Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Readings (New
American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel Luke 12:49-53 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India).
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that
it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with,
and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell
you, but rather division. For from now on in one house
there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of
JerusalemThen
the officials said to the king, ‘This man should be put to death’ . .
. Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, ‘Take
thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern
before he dies’ (Jeremiah 38: 4, 10; First Reading).
Margaret Bermingham (1515-1584) was born near where I live in County Meath, Ireland, into a prosperous Catholic family. In her mid-teens she married Bartholomew Ball, Becoming part of another prosperous Catholic family. Some sources say that the couple had twenty children, others ten. But only five survived into adulthood. Bartholomew served as Lord Mayor of Dublin for a while. Two of his sons were to find themselves in the same position, as did Francis Taylor, who married Gennet Shelton, a granddaughter of Margaret. Both Margaret and her grandson-in-law were to meet a similar fate and are numbered among the 17 Irish Martyrs beatified by St John Paul II on 22 September 1992.
It was a time when Queen Elizabeth I carried out a persecution of Catholics in England and Ireland who would not submit to her as head of the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, the members of which were called Protestants. Walter Ball, the eldest son of Margaret and Bartholomew, became a zealous Protestant and in 1577 was appointed Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes, a position, as far as I can make out, the main responsibility of which was to persecute Catholics.
Margaret's home in Dublin was a safe house for bishops and priests where they could celebrate Mass, something they could not do publicly. When Walter became Lord Mayor in 1580, while still retaining his previous position, a higher one, he had his mother, who suffered greatly from arthritis, arrested and dragged through the streets of Dublin tied to a wooden pallet and taken to the prison in Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland. This was the method often used to bring prisoners to the gallows. Walter said that his mother deserved to be executed for her Catholic faith but that he had spared her.
Two years later Walter's younger brother Nicholas became Lord Mayor. He had remained faithful to the Catholic faith but was powerless to release his mother as Walter outranked him by his royal appointment as Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes. However, he visited his mother regularly, bringing her food, clothing and some furniture. But the appalling conditions gradually wore Margaret down and she died in 1584.
She had consistently prayed for her son Walter and did not disinherit him.
Eleven years later Francis Taylor, who had married Margaret's granddaughter Gennet Shelton, both of them faithful Catholics, became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1595 but was imprisoned for his faith in Dublin Castle, like his grandmother-in-law, and died seven years later in 1613 from the harsh conditions that had gradually worn him down.
Both Margaret and Francis were beatified with 15 other Irish Martyrs on 27 September 1992 by St John Paul II. In his homily the Pope said: All sectors of God’s people are represented among these seventeen Servants of God: Bishops, priests both secular and religious, a religious brother and six lay people, including Margaret Bermingham Ball, a woman of extraordinary integrity who, together with the physical trials she had to endure, underwent the agony of being betrayed through the complicity of her own son.
Further on St John Paul said: The Martyrs’ significance for today lies in the fact that their testimony shatters the vain claim to live one’s life or to build a model of society without an integral vision of our human destiny, without reference to our eternal calling, without transcendence. The Martyrs exhort succeeding generations of Irish men and women: 'Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called . . . keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ'.
It is unbelievable how cruelly Walter Ball treated his mother and his family. We can hope that his mother's prayers obtained for him the grace of repentance before he died.
For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.
When St John Paul II canonised his fellow-Pole on 10 October 1982 he described him as a Martyr for Charity. He was a prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp. On an occasion when a prisoner escaped ten others were ordered to be executed by being deprived of food and water in a bunker. One of them, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish soldier cried out, My wife! My children! The priest offered to take his place, an offer that was accepted. By the time the Nazis needed the bunker again all but the Franciscan had died of starvation and thirst. He was killed by lethal injection on 14 August 1941.This year his memorial is not observed by the Church as it falls on a Sunday. The guards had heard him while the others were still alive leading them in prayer and hymns.
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Walter Ball had deliberately caused the death of his mother because she would not deny her faith. Fr Kolbe offered his life to keep intact the family of someone he hardly knew. Franciszek was reunited with his wife Helena at the end of the War but, sadly, their two sons had died in January 1945 under a Soviet bombardment. However, he was the guest of St Paul VI at the beatification on 17 October 1971 of the man who had saved him and a guest of St John Paul II at the canonisation of St Maximilian on 10 October 1982.
Persecution and martyrdom have been part of the Church's history from the beginning. On 22 June this year, Pentecost Sunday, at least 40 people were massacred while attending Mass in Owo in southwestern Nigeria.
For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.
Words by Fr Frederick William Faber
Sung by Frank Patterson
With the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
Fr Faber wrote the words of this hymn to honour the Catholic martyrs of England and Ireland who died during the Reformation. The word 'Fathers' is used in an inclusive sense, meaning 'ancestors'. The version above uses the traditional tune Sawston, the one most common in Britain and Ireland. The tune normally used in the USA is called St Catherine and was written by Henri Hemy.
Up to the 1960s this hymn used to be sung before the national anthem at Gaelic Football and Hurling finals in Ireland.
The
final stanza of the hymn expresses for me the faith of Blessed Margaret Ball
and her love for her son Walter, despite wht he had done to her.
Faith of our
Fathers! we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife:
And preach thee too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.
Faith of our fathers' holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death!
Traditional Latin Mass
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 8-14-2022 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:2-11. Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
Dirck van Delen [Web Gallery of Art]
Dearest Father Seán,
ReplyDeleteWhat noble people that offer their own life for saving that of others...
One cannot imagine that somebody could kill his/her own Parent or sibling.
Rembrandt captured the lamenting of Jeremiah so well with his paint brushes; so real.
There indeed have lived Saints among us and one wonders how many still dare to stand up for God and for Others.
Hugs,
Mariette