Homily: February 5 - Saint Agatha - virgin, martyr

Saint Agatha is one of the great virgin martyrs of the early Roman church, who in the midst of persecution, chose to be faithful to Christ no matter what the cost.  She was martyred in the brief but ferocious persecution of the emperor Decius. 

This persecution was the first empire wide persecution.  It required all citizens of the Empire to offer a sacrifice to the Roman Gods, renounce the Christian faith in front of a Roman official and obtain a certificate called a libellus proving they had done so.

Some Christians publically rejected their faith by offering the sacrifice; some compromised their faith by bribing the official to obtain the libellus. 

Saint Agatha was a beautiful young woman who was sought after by many of the wealthy suitors of her time.  She, however, had given her heart to another.  She had consecrated herself to Christ—to be His bride—to spend her life in his prayerful service and consecrated virginity.

One Pagan Roman man, threatened that he would turn her in to the authorities if she did not marry him.  She refused to marry him, and since she would not offer the pagan sacrifice, she was  imprisoned, and tortured, and eventually killed.

The Church’s honoring the virgin-martyrs, is not some statement that marriage is bad.  Marriage is very good, it’s a sacrament instituted by God for the sanctity of spouses and the proliferation of the human race and the education of Children, all very good.

But we honor the virgin martyrs like Agatha, Susanna, Agnes, Anastasia, Dymphna, not just because of their courage and perseverance, but because of their immense love of Christ.  All of them offered their life rather than betray the union of their hearts with the Heart of Christ.  These weren’t naïve little girls, they knew what their consecration to Christ would mean in a time of hostility towards the faith. 

A few centuries later, Saint Benedict would exhort his monks “to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”  The virgin martyrs show us in their faithfulness, in their purity, and in their total consecration what that looks like.  Christians must not compromise the faith in the face of political hostility, and we must not compromise in the face of sinful temptation.

Where a lukewarm faith and lukewarm love of Jesus Christ will always produce a lack of courage in the face of hostility and a lack of fortitude in the face of temptation, a burning passion for Christ fills us with the resolution to publically witness the faith and to abhor sin. 

In our culture which grows increasingly hostile to Christ and his message, may Saint Agatha and the virgin martyrs teach us to love Him and hold fast to Him and prefer nothing to the love of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.