Where are all the martyrs gone? It seems that they do not appear on our immediate horizon but rather languish in the backwaters of Wikipedia awaiting us to discover them. Martyrs are those that are witnesses to Christ and to the way of Christ. If that is the case are we not all martyrs to the faith or we should be in what we proclaim and do. The issue is that along with the majority we perceive martyrs as those who have died or rather been gruesomely put to death by those who are deemed to be not of the faith. In other words we think solely of St Agnes and those like her whose names we now revere and use as placeholders or examples for modern believers. However, in the original meaning of the word, which we Christians have redefined, martyrs were and are witnesses to their cause.
We do not live in an era of violence within the borders of Australia, however, we still see the tendency towards radical violence when people oppose the views of the other. If we are to try and emulate St Agnes and any of the others before and after we need not emulate their deaths but rather their witness to the gospel and the way of Christ. What their lives and deaths highlight for us is that opposition to God's word and way often lead to responses that are extreme as a result of speaking the truth. It is perhaps that in this day and age because we 'look up' to the martyrs of the faith and perceive only the horrifics of their deaths we find it difficult to understand our own witness. In our linking of death with the fate of the martyr, in the true sense of witness, we do not wish to participate in our call to be witnesses to Christ.
The call to be witness and our understanding of the fate of the witness, through the veneration of people such as St Agnes, means that we have to "consider our call" as Paul puts it to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:26). Our aversion to the fate of the witness means that we also forget the banality of the witness' life who were not powerful or wise but normal with a true faith and witness to the truth. Let us understand the life of Agnes before her death and subsequent declaration as it were into martyrdom. She was a normal teenager in Rome who underwent persecution because of her status as a Christian. Just as in today's world people are persecuted for who or what they are rather than attempting to understand them. Sexual abuse is often part of the martyr's story especially if the martyr is a woman and this is the same for Agnes. Perhaps simply because in a patriarchal society the abuse and defilement of women are seen as ways of showing strength. The normal cycle occurs with abuse followed by a number of attempts at killing in this case through fire and eventually with a sword thrust. If we were to think of the symbology here it is perhaps male supremacy through the sword.
What does this all mean for us? Perhaps that in our accepted normality we are also outcasts in the world. Our buried treasures (Matt 13:44-ff) are just that unseen and unknown to the world. In bringing them into the light of the world we open ourselves up to abuse of not only ourselves as being different but our families and communities. Today's morality in terms of our actions towards others who are different or display a greater understanding than ourselves is much the same as in Roman times. We just need to consider the actions of sections of society who believe themselves better than others whether as a result of race, creed or social circumstance. What Christ and the martyrs tell us is that our deeper truths need to be lived out in practice. We need to really give careful consideration to what we have been called to especially in the knowledge that the truth always hurts those who do not want to hear it. This naturally leads the other towards rejection of those who follow the way of truth. Often, unfortunately, the rejection of the truth leads to violence. Violence, which often ends up being horrific and personal. In not wanting to confront that violence we come once more to our rejection of the message and the life of the witness. We bury our own treasures we do not dig them out. We reject the pearls of great worth so to avoid the pains that come with speaking and living the truth. This is the inspiration of the martyrs, not the violence, but the normality of their lives lived in the truth.
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