Another Martyr comes today to take his place round the Crib of our Jesus. He does not belong to the first ages of the Church: his name is not written in the Books of the New Testament, like those of St. Stephen, St. John and the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. Yet does he stand most prominent in the ranks of that Martyr Host which has been receiving fresh recruits in every age, and is one of those visible abiding proofs of the vitality of the Church, and of the undecaying energy infused into Her by Her Divine Founder. This glorious Martyr did not shed his blood specifically for the Faith; he was not dragged before the tribunals of pagans or heretics; it was a Catholic King that condemned him to death; it was by the majority of his own brethren, and they his countrymen that he was abandoned and blamed. How, then, could he be a Martyr? How did he gain a Palm like St. Stephen's? He was a Martyr for the Liberty of the Church.
Every Christian is obliged to lay down his life rather than deny any of the articles of our holy Faith: it was the debt we contracted with Jesus Christ when He adopted us in Baptism as His Brethren. All are not called to the honor of Martyrdom, that is, all are not required to bear that testimony to the Truth which consists in shedding one's blood for it: but all must so love their Faith as to be ready to die rather than deny it, under pain of incurring the eternal death from which the grace of Our Redeemer has already delivered us. The same obligation lies still more heavily on the Pastors of the Church. It is the pledge of the truth of their teachings. Hence we find in almost every page of the History of the Church the glorious names of saintly Bishops, who laid down their lives for the Faith they had delivered to their people. It was the last and dearest pledge they could give of their devotedness to the Vineyard entrusted to them, in which they had spent years of care and toil. The blood of their Martyrdom was more than a fertilizing element – it was a guarantee, the highest that man can give, that the seed they had sown in the hearts of men was in very truth the revealed Word of God.
But beyond the debt, which every Christian has, of shedding his blood rather than denying his Faith – that is, of allowing no threats or dangers to make him disown the sacred ties which unite him to the Church, and through Her to Jesus Christ – beyond this, Pastors have another debt to pay, which is that of defending the liberty of the Church. To kings, rulers, diplomats and politicians in general, there are few expressions so unwelcome as this – the Liberty of the Church; with them it means a sort of conspiracy. The world talks of it as being an unfortunate scandal, originating in priestly ambition. Timid temporizing Catholics regret that it can elicit anyone's zeal, and will endeavor to persuade us that we have no need to fear anything, so long as our Faith is not attacked. Notwithstanding all this, the Church has put upon our altars the glorious St. Thomas Becket, who was slain in his Cathedral in the twelfth century because he resisted a King's infringements on the extrinsic rights of the Church. She sanctions the noble maxim of St. Anselm, one of St. Thomas' predecessors in the See of Canterbury: Nothing does God love so much in this world as the Liberty of His Church; and the Apostolic See declares by the mouth of Pope Pius VIII, in the nineteenth century, the very same doctrine She would have taught by Pope St. Gregory VII, in the eleventh century: The Church, the spotless Spouse of Jesus Christ the Immaculate Lamb, is by God's appointment FREE, and subject to no earthly power (Lit. Apost. ad Epis. Prov. Rhenanae, 30 Jun. 1830).
But in what does this sacred Liberty consist? It consists in the Church's absolute independence of every secular power: in the ministry of the Word of God, which She is bound to preach in season and out of season, as St. Paul says, to all mankind, without distinction of nation or race or age or sex; in the administration of the Sacraments, to which She must invite all men without exception, in order to advance the world's salvation; in the practice, free from all human control, of the Counsels, as well as the Precepts, of the Gospel; in the unobstructed intercommunication of the several degrees of Her sacred Hierarchy; in the publication and application of Her decrees and ordinances in matters of discipline; in the maintenance and development of the Institutions She has founded; and lastly in the defense of those privileges which have been adjudged to Her by the civil authority itself, in order that Her ministry of peace and charity might be unembarrassed and respected.
Such is the Liberty of the Church. It is the bulwark of the Sanctuary. Every breach there imperils the Hierarchy, and even the very Faith. A Bishop may not flee, as the hireling, nor hold his peace, like those dumb dogs of which the Prophet Isaias speaks, and which are not able to bark (Is. 56: 10). He is the Watchman of Israel: he is a traitor if he first lets the enemy enter the citadel, and then, but only then, gives the alarm and risks his person and his life. The obligation of laying down his life for his flock begins to be in force at the enemy's first attack upon the very outposts of the City, which is only safe when they are strongly guarded.
The consequence of the Pastor's resistance may be of the most serious nature; in which even we must remember a truth which
has been admirably expressed by Bossuet in his magnificent panegyric on St. Thomas Becket: It is an established law that every
success the Church acquires costs Her the life of some of Her children, and that in order to secure Her rights, She must shed Her own
Blood... If there ever were a martyrdom which bore a resemblance to a sacrifice, it is the one I have to describe to you. First of all
there is the preparation: the Bishop is in the Church with his ministers, and all are robed in the sacred vestments. And the victim?
