Wisdom 10:17–20 · Luke 21:9–19
In the spirit of Ss. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs, and of Popes Victor I and Innocent I
Monday of the Seventh Week after the Octave of Pentecost – III Class
Today, Holy Mother Church presents us with readings that echo the triumphant voice of martyrdom and the steadfastness of divine wisdom amidst tribulation. We commemorate the courage of Ss. Nazarius and Celsus, youthful martyrs of the early Church, alongside Pope Victor I, the first African pope and martyr, and Pope Innocent I, confessor and defender of orthodoxy. In these sacred texts and commemorations, we are drawn into a reflection on fidelity, endurance, and the victory of divine wisdom through suffering.
I. The Path of Wisdom: Wisdom 10:17–20
“She rendered to the just the wages of their labours, and conducted them in a wonderful way: and she was to them for a covert by day, and for the light of stars by night. And she brought them through the Red Sea, and carried them through a great water. But their enemies she drowned in the sea, and from the depth of hell she brought them out: therefore the just took the spoils of the wicked.”
These verses, recalling the Exodus, present Wisdom as a guiding and saving presence. As St. Ambrose teaches in his Exposition of the Psalms, Wisdom is none other than Christ Himself, who is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). The Fathers often read such passages not merely as historical memory but as types fulfilled in the Church. The Red Sea is a figure of Baptism, as St. Cyril of Jerusalem explains: “The Egyptians who pursued you were the sins which were destroyed in the water” (Catechetical Lectures, III, 12).
Thus, Wisdom is not abstract but incarnate: Christ leading His people, saving them not only from Pharaoh but from death and sin. The martyrs, like Nazarius and Celsus, are the new Israelites, carried by Christ through the waters of suffering and into the light of glory. Their blood is the Red Sea through which they pass into eternal life.
II. The Hour of Trial: Luke 21:9–19
“But when you shall hear of wars and seditions, be not terrified… you shall be betrayed… and some of you they will put to death. And you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake. But a hair of your head shall not perish. In your patience you shall possess your souls.”
In this Gospel, Our Lord prepares His disciples for the long tribulation of the Church’s earthly pilgrimage. The tribulations foreseen here are not only those of the final times but of every age in which the Church bears witness to Christ amidst the hatred of the world.
The confidence in divine Providence is total: “not a hair of your head shall perish.” This is not a promise of earthly ease, but of spiritual preservation. As St. Augustine reflects in his Expositions on the Psalms (Ps. 34), “The body is scourged, the soul is crowned… the persecutor can hurt the flesh, but not the faith.” And again, in his homily on the martyrs of Scillium, he notes: “The patience of the saints is their possession; for by enduring they possess themselves, while the wicked, by seeking to possess others, lose even themselves.”
In an age increasingly marked by confusion and apostasy, these words ring with solemn truth. The Church in our time, though not always facing open persecution, is no less in need of the courage exemplified by the martyrs. Fidelity to truth, especially the fullness of the Catholic faith handed down sine glossa, without the glosses of modern compromise, demands a martyrdom of constancy.
III. The Witness of the Martyrs
The memory of Ss. Nazarius and Celsus, whose relics were discovered by St. Ambrose himself, reminds us that youth is no barrier to sanctity. Their innocent lives were crowned by heroic confession, bearing witness to Christ in an age where paganism demanded silence or complicity.
St. Victor I, the first African pope, governed the Church during a time of internal dispute and external trial. His firmness in defining the date of Easter, his opposition to Gnosticism, and his martyrdom under Septimius Severus bear testimony to a papacy not of diplomacy but of doctrinal clarity.
Pope Innocent I, though not a martyr by blood, was a confessor in spirit. He upheld the authority of the Apostolic See and defended orthodoxy in the wake of the Pelagian heresy. As St. Jerome writes of him with admiration: “Innocent, of blessed memory, showed that Rome’s sentence was the decision of the whole Church.”
IV. Reflection and Application
The readings and commemorations call us to a faith that is not passive, but tested, sharpened, and made radiant through fidelity in suffering. Whether through martyrdom of blood or of conscience, the path to sanctity is the path of endurance.
Let us, like the martyrs, entrust ourselves to Divine Wisdom. Let us not be dismayed by the storms of this world, but take courage in the promise: “In your patience you shall possess your souls.” For in holding fast to Christ and His Holy Church, we are led through the Red Sea of trial, and into the freedom of the sons of God.
Closing Prayer (adapted from the Roman Breviary, Common of Martyrs):
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that as we venerate the glorious sufferings of Thy holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus, and the holy Popes Victor and Innocent, we may be made strong in the confession of Thy name, and rejoice eternally in their fellowship in heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.