I discovered last weekend after watching Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life” that St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Blessed Franz Jagerstatter were martyred exactly one year apart. She was martyred on August 9, 1942 and Blessed Franz was martyred on August 9, 1943. St. Maximilian Kolbe was martyred on August 14, 1941. Three years in a row, in the month dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, martyrs were offered in union with Christ Crucified on the Cross for the salvation of souls.
In the West, we tend to view the martyrs with a sort of detached awe since we are not currently being asked to shed our blood for the Faith. My daughter, who absolutely loves the stories of the martyrs—all of her favorite saints are martyrs—came to me the other day to tell me that, while she’d like to be a martyr, she finds the thought of it terrifying. I explained to her this is normal because martyrdom comes with great graces from God that can only be given when a soul has been called to the fullest union with Christ Crucified through martyrdom.
Even though this is the case, these three martyrs lived the call of dying-to-self well before they were asked to shed their blood at the hands of the Nazis. Each one of them underwent a process of purification and a willing entry into detachment from the things of this life. In that way, even those not called to red martyrdom can learn the path of renunciation and live a white martyrdom in our daily lives.
Each one of these saints had to forsake the desire for honor, praise, power, pleasure, and wealth long before they met the death they were called to in Christ. St. Teresa Benedicta left the Judaism of her youth for Catholicism, which greatly pained her mother and her family. Blessed Franz was hated and abandoned by his village, and at times, members of the Church. St. Maximilian Kolbe printed materials opposed to the Nazis knowing it would lead to his imprisonment. They all made the choice to forsake the esteem of others in order to walk the Way of the Cross in union with Our Savior alone, if and when necessary.
All three of these saints understood that this life is ultimately about Christ and the Cross. Nothing else matters. The esteem and acceptance of others can become a stumbling block when it gets in the way of following God’s will. They had to confront the St. Peters in their lives who attempted to keep them from the Cross and instead kept their gaze fixed on Christ waiting for them at Calvary and leave those people to prayer (Matthew 16:23).
Our daily lives are filled with difficulties and choices. All of those choices require us to pick up our Cross daily or to chose comfort, ease, the world, and temptation. We are given ample opportunities in small ways to choose the good, the true, and the beautiful as a way of life. To foster the virtues, a life of prayer, and deep love of the Sacraments and the Mass. All three of these saints sought holiness in this way because it is the only way.
Christ entrusts us with small sacrifices during each day in order to prepare us for greater battles that await us on the horizon. As our lives go on, our Cross gets heavier. More of our loved ones die, kids leave the Church, the culture is going mad, our bodies give way to age and illness, rejection, betrayal, loneliness, and the list goes on and on. He uses the small moments of right now to prepare us for what He will ask of us tomorrow, five years from now, and fifty years from now.
We must embrace the Cross now and in every moment in order to be ready for the greater trials and tribulations to come. These saints sought Christ in all things and through their daily crucifixions and in enduring the trials of immense persecution, they were strengthened and prepared to walk towards their executions with courage, peace, faith, hope, and love. The life of holiness was their training ground for their ultimate union with Him.
We do not know what Christ may ask us tomorrow. None of the saints understood their path right away. Some had radical callings, while others had callings that were unveiled over time. St. Maximilian Kolbe knew from a young age that he would be a martyr. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross came to understand her path through prayer. We do not know if Blessed Franz was fully aware early on that he would die a martyr’s death, but through deep contemplative prayer and torture he was able to prepare to meet his death with joy, resignation, and peace.
How we choose to live each moment of every single day has a wider impact on our future, as well as on the supernatural order. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was a victim-soul who gave herself for the salvation of others. St. Maximilian Kolbe gave his life for a husband and father. His sacrifice—like St. Teresa Benedicta and Blessed Franz’s—reverberated outwards even though he never saw the fruits of it in this life. Blessed Franz was a husband and father who witnessed to the truth that we ultimately serve God, not man. They could only understand fully what the Holy Spirit placed within their hearts to do from their place in eternity after they surrendered to crucifixion.
Great graces were poured out on them to be sure, but it was also their habit of dying to their own desires and wants for the sake of others and out of love for God that helped propel them forward. There is nothing small about each sacrifice we make that leads us to deeper union with Christ Crucified in our daily lives. We never know where He will lead us. May we seek to walk the Way of the Cross daily as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Blessed Franz Jagerstatter did in their lives and by their deaths.
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image: Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
