Our Venerable Father Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus (312-37); Post-feast of the Encounter; Passing into Eternal Life (1957) of Blessed Petro Verhun, apostolic Visitator of Forced Labourers in Germany and Martyr of Siberia
2 Peter 1:20-2:9; Mark 13:9-13
Read Mark 13:9-13
Most of us who receive these reflections live in North America. We enjoy many freedoms including the freedom of religion, that is, to live openly as a Christian in our society. We know of other nations throughout history where this was the case and that nation became oppressive to Christianity. We take note of the Roman Empire under Nero who enjoyed torturing Christians even to alighting them on fire for the sake of illumination. We also note the oppression and persecution of Christians in Ukraine, forcing the Church underground. We have the example of the New Martyrs of Ukraine whose words and actions bear witness to He Who is our Eternal Truth.
The following is another example of Christians who take the words of our Lord in today’s Gospel to heart.
Jesus’ promise that Christians would be “given what to say” in the hour of trial has been fulfilled quite literally on many occasions, even in our own times. One example is Nijolė Sadunaitė, a Lithuanian arrested in 1974 for distributing clandestine Catholic literature. As the young woman stood trial, without legal representation, before men skilled in interrogation techniques, her defense so stung them that they blanched and hung their heads in shame. Among her words of testimony were the following: “This is the happiest day of my life. … I have been accorded the enviable task, the honorable fate, not only to struggle for human rights, but to be sentenced for them. My sentence will become triumph! My only regret is that I have been given so little opportunity to work on behalf of man. I will joyfully go into slavery for others and I agree to die so that others may live. Today, as I approach the Eternal Truth, Jesus Christ, I remember His fourth beatitude: ‘Blessed are they who thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.’ … I would like to request the court to free from prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric hospitals all of those who fought for human right and justice.” After this Spirit-inspired testimony, Sadunaitė was sentenced to three years in a strict-regime Soviet labor camp and three years of exile. Her example is an encouragement to all Christians to ask the Spirit for boldness and clarity whenever we are called to give witness in unfriendly settings.
Taken from The Gospel of Mark by Mary Healy (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 263-264. The quotation of Nijolė Sadunaitė is taken from A Radiance in the Gulag, trans. Casimir Pugevicius and Marian Skabeikis (Manassas, VA: Trinity Communications, 1987), 58-60.