Martyrs, true Christians ” “

On October 13 some three thousand people from across Spain took part in the beatification of 522 20th century Spanish martyrs in Spain. Of these, 11 have been canonized. The celebration officiated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of the saints was attended by 105 bishops, of which 8 cardinals, 1.386 priests, 2.720 religious, 3.947 relatives of martyrs and civil authorities. Among the new blessed the youngest was 18-year-old Carmelite José Sánchez Rodríguez, the oldest 86-year-old servant of Mary sister Aurora López González. The words of the Pope. “Who are the martyrs? They are Christians who have been “earned” by Christ, disciples who have learnt well the sense of that “love to the extreme limit” which led Jesus to the Cross”, said Pope Francis in a video message broadcast upon the opening of the beatification ceremony. For the Holy Father “there is no such thing as love in instalments, no such thing as portions of love. Total love: and when we love, we love till the end. On the Cross, Jesus felt the weight of death, the weight of sin, but he gave himself over to the Father entirely, and he forgave”. He “gave the gift of life”. Christ “beats us in love; the martyrs imitated him in love until the very end”. Francis added: “The Sainted Fathers say: ‘Let’s imitate the martyrs!’ We must always die a little in order to come out of ourselves, of our selfishness, of our well-being, of our laziness, of our sadnesses”. Hence the Holy Father’s invitation to “open up to God, to others, especially those who need it most”. The Pope exhorted “to implore the intercession of the martyrs, that we may be concrete Christians, Christians in deeds and not just in words, that we may not be mediocre Christians, Christians painted in a superficial coating of Christianity without substance” on the example of “those who were Christians until the end”: only in this way “we may nourish hope and foster brotherhood and solidarity”. Prophets of peace. “Spain is a land blessed with the blood of the martyrs. If we just consider the heroic witnesses of faith, the victims of religious persecution in the 1930s of the past century, the Church in fourteen distinct ceremonies has beatified more than one thousand”, underlined cardinal Angelo Amato, in the beatification homily. The new Blessed include “three bishops, Manuel Basulto Jiménez, bishop of Jaén; Salvio Huix Miralpeix, bishop of Lleida, and Manuel Borrás Ferré, auxiliary bishop of Tarragona, priests, seminarians, religious, young and old people, mothers and fathers. They are all innocent victims who faced imprisonment, tortures, unfair trials, humiliation and indescribable suffering. An immense amount of baptised faithful followed Christ until his Calvary to be resurrected with Him in the glory of celestial Jerusalem”. The new Blessed are not “fallen soldiers of the Civil War. They are the victims of radical religious persecution which planned the extermination of the Church”. These martyrs “did not hate anyone, they loved everybody and did good unto all. Their apostolate consisted of catechesis in parishes, school teaching, care of the sick, charity to the poor, assistance to the elderly and to marginalized people”. From them comes an invitation to forgiveness: they remain “prophets of peace on earth”. “We are all called to convert to peace, to fraternity, to mutual respect, to human relations. Thus acted our martyrs, thus act the saints which, as Pope Francis says, follow ‘the path of conversion, the path of humbleness, love, of the heart and of beauty”. Precious fruit. At the end of the beatification ceremony the President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference archbishop of Madrid, cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela underlined that this beatification “will remain a precious fruit of the Year of Faith. It was a fervent desire of our Bishops’ Conference that today was fulfilled”. Now “we return home strengthened in our faith for the heroic witness of many strong and brave witnesses of Jesus Christ Redeemer of mankind”.