February 6th, 2025 – Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions
May the Lord give you his peace!
You may have heard that this year Pope Francis has called for a Jubilee Year of Hope. I offer the following reflection on the theme of Hope:
Sometimes I tell the young people in my youth ministry in an effort to help them connect to their faith that Catholicism is a “heavy metal” religion. Think about it… We keep the bones of our heroes in our churches (or their full skeletons in the case of St. Martin of Tours down off Broadway)… we eat the body and blood of our God… and the symbol of our religion is the most brutal instrument of torture ever devised…
Funny enough, there is even a Swedish heavy metal band that started researching Catholicism so that they could better blaspheme in their music. Through their research, they ended up converting to the faith.
That’s all pretty “metal.”
The descriptor is tongue in cheek of course, but nonetheless, Catholicism is intense. That is because the cross is intense. The cross reveals in a single glance man’s capacity for brutality and sin, and God’s infinite love for us in spite of our brokenness.
Thus the cross is the ultimate symbol of Hope. It reveals that there is nothing that can stop God from loving us. Nothing we have done, past, present, nor future can change how much he loves us.
Catholicism takes the scary things in life, and puts them in the context of a loving God. This is what allows St. Paul to reference Hosea 13 in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The perfectly faithful Catholic is delivered perfectly from every single fear, even a fear of death, through Hope.
Now, of course, most of us are not perfectly faithful (you’ll recall the aforementioned brokenness.) Nonetheless, deliverance from our fears, yes even the fear of death, is possible in this life if we ask God to do it. Remember: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” – 1 John 4:18
Who is perfect love? Jesus. I encourage you to pray for deliverance from fear for yourself and your loved ones!
Ask Jesus to come into your hearts and drive out the fear. He will do it.
Come, Lord Jesus and deliver us from our fears!
This reflection was inspired by this quote from St. Paul Miki as he was being crucified: “The only reason for my being killed, is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again – ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”