The Martyrs’ Death Was Bought by the Death of Christ
COSMOS AND DAMIAN, MARTYRS (d. 287)
From a Sermon by Saint Augustine, Bishop (354-430)
The martyrs’ death was bought by the death of Christ and it is precious in his sight.
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
In the glorious deeds of the holy martyrs who everywhere adorn the Church, we verify the truth of what we have been singing: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. They are precious in our sight and in the sight of him in whose name it was done. The price paid for these deaths was the death of one man. How many deaths indeed this one man bought by dying, for if he had not died, the grain of wheat would not have been multiplied! You have heard what he said as he drew near to his passion, our redemption: If the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it remains barren, but if it dies, it is very fruitful.
On the cross Christ effected a great exchange. There the purse containing the price to be paid for us was opened. When the soldier’s lance cut its way into his side, the price paid for the whole world flowed forth. The martyrs and all the faithful were bought with it, but the faith of the martyrs was also tested: their blood bore witness to their faith. They gave back what had been paid for them and lived up to what Saint John says: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we should lay down our lives for our brothers. Elsewhere we read: You have taken your seat at the great table; consider carefully what is set before you, for you must prepare the same in return. The great table is the one at which the Lord of the banquet is himself the food. No one feeds the guests with his very self, yet that is what Christ the Lord does. He invites and he is the food and drink. The martyrs took careful note of what they ate and drank, so that they might return the same.
But how could they return the same unless the one who had first given it, gave them also the means of making a return? What shall I give back to the Lord for all that he has given me? I shall take the cup of salvation. What cut is that? The bitter and saving cup of suffering, the cup the sick man would be afraid to put to his lips unless the doctor had drunk of it first. That is the cup meant here, and we find Christ himself speaking of it: Father, if possible, let this cup pass away from me. Of it the martyrs said: I shall take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Are you not afraid that you may fail the test? But why should you be? I shall call upon the name of the Lord. How else did the martyrs overcome, except that in them he overcame who said: Rejoice, for I have overcome the world? The Lord of heaven directed their minds and tongues; through them he overcame the devil on earth and crowned them as martyrs in heaven. Happy are they who have thus drunk of this cup, for their suffering is over, and they have received their honors.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Augustine was born at Tagaste in northern Africa, the son of Patricius, a pagan Roman official and Monica, a Christian. At 17, Augustine went to the university at Carthage to study rhetoric and literary pursuits. He became interested in philosophy and accepted the heresy of Manichaeism. He taught at Tagaste and Carthage for ten years then left for Rome in 373 and opened a school of rhetoric but left the following year to teach in Milan. His mother, St. Monica, had prayed relentlessly for his conversion for seventeen years. Then, in Milan, Augustine was so impressed by the Sermons of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, he embraced the Christian faith with zeal. He was baptized by Ambrose on Easter Eve in 387.
He abandoned his secular interests and began a community life of prayer and meditation pouring over the Scriptures and completely reformed his life. Later in 387, he started back to Africa, and on the way, his mother Monica died at Ostia. The following year he established a religious community at Tagaste and began to preach with phenomenal success. He was made Bishop of Hippo in 396. During the next thirty four years Augustine wrote profusely, completing some two hundred treatises, three hundred letters, four hundred sermons and major works in theology and philosophy evidencing a towering intellect which molded the thought of Western Christianity for a thousand years after his death.
St. Augustine died on August 28 during Genseric’s siege of Hippo in 430. Among his best known works are his Confessions, one of the great spiritual classics of all time; City of God, another classic presentation of Christian philosophy and history. He is one of the greatest of the Early Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church. He is considered one of the greatest single intellects the Catholic Church has ever produced.