The saints are happy in heaven because they followed Christ. They rejoice with him because they shed their blood for love of him. During the 17^th - 19^th centuries in Vietnam, some 130, 000 Christians suffered cruel martyrdom, many by decapitation or strangulation. The 117 whose lives the Church honors today include eleven Spanish Dominicans (six bishops and five priests), ten members of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, and ninety-six Vietnamese (thirty-seven priests, including eleven Dominicans, Andrew Dung-Lac, a diocesan priest, and fifty-nine lay persons, including one seminarian and ten Dominican tertiaries. These 117 were canonized on 19^th June 1988 by pope John Paul II.
According to the customs of the Church, those who suffer martyrdom are automatically enrolled in the register of the saints (that is, even before they are formally recognized as saints, they are regarded as such). I believe that the wisdom behind this tradition is that those who suffer martyrdom have already “worked” a miracle (at least two miracles are required before one can be formally declared a saint). The martyrs’ voluntary giving up of their lives for the sake of the faith is itself a miracle. Like the martyrs of the early Church, the Vietnamese martyrs died for Christ at a time when the Christian faith was in its nascent phase in their country. They did not have the benefit that we have today of the Christian faith being a global phenomenon. I also believe that, in that part of the world, there was very little of which Christianity could boast (Christianity was yet to make a name for herself in the various important sectors of life as it has today). Yet, the Vietnamese martyrs, especially the natives, were ready and willing to die for the faith. Despite not having the “theological” insights that we have today, the native Vietnamese martyrs already understood that with Christ, they had gained everything that they would have longed for. There was nothing better to live for than Jesus Christ, and if it meant losing their earthly lives in order to retain their friendship with Jesus Christ, so be it.
For the Vietnamese martyrs, as is the case for all those who give their lives for the sake of Christ, the words of Jesus which we hear in the Gospel Reading rang very true in their ears. As they were literally being dragged before the emperors and their minions, they became emboldened by the knowledge that they needed not to “craft” their defense beforehand. The Holy Spirit was going to speak on their behalf.
The blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Christian faith. As we celebrate and honor the sacrifice of the Vietnamese martyrs today, may we ask for their intercessions that we too may remain emboldened in our faith in season and out of season. May the inspiration that we get from them enable us to realize that nothing should come between our friendship with Jesus.