Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(Hebrews 12:4-7.11-15; Mark6:1-6)

John Milton defines his purpose in his epic “Paradise Lost” as “justify(ing) the ways of God to men.”  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews has the same intention in today’s first reading.  He writes that the slowness of Christ’s coming and the affronteries experienced by Hebrew Christians are meant to discipline them.  The suffering gives the people both time and need to seek salvation from God.

Rather than complain or withdraw, the author encourages his readers to think positively about the trials they face.  As isometric exercise providing resistance to counterweight makes an athlete strong, so patience and endurance will make the Christian holier and more pleasing to God.

Saints, as always, can be looked to as models.  Today’s patron, St. Agatha, suffered greatly to retain her virginal devotion to the Lord.  After undergoing harassment and torture, she died in a prison in 251 A.D.  Since then, he has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest martyrs of the Church.

Monday, February 5, 2024

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(I Kings 8:1-7.9-13; Mark 6:53-56)

Today’s first reading describes the inauguration of King Solomon’s Temple.  It is a magnificent structure meant to accommodate the encounter between God and humans.  Into the Temple the priests bring the Ark of the Covenant where the Lord God dwells.

Christians have churches which resemble the great Temple of Solomon.  Individual Christians, following what Jesus says of himself, also are meeting places with the Lord.  The Holy Spirit swells within each of us who lives the teaching of Christ.  The Spirit moves us to deeper prayer and more extensive charity.

Today the Church remembers one of her most celebrated daughters.  St. Agatha lived in Sicily during the first centuries of Christianity.  Not much is known about her with historical certainty.  However, her martyrdom testifies that knew and loved Jesus Christ.  She has become a patron saint of Sicily.

Friday, February 5, 2021

 Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(Hebrews 13:1-8; Mark 6:14-19)

Today, the feast of St. Agatha, the Church remembers more a way of life than a person.  Historical records about St. Agatha vary.  The oldest say that she lived in Catania, Sicily.  Newer ones put her in Palermo.  She may have been martyred during the Decian persecution around the year 250, but this too is uncertain.  It is said of her, as of other saints like Agnes, that she was sent to a brothel to rob her of virginity, but she resisted successfully.  The way of life that she with other virgin-martyrs represents is devotion to the Lord.  When most teens would be flirting with boys and naming future children, Agatha reflected on Christ’s love for her.

Today’s first reading includes this message of the Lord’s love.  The Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that Jesus will help Christians gain the heavenly crown he won for them.  He is the “helper” who enables the saint to resist evil.  Its last line is especially memorable.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  What he did in the past for saints like Agatha, he will do for people today.

It may be as hard as ever for teens to think of Christ’s love for them. They are bombarded by counter-evangelical images and ideas.  Nevertheless, they deserve to know the love of Christ.  We help them by sensitively listening to their hopes and fears, encouraging them to value a relationship with the Lord, and by living modest and holy lives.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(II Samuel 24:2.9-17; Mark 6:1-6)

It is said that in during the first few centuries the churches of Rome and Sicily bragged about their saints.  The Romans would claim St. Agnes as the worthiest virgin-martyr.  The Sicilians would counter that the distinction belongs to Agatha, today’s celebrated saint.  The friendly rivalry indicates how faith penetrated the everyday life of the people.  Today, in contrast, people brag about their city’s professional basketball team.  Both readings that we just heard concern the lack of faith.

David’s census indicates his belief that numbers of soldiers and not trust in God are his priority.  In the gospel the people refuse to believe in Jesus as God’s emissary despite his cures and his wisdom. 

With science making life so comfortable we have a hard time trusting in God.  We rationalize that God works through human ingenuity, but we forget to pray.  God seems hard to fit in our everyday lives.  But we abandon God to our peril.  Faith in God provides a blueprint for stability in life.  We will go far if we keep God’s commandments.  It also assures us of bliss beyond the travail of death.  Also important, faith promises fulfilment.  We know that the world does not center around us.  Still, by faith in God we are drawn into its true center where we find purpose, meaning, and peace.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(Hebrews 12:1-4; Mark 5:21-43)

Today we celebrate St. Agatha, a Sicilian virgin and martyr.  Her story is much like that of St. Agnes, the Roman, whom we remembered last month.  It is said that Agatha had a powerful suitor who sent her to a brothel and then to be tortured when she refused him.  The similarity of the two stories may be attributed to the way early Christians took pride in their saints.  Coming from different regions, they would boast whose martyrs were the bravest or bore the gravest trials.

We can see a glimpse of this pride in today’s first reading.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds his community of its “cloud of witnesses.”  These were the men and women of Israel who sacrificed themselves for love of God.  The writer exhorts his people to follow in their ways.  He does not want them to abandon their faith to pursue pleasure or comfort.  Rather they are to make the necessary sacrifices to follow Christ to eternal life.

Because there are fewer people at mass these days, the exhortation of Hebrews has pointed relevance.  We too have a “cloud of witnesses” – certainly saints like Mother Teresa and Padre Pio but also relatives and friends.  These people kept the faith despite hardships.  Perhaps they walked a mile to mass in freezing weather.  Maybe they gave up the opportunity to marry because their suitor was divorced or because of a religious vocation.  Their lives were first testimony of God’s love for us.  Then they witnessed the hope of all Christians for eternal happiness.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(I Kings 8:1-7.9-13; Mark 6:53-56)

The word incense is the past participle form of the Latin verb incendere meaning to burn.  Incense is often burned as an offering to God.  The smoke that it gives off rises as a symbol of human desire to come into the divine presence.  The sweetness of its fragrance is meant to please the Lord. 

In today’s first reading incense rises in Solomon’s temple for the first time.  It is an important occasion.  Now people have a special place to make offering for their sins.  Solomon even declares that God dwells in the cloud of smoke that results from their sacrifice.  In the story of Israel, however, the people do not stop sinning.  The prophets then prescribe a more effective offering than incense.  The people are to be “humble and contrite in spirit” trembling at God’s word (Isaiah 66:2).

Such a person was today’s patron, Saint Agatha.  Although little is known with certainty beyond her dying as a martyr, there is a late story that describes her sacrifice.  Agatha was a Sicilian beauty who professed her virginity to the Lord.  The Roman prefect became enamored of her and had her tortured for refusing to give in to him.  Soon afterwards she died in prison.

Fortunately we will not be called to make the supreme sacrifice for God.  But we can and should make small sacrifices of prayer, patience and charity regularly.  These works, as the psalmist says, rise to God like incense.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr

(Hebrews 12:1-4; Mark 5:21-43)

It is said that there was a rivalry in ancient times between the Church of Rome and that of Sicily. Each claimed that its martyrs were greater. The universal Church has honored these claims by including their representative saints in the first Eucharistic Prayer. Today the Church honors St. Agatha, a virgin and martyr, hailing from Sicily just as three weeks ago it celebrated St. Agnes, a Roman virgin-martyr.

Sicilians say that Agatha was tortured and died in prison in the middle of the third century. A year after her death, when Mount Etna was about to explode, the people asked Agatha’s intercession with the Lord. The volcano did not erupt, and the people credited their safety to her.

The reading from Hebrews today mentions a “great…cloud of witnesses” who stand as models of a faithful life. The reference is properly to the great personages of the Old Testament, but we can think of it as including saints like Agatha who endured death rather than abandon faith in Christ. As today we live in a society where faith wanes, we should consider the “cloud of witnesses” and strive to emulate their commitment to Christ.