Jose Soler
Of some of our greatest saints –such as Saint George or Saint Joseph, for example– no certain words have reached us. His works have come down to us., louder and more eloquent than any voice. It seems to the martyr that, until then, your life has been nothing but an empty word, and martyrdom offers him the opportunity to be and to become a Word of God, a real word like the Verb. “If you call them with respect to me, if you let me die –says Saint Ignatius of Antioch–, I'll be an empty word". Saint George is also today, for all of us, a word of god, who calls us to follow him, with his life and his example.
Martyrdom equals testimony. The martyr is a qualified witness of faith in Christ. He is so penetrated with his faith, clings to him with such force, who is capable of sacrificing his own life. As Saint Augustine said, "The martyr lives with the Truth and dies for the Truth". To live with the Truth is to live with Christ: Only he who lives intensely with this living Truth is capable of dying for it..
The martyr is not worth it, without the cause. It is not pain or death that constitutes martyrdom, but the cause: die for or deny Jesus Christ. That is why martyrdom has an entirely Christological meaning.. The martyrs choose Christ before the gods or the deified Roman Emperor.
The mystique of the first Christians is the mystique of Christ. It is made of a simple and total faith, a faith that excludes any duplicity and vacillation, that knows no doubts or second intentions, who identifies with himself. The early Christians were proud of Christ and of bearing his name, your contry, its race, Analyzing the psychological motivation by which this power drives man to be a party animal leads us to ask, and he responds to everything; "I'm Christian". The heathen heard no other word.
It would seem that they felt and were strongly in love with Christ, of that Christ who, once resurrected, no longer die, that has given us all that we are, who calls us, what awaits us, who attracts us through his love towards us, and towards whom our love tends. That is why Saint Paul said: "I want to be freed from this body of death and be with Christ".
Martyrs do not accept death because they feel frustrated, out of contempt for life or things. The authentic martyr wishes to die to be with God more fully, by impulse of charity, that urges you to love God more than all things. The martyr values the world from his faith and wants to be a disciple of Christ with all its consequences; lives for others and agrees to die for them as his Master.
Martyrdom is thus a following of Christ, an imitation of his Passion. "Allow me," says Saint Ignatius- be an imitator of the Passion of my God. We must strive to imitate the Lord, arguing about who can suffer more for his love. Well, it is necessary not only to call oneself Christians, but to be".
What is the true disciple of Christ? He who does not put any limit to the imitation of his Master. This is the spirit in which the first Christian generations lived., those formed by the Apostles and their disciples, the one who animated the life of our patron Saint George. Believing in Christ was for him to choose him exclusively, be willing to give everything for him. It was living the word of Jesus every day: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me". This is the only way to be Christian. Because he who sticks to his own self does not achieve his life, but the one who gives and delivers generously, like jesus, for his brothers.
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians, not only because they give us a good example, but because all of us who have the same faith participate in his heroic virtue through the communion of saints. Everybody, ancient or modern, we benefit from the merits of the martyrs. His strength sustains the weak. His sacrifice helps us to be martyrs every day, lovingly accepting the cross of existence. His decision encourages us not to waste our lives on inconsequential things, but to fill it with weight and courage by following Jesus.
Newman has said that "the best pages of our life are written by others". Never better applied the idea than on this occasion. Because the best pages in the history of Bañeres and of each Bañerense are undoubtedly written by our Patron Saint George. That his life and his death, God's word to us, continue your sowing of love and truth in the fertile land of our blessed city and that quietly, as he taught us, our works shout the love of our faith.