The victim is near at hand – the Bishop is the victim chosen by God, and he is ready. So that all is prepared for the sacrifice,
and they that are to strike the blow enter the Church. The holy man walks before them, as Jesus did before his enemies. He forbids
his clergy to make the slightest resistance, and all he asks of his enemies is that they injure none of them that are present: it is
the close imitation of his Divine Master, Who said to them that apprehended Him: If it be I whom you seek, suffer these to go their way.
And when all this had been done, and the moment for the sacrifice was come, St. Thomas begins the ceremony. He is both victim and priest:
he bows down his head, and offers the prayer. Listen to the solemn prayer, and the mystical words of the sacrifice: And I am ready to
die for God, and for the claims of justice, and for the Liberty of the Church, if only She may gain peace and Liberty by this shedding
of my blood! He prostrates himself before God: and as in the Holy Sacrifice there is the invocation of the Saints our intercessors,
St. Thomas omits not so important a ceremony; he beseeches the holy Martyrs and the Blessed Mary Ever-Virgin to deliver the Church
from oppression. He can pray for nothing but the Church; his heart beats but for the Church; his lips can speak nothing but the Church;
and when the blow has been struck, his cold and lifeless tongue seems still to be saying: The Church!
Now all this fortitude, and the whole of this victory, came from the Crib of the Infant Jesus: therefore it is that we find St. Thomas standing near it, in company with the Protomartyr St. Stephen. Any example of humility, and of what the world calls poverty and weakness, which had been less eloquent than this of the mystery of God made a little Child, would have been insufficient to teach man what real power is. Up to that time, man had no other idea of power than that which the sword can give, or of greatness than that which comes of riches, or of joy than what triumph brings: but when God came into this world, and showed Himself weak and poor and persecuted, everything was changed. Men were found who loved the lowly Crib of Jesus, with all its humiliations, better than the whole world besides: they imbibed a greatness of soul which even the world could not help admiring.
It is most just, therefore, that the two laurel-wreaths of St. Thomas and St. Stephen should intertwine round the Crib of the Babe of Bethlehem, for they are the two trophies of His two dear Martyrs. As regards St. Thomas, Divine Providence marked out most clearly the place he was to occupy in the cycle of the Christian year, by permitting his martyrdom to happen on the day following the Feast of the Holy Innocents; so that the Church could have no hesitation in assigning December 29 as the day for celebrating the memory of the saintly Archbishop of Canterbury. As long as the world lasts, this day will be a feast of dearest interest to the whole Church of God; and the name of Thomas of Canterbury will be, to the Day of Judgment, terrible to the enemies of the Liberty of the Church, and music breathing hope and consolation to hearts that love that Liberty, which Jesus bought at the price of His Precious Blood.
We will now listen to this dear Mother of ours, the Church, who gives us, in Her Divine Office, a short history of the life and sufferings of St. Thomas Becket:
St. Thomas was born in England, in the city of London. He succeeded Theobald as Bishop of Canterbury. He had previously acquitted himself with much honor as Chancellor, and was strenuous and unflinching in his duty as Bishop; for when Henry II, King of England, in an assembly of the Bishops and nobles of the realm, passed certain laws inconsistent with the interests and the honor of the Church, the Bishop withstood the King's avarice so courageously that neither fair promises nor threats could draw him over to the King's side, and being in danger of imprisonment, he privately withdrew. Not long after, all his relatives young and old, all his friends and household, were banished, and such of them as had attained the age of discretion had to promise on oath that they would go to St. Thomas, as perhaps he, who could not be made to swerve from his holy purpose by any personal consideration, might relent at the heart-rending spectacle of the sufferings of them who were dear to him. But he regarded not the demands of flesh and blood, neither did he permit the feelings of natural affection to weaken the firmness required of him as Bishop.
He therefore repaired to Pope Alexander III, from whom he met with a kind reception, and who commended him on his departure to the Cistercian Monks of Pontigny. As soon as Henry came to know this, he strove to have St. Thomas expelled from Pontigny, and for this purpose sent threatening letters to the General Chapter of Citeaux. Whereupon the holy man, fearing lest the Cistercian Order should be made to suffer on his account, left the monastery of his own accord, and betook himself to the hospitable shelter to which he had been invited by Louis, King of France. There he remained until, by the intervention of the Pope and King Louis, he was called home from his banishment, to the joy of the whole kingdom. Whilst resuming the intrepid discharge of the duty of a good shepherd, certain calumniators denounced him to King Henry as one that was plotting sundry things against the country and the public peace. And so the King was heard frequently complaining that there was only one Priest in his kingdom with whom he could not be in peace.
Certain wicked satellites concluded from this expression of the King that he would be pleased at their ridding him of St. Thomas.
