If I think about it, it might seem incongruous to emphasize martyrdom during the Christmas octave. But it doesn’t feel incongruous. Why is that?
Every day this week is a Christmas celebration, but we jump right in with days set aside for St. Stephen, the first martyr, then for the Holy Innocents, and on Friday it’s St. Thomas Becket, who was murdered at the altar. The martyrs augment the octave.
Intimacy with the Almighty
It’s the season for feasting and for martyrs for the same reason that we celebrate St. John the Evangelist today. I like to describe the emphasis of St. John as intimacy with the almighty because he opens his first letter as follows:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …
Never before had anyone imagined being able to touch and see the Word of Life, which was “from the beginning.”
All is well
So what does this intimacy mean for us? While all is not well for us in the moment, all is well for eternity. We face persecutions, loss, and real-world limitations every day. But Jesus came so that this would not be the end of the story. Jesus came to bring us into a relationship with God, which means freedom from all loss and life in abundance. Our Christmas feasting is a defiant declaration of faith that Jesus’ goal for us is abundance. The limitations of this world are temporary and our feast is a foretaste of what is to come.
The martyrs agree
This is exactly what the martyrs proclaim to us. They tell us that we can face death with courage, even with joy, because this fallen world is not the end of the story. Stephen sets the tone that enables us to see even the death of the Holy Innocents through the eyes of faith. And the the pattern continues to St. Thomas Beckett, who left a profligate past to accept death for Christ with determination. This triumph of faith wouldn’t have been possible before he gave his life for the truth of the incarnation.
We feast with the martyrs
And so we feast because what belongs to St. Stephen, and the Holy Innocents, and St. Thomas Beckett is intimacy with God that cannot be taken away. God will always be theirs who can be seen and touched. That means that with them, we can look forward to an incarnate world that will be redeemed. That will include feasting, and we can expect the martyrs to be at the head of the table.
So let’s feast faithfully and be ever ready to give our lives for the One who gave his life for us — that we may enjoy life with him forever.