Red Wednesday

Last Wednesday was Red Wednesday: the day on which our church, among many other buildings, was lit in red to bear witness to the horrendous persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters abroad. Persecution, violent persecution of Christians, is as old as the Church. The Acts of the Apostles relates how St Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the resurrected Christ, not a long time after Pentecost, the day on which the Apostles had started to spread the Gospel.

The Church has traditionally recognised martyrdom as a special way of being united with Christ — not a way to which all of us are called, but still a powerful and special way. The early Fathers of the Church and the Apostolic Fathers talk about ‘Baptism of Blood’. The expression ‘Baptism of Blood’ means that those people who shed their blood for Christ are united with him, as if they had received sacramental baptism. In the sacrament of baptism, we participate sacramentally in the death and resurrection of Christ and, as a result, are drawn into the life of the Holy Trinity. By shedding their blood for Christ, martyrs participate physically in Christ’s death and, as such, also participate in his resurrection; therefore they too are drawn into the life of the Holy Trinity.

Building on this well-established tradition of the Church, the recent Synod on Synodality invites us to regard and venerate, as martyrs, even those Christians from other denominations who have shed their blood for Christ. Their witness to the Christian faith is a strong bond of unity with the Church of Christ, more powerful than any doctrinal error they may have held, knowingly or not, in their lifetime.

The Church is really united in suffering —  because, in suffering, we are united to the Mystery of the Cross. Every year on Red Wednesday, we celebrate this unity, as we bear witness to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are persecuted for the name of Christ.