Accordingly, they stealthily entered Canterbury, and finding the Bishop was in the church officiating at Vespers, they began their
attack. The clergy were using means to prevent them from entering the church, when the Saint forbade their opposition, and opening
the door, thus spoke to them: The church is not to be guarded like a citadel, and I am glad to die for God's Church. Then turning to
the soldiers, he said: I command you in the name of God that you hurt not any of them that are with me. After this he knelt down,
and commending his church and himself to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Dionysius, and to the other Patron Saints of his
Cathedral, with the same courage that he had shown in resisting the King's execrable laws, he bowed down his head to the impious
murderers, on the fourth before the Calends of January (December 29), in the year of Our Lord 1171. His brains were scattered
on the floor of the entire church. God having shown the holiness of his servant by many miracles, he was canonized by the same Pope,
Alexander III.
When we meet in the annals of the Church with the names of those great Bishops who have been the glory of the Christian Pontificate, we are at once sure that these men, the true images of the great High Priest Jesus Our Lord, did not intrude themselves uncalled into the dread honors of the Sanctuary. The history of their lives shows us that they were called by God Himself, as Aaron was; and when we come to examine how it was that they were so great, we soon find that the source of their greatness was their humility, which led them to refuse the honorable burden that others would put upon them. God assisted them in the day of trouble and trial, because their exaltation to the episcopacy had been his own work.
Thus was it with St. Thomas, who sat on his episcopal throne of Canterbury, the dignified and courageous Primate. He began by declining the high honor that was offered him. He boldly told the King, as St. Gregory VII, before ascending the Papal Throne, told the Emperor who fain would see him Pope, that if forced to accept the proffered dignity, he was determined to oppose abuses. He thought by this to frighten men from putting him into the honors and responsibilities of the pastoral charge, and hoped that they would no longer wish him to be a Bishop, when they suspected that he would be a true one: but the decree of God had gone forth, and St. Thomas, called by God, was obliged to bow down his head and receive the holy anointing. And what a Bishop he was, who began by humility and the determination to sacrifice his very life in the discharge of his duty!
How great is thy glory, O faithful Pontiff, in being chosen, together with St. Stephen, St. John and the Holy Innocents, to attend on the Infant Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem! Thou didst enter on the battlefield at the eleventh hour; and far from being on that account deprived of the reward granted to the earliest of thy brother-combatants, thou art great even amongst the Martyrs. How dear must thou not be to the Divine Babe Whose Birthday we are still keeping, and Who came into the world that He might be King of Martyrs! What will He refuse to His grand Martyr of Canterbury? Then pray for us, and gain us admission into Bethlehem. Our ambition is to love the Church as thou didst – that dear Church for love of which Jesus has come down upon the earth; that sweet Church our Mother, who is now unfolding to us such heavenly consolations by the celebration of the great Mysteries of Christmas, with which thy name is now inseparably associated. Obtain for us by thy prayers the grace of Fortitude, that so we may courageously go through any suffering, and make any sacrifice, rather than dishonor our proud title of Catholic.
Our newborn King is five days old today! Let us contemplate Him seated on His Throne. The Holy Scriptures tell us (Is. 37: 16; et alibi) that our God sitteth upon the Cherubim in Heaven; and that, under the old and figurative Law, He chose for His throne on earth the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25: 22). Blessed be His Name, for thus revealing to us the mystery of His Throne! But beyond this, the Psalmist told us of another place where God rested. Adore, said he, the footstool of His feet (Ps. 93: 5). The adoration here commanded to be paid, not to God Himself, but to the resting-place of His Divine Majesty, seems to contrast with so many other passages of the Sacred Volume, wherein God commands us to adore only Himself. But, as the Holy Fathers observe, the mystery is now explained. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word, the Son of God, has assumed our human nature; He has united it in unity of Person to His Divine Nature; and He commands us to adore this His Humanity, this Body and Soul which are like our own, this Throne of His Majesty, in a word, this ineffable holy Footstool of His Feet.
But this Humanity itself has its Throne. The Blessed Mother, Mary, raises the Divine Infant from the Crib; She presses Him to Her heart; She places Him on Her knees; it is our God, Emmanuel, throned – but with such love and majesty – on the Ark of the New Covenant! How far is the glory of Mary above that of the other living Throne formed for the Eternal Word by the trembling wings of Cherubim! And the Ark of Moses, made of corruptible wood, covered with plates of gold, holding within it the Manna and the Rod of Aaron and the very Tablets of the Law – is it not a figure that pales in the presence of the holiness and the dignity of the Mother of God?
How adorable art Thou on this Throne, O Jesus! and how lovable and easy to approach! Those tiny hands stretched out to sinners, and the smile of Mary, the Living Throne: both bid us go near. Oh! the happiness of being subjects of a King so great and yet so endearing! Mary is the Seat of Wisdom because Thou, O Wisdom of the Father! art reposing on Her. Reign there forever, sweet Jesus! Be Thou our King and Lord, and rule us in Thy comeliness and beauty and meekness (Ps. 44: 5)! We are Thy subjects, and we offer our adoring loyalty and love; and to Mary, the Queen Thou hast given us, we promise the homage of our best devotion!
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