Today’s Gospel from Matthew (16:24-28) has a stark clarity when visiting the sight of the 26 Japanese Martyrs. (1597) Jesus instructed his disciples:
Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
The heart of the mystery of the Christian life lies in this teaching. The secret to all life is to live for others. The soul of the Christian life is the eternal life offered by the Risen Christ. Those who have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God know there is no greater good than this new life in Christ! There is no greater treasure!
Imagine how precious their faith in Jesus Christ must have been to these 26 men and boys (the youngest was only 12 – St. Louis Ibaraki). Another one, St. Anthony, born in Nagasaki, only 13, along the month long journey from Kyoto to Nagasaki for his martyrdom, wrote his family telling them to never lose their faith!
Another inspiration that comes to us from the Christian community in Japan is the history of the hidden Christians who suffered persecution for 250 years. St. Francis Xavier along with other Jesuit missionaries brought the Christian faith to Japan in 1549. Due to growing suspicion that these foreign missionaries were no more than spies, they were all banned from the country in 1614 and the remaining Christians faced horrible persecution.
Many Christians went underground and found successful ways to keep the faith alive, passing it on to others for generations. Despite the lack of priests and places of worship they kept the faith alive for over two centuries.
In 1863 French Missionaries were allowed to return to Japan. Fr. Bernard Thaddee Petitjean completed the construction of a new church Oura in 1864. In the Spring of 1865 a group arrived asking him questions about the Blessed Mother and then they knew a Catholic priest had returned to the country, and Fr. Petitjean knew he had discovered the descendants of the hidden Christians! Fr. Petitjean became the First Bishop of Nagasaki.
Today, I prayed in these holy places before the relics of these martyrs, asking that I may treasure my faith in Jesus Christ above all else! I prayed that all of us may grow in our appreciation for just how precious a gift we have in our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, who suffered, gave up his life on a cross for us and rose again to share his life with all who come to faith!
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