04/05/2023

This day is dedicated to  those Priests and layfolk who refused to obey the laws passed by the "Mother of Parliaments" and implemented by the King of this country. The laws forbade there to be any worship of God in England other than that sanctioned by the newly created Church of England. The supporters of the new laws and Church particularly denied the "power of the keys". Many suffered humiliations, torture and the barbaric punishment  that was handed out to all convicted criminals of those days.

Martyrs are celebrated for their fortitude in the face of death. Some of us living today are "martyrs in the face of life" which is certainly not a joy where there is no food or water or where the soul is not able to overcome birth defects or subsequent chronic disease. There are many hidden "martyrs" surviving in the midst of our plenty. Those whose "life"is surviving this day to be able to struggle on the next are entirely in God's hands.

St Stephen is celebrated in the Liturgy of today as the first Christian Martyr. It is right to do so. It is right to remember the struggles and physical pain suffered for three hundred years to be a Catholic in England. It is also right to question why it was that there were so few doing so. Was it only one Bishop who really had faith in Christ? Why were so many noble families instantly Protestant?

The instant collapse of the Papacy's power in England was mirrored in Europe which was devastated by one and a half centuries of war. Peter's successors were the first clerics who really did "not get it" just as those rightly castigated at the IICSA did not have the Holy Spirit to support them in their lies and evasions.  "My Kingdom is not of this World" does not mean that the Successor to St Peter is  the supreme sovereign ruler of this World, a sort of one-man United Nations. Jesus has never condemned any one to death let alone by Elizabeth's hanging, disembowelling and the quartering of the subsequent corpse or by her "contrary" sister's preferred holocausts in Oxford. 

Dear Lord, you know that facts of our past can truly disrupt our present. Humanity has always lived in your Providence but we still do not learn how to pray "do unto me as you will". I am responsible for my own life and strive to influence for good all those whom I love. May Mary who was created sinless to become Theotokos lead all the saints in their intercessions for all who, then as now, do not live up to the teachings of Jesus, Father Son and Holy Spirit, whom we all profess to follow and worship in obedience to his revelations.