Today the Roman Catholic Church is celebrating the Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs. These were Jesuit missionaries from France serving in North America in the 17th Century. These were men of vision and courage and generosity. Their vision was to bring North American Indians to Christ and to his Church. They had the courage to make such an attempt, knowing that it might cost them their lives. They had the generosity to follow God out of the comforts of civilized Europe and into the harsh wilderness of North America.
They also had fidelity. Everyone who acknowledges Jesus before others will, in turn, be acknowledged, and everyone who denies Jesus before others will, in turn, be denied (Cf. Luke 12:8-9). These great missionary martyrs faithfully insisted on acknowledging Jesus before others and refused staunchly to deny him, even at the cost of their own lives.
As for us, what are we doing to acknowledge Jesus and what are we doing to deny him? Do we even acknowledge him in secret, when no one is looking? Do we place ourselves in his presence every day, to thank him, to praise him, to spend time with him? Or do we wait for a more convenient time to acknowledge him? God forbid we should deny him when convenient.
Perhaps we can celebrate this day by letting ourselves be inconvenienced for Christ’s sake, by acknowledging Christ with some prayer or by turning to our neighbor with some words of Christian encouragement. We can each do our part to help the legacy of these great martyrs live on.