Daily Mass - Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

Today we began a novena of Masses for the Holy Souls, which are counted down in the newsletters until next week. It is vital in the Judaeo-Christian tradition that we pray for the souls of the faithful departed, which we Catholics number as one of the spiritual works of mercy. Here is the list:

1. Counseling the doubtful: directing people to Christ or back to Christ.
2. Instructing the ignorant: sharing the various elements of the Faith with other people.
3. Admonishing the sinner: constructively directing people away from sin.
4. Comforting the sorrowful: bereavement counselling.
5. Forgiving injuries: primarily, forgiving those who trespass against us.
6. Bearing wrongs faithfully: mostly suffering patiently and without complaint.
7. Praying for the living and the dead: Mass intentions and prayer intentions.

Saint John Fisher makes me very sad, because he was the only bishop to stand up to the king, when Henry VIII broke with the Holy See and engineered the Church of England. We could have hoped that at least one other bishop would have stood with him. In John Fisher, we see the loneliness of the just man, the faithful man. John Fisher was a Cambridge man and in his younger days served as spiritual director to the queen mother and tutored the young Henry. He was later named chancellor of Cambridge and was appointed bishop of Rochester, demonstrating both his scholarly qualities and his love of the people. He was an early opponent of Lutheranism imported into England, and it was inevitable that he would fight for the unity of the Church. 

Sir Thomas More was an Oxford man who entered Parliament soon after being admitted to the bar. A deeply religious man, he debated a life in Holy Religion before marrying and beginning a family. His rise in politics was stellar, ending with his being named Lord Chancellor to the king, when his wife died. He had remarried when the king decided that he wanted to divorce Queen Catherine, in order to marry Ms. Boleyn. John Fisher, as bishop, defended the Queen in the divorce proceedings, and Thomas More upheld the ongoing validity of the first marriage, which could not be dissolved on Catholic principles. Unable to publicly oppose the king, he resigned from the chancellorship and fell into poverty. When the king devised the oath of Supremacy, both men inevitably refused to approve it and were sent to the Tower. On this day in 1535, both were beheaded and their heads hung from the Tower. 

People say that they are martyrs of conscience. Pish-tosh. They were martyrs for the Law of God, which they loved with all their heart. And one loves the Law of God because of their love of the Lawgiver. And Christ said in yesterday's Gospel:

"Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father Who is in heaven." - Gospel of S. Matthew, 10: 31