All In For Our Lord Series

Monday of the 24th and Last Week in Course 2020

Bl. Miguel Agustin Pro

Today, in the glaring light of our proclamation on Sunday that Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe, we are invited to consider the virtues of those who will be found worthy to live forever in that marvelous, unimaginably joyous kingdom. It is a kingdom we are invited to begin living in at our Baptism, or at any moment of our lives when we turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel of Christ. It is particularly urgent to understand this in a year of plague and on the brink of anti-Christian persecution.

When parents bring their young children into the church for the rite of Baptism, everyone is invited to use a thumb or finger to trace a mark on the child’s forehead–the sign of the cross of Christ. The practice is a very old one, going all the way back in Israel’s history to the exile in Babylon. There, a mark, the Hebrew letter “tau” which is written as a cross, was in spirit placed on the heads of everyone who mourned over the abominations that had taken over Temple worship in Jerusalem. The mark is placed on the child’s head, or anyone to be baptized, in order to claim that child for Christ and the Father. It’s like what in Revelations is seen on the foreheads of the elect in heaven. We should try to feel that mark often, as when the Holy Gospel is read and we make the sign of the cross on our foreheads, lips and heart.

What are the virtues we see exhibited in the lives of these saints? Remember, there aren’t just 144,000. That is symbolic, like most of the language of this book of Revelations. It’s twelve times twelve thousand, a symbol of completion, of perfection, of the final numeration of unnumbered saints by Our Lord.

First, they are described in the various translations as “virgins” or “chaste.” That does not mean “unmarried,” as much as “faithful.” The OT often depicts idolatry as adultery, since the people of Israel had a kind of marriage covenant with the Lord. You might respond, “I don’t own any idols, or worship Satan, or anything like that.” Good. That’s a good start. But is there anything else that you value more than your relationship with Jesus Christ? If the only way you could attend Sunday Mass is to skip part of an athletic event, which would you give your attention to? The first commandment is to love God above all things. That’s what the Book is demanding, using this language.

Part of that fidelity is to follow Christ wherever He goes. Today we commemorate one of the Mexican martyrs, Jesuit Miguel Pro. When in the second and third decades of the last century the Mexican government turned violently anti-Catholic, Miguel ministered to the underground Church. Although there was no evidence, he and his brothers were arrested for being involved in a political assassination attempt. He was executed without trial. ‘Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Cristeros, "Viva Cristo Rey!"’ Perhaps in our lifetime we will also have to follow Christ to our own cross. Probably not a bloody martyrdom, but the culture hates the Church and all who follow Christ. Who knows what our cross will be? But we must embrace it.

Revelations also tells us that in the saints of heaven are found no lie. There are lots of lies flying about the culture today. The media, especially social media, are replete with falsehoods. We must all stand up for the truth of Christ, which leads to life eternal.

And then we hear this tiny living parable from Luke’s Gospel, and only there. Jesus may have known the widow, and her poverty. She was, as we say these days, “all in” for her faith. She embraced holy poverty and there and then showed that nothing was more important than her covenant with the Lord. So the next time an appeal for the poor or for support for the church is given, shall we complain when it takes ten or twenty percent of our disposable income? We are challenged to be, every day of our lives, “all in” for our Lord.