Oxford, where he was a brilliant and charismatic lecturer. But this same earnestness eventually led him to the gradual realization that there was something of a “no” to God in his own ecclesial community’s “no” to the bishop of Rome and the fullness of faith that his office ensures. What had led him to recognize Christ’s genuine presence in the church of his youth led him to be true to that presence that called him to sneak away on a self-imposed exile in order to reconcile himself to the fullness of the faith in the Christian community in communion with Rome. It would not be entirely fair to say that Edmund had been disobedient when he became a Protestant as a child, nor would it be right to say that he was unfaithful to his English community when he left it, heartbroken, to be free to be a Catholic on the Continent. In every case, he sought earnestly to give the “yes” he could give to the Lord.
Edmund was ordained a Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus and was serving in the imperial court in Prague when his superiors decided to send him to the newly formed Jesuit mission in England. He returned to his native land, wishing only to befriend again those whom he had once befriended and share with them the most beautiful thing that he had found: the communion of the fullness of faith. As much as his persecutors wished to portray him as one who had said “no” to his queen (whom he knew personally), he was all “yes.” The truest “yes” he could offer her was a “yes” that found its place within a greater “yes” to God. This “yes” is evident at the end of his famous “Brag” where he humbly concludes by asking those who would kill him to “recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and [to] set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.” Through his martyrdom, he was willing to join Jesus in paying the price, so that his “friends” would not have to. Dear Edmund, pray for us, that we too may die with a “yes” on our lips, and may die hoping, like you, for the salvation of even those who most hate us, that we might all be friends in heaven where all “will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:4-5).