We are completing the Book of Acts as the daily liturgies approach the end of Eastertide. St. Paul finds himself the center of violent controversies over religion and is rescued from the melee by the Roman commander. “The following night the Lord stood by him and said: ‘take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.’”
The Lord had a plan for Paul of Tarsus, which Paul of Tarsus only gradually realized as the Lord revealed it. None of us can know how or where or under what circumstances we will bear witness to Christ, but looking back on our lives, we realize that the Lord knows. He knows perfectly the past, present, and future.
Today we commemorate St. Cristobal Magallanes and 24 other peasants who bore witness to Christ during the persecutions in Mexico during the 1920s. None of these farmers, these “Cristeros,” imagined they would bear witness to Christ in the way they did. But looking back, they give thanks to God for having guided them to his glory. In the dark periods of our lives, let us look forward to the day when we can look back on how the Lord guided our steps in the way salvation. By the blood of the martyrs, let us look always forward to the day when we will be reunited to the Lord and all our loved ones in our true and only home, the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Lord had a plan for Paul of Tarsus, which Paul of Tarsus only gradually realized as the Lord revealed it. None of us can know how or where or under what circumstances we will bear witness to Christ, but looking back on our lives, we realize that the Lord knows. He knows perfectly the past, present, and future.
Today we commemorate St. Cristobal Magallanes and 24 other peasants who bore witness to Christ during the persecutions in Mexico during the 1920s. None of these farmers, these “Cristeros,” imagined they would bear witness to Christ in the way they did. But looking back, they give thanks to God for having guided them to his glory. In the dark periods of our lives, let us look forward to the day when we can look back on how the Lord guided our steps in the way salvation. By the blood of the martyrs, let us look always forward to the day when we will be reunited to the Lord and all our loved ones in our true and only home, the Kingdom of Heaven.
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