If we were living in other times, such questions would be useless or extravagant. But in the period of history in which we live and in which we shall die, all is possible, and we must be ready. Furthermore, nowhere is it written that the era of martyrs is closed.
Assuredly, I should not get proud, believing too readily that such little virtues as mine are the seed of the martyr.
Neither ought I to live in a state of cowardice which makes me reject it, a priori, as a too beautiful end, declaring, without any proof, that it is not meant for me.
The right rule of action is to let God determine my future, and my end; I will prepare myself, with all my soul, for my end, which will demand of me the maximum of love. To do that, I will strive throughout my life, beginning today, to live in the habitual gift of maximum love. Charles de Foucauld wrote in 1897:
"Think that you must die a martyr and desire that it be today....In order that I may give you this infinite grace, be faithful, in vigilance and in carrying your cross. Consider that it is to this death that all your life must tend; see of what trifling importance many things seem in this light; think often of this death to prepare for it, and to judge things by their right value."It was only nineteen years after having written these lines, the first of December, 1916, that Foucauld was assassinated in the Sahara.
My problem is not whether I shall die a martyr, that is God's concern. My problem is to live, and nineteen years if necessary, as someone of whom God can make a martyr.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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