Soldier For Christ - Sir Thomas More

As I mentioned yesterday, I had the pleasure of singing at our parish's Confirmation service for the eighth graders (and some first year high school students. My gosh they look so young and so very innocent. They also looked very proud to come forward and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit from Bishop George Rassas,the Vicar of our deanery. He closely questioned the young people, giving them the answers in the questions themselves as part of his homily. The gist of his homily can be summarized as follows; "Will you dare to be different,will you dare to use the gifts that God has given you to make difference? 

Sir Thomas More was a close confidant of King Henry VIII. He took his Catholic faith very seriously and considered the teachings of Martin Luther heresy. King Henry if you will recall wanted to be rid of his first wife who had not bore him a son in favor of a second wife who he thought might be able to bring a male child that he could pass the crown to one day. Unfortunately the king could not do this because divorce was not recognized. Being the king he decided that he deserved an exception to the rule and petitioned the pope to annul his first marriage so he would be free to marry the lovely Anne Boleyn. The Pope speaking for the Church refused to grant King Henry permission to divorce his first wife and to then take a new wife. The Church thus was pointing to the narrow road to holiness as she always will.  To this day Henry staunchly defended the Catholic faith in England against the heresies of the so called reformers. He reviewed the situation and decided that he would become the head of the church in England and so he caused another division in the Church that Christ headed and declared himself to be the last word in the English church. He therefore granted himself a divorce and married Ann Boleyn in the hopes that he will be able to sire a male heir through her. In Henry VIII we have an example of a person who in the end cast off the Church in favor of convenience. One girl (later Queen Elizabeth I) and three miscarriages later, Henry decided to get rid of Anne and she was tried in a kangaroo court and found guilty of high treason and was beheaded, allowing the king to continue the search for a male heir. 

Now all of this hubbub caused the political situation in England to change against the Church. Monasteries and churches that had been there for hundreds of years were forfeited to the crown and the monks, priests, and nuns were turned out of these places and forced to swear allegiance to Henry as the new leader of the Church. Failure to do so could and was considered the crime of high treason. The Mass as celebrated by the Catholic Church was declared illegal and those caught practicing it were subject to the penalty for treason which was the charming practice of being drawn and quartered. That is being hung by the neck until almost dead, being cut down and having your intestines "drawn" from your body and burned in front of you and finally to be tied to four horses by legs and arms and to be pulled asunder. In spite of this the Church went underground and the Mass was practiced for those who wanted to remain faithful to the Catholic Church. There were many martyrs made in England during those dark days. 

Thomas Moore saw the actions of Henry for what they were, the actions of a heretic. He made no secret that he remained faithful to the Catholic Church and he refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance to the Act of Succession. Thomas did send a private letter stating that Parliament had the right to declare Ann Boleyn the legitimate queen of England as a function of the state. 

His failure to sign the oath caused him to be arrested and committed to the Tower of London. He was tried by a committee that included Ann Boleyn's father, brother and uncle, for high treason.  He was found guilty (no surprise here) and sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Henry VIII in a tender act of mercy to his friend commuted the sentence from the barbaric draw and quartering to simple beheading.  On the day of his death Thomas said; "I die the kings good servant but God's first." When the ax fell the blood of the saint drenched the English soil in testimony against the unjust King Henry VIII and in testimony in favor of a faithful servant of God and His Holy Roman Catholic Church. 

This story of martyrdom is repeated time and time again in diverse times and places where Catholics and other Christians are killed for their beliefs. The sword of ISIS glistens red with the blood of faithful Christians. I wish that they were the only threats against Christians today.  Alas they are not.  

We may believe that today in America the chance of our becoming martyrs for the faith are slim. Sadly, we are often subjected to dry martyrdom. We do not forfeit our lives for the cause but we can be shunted to the margins of society because our beliefs are out of step with those of society.  In these last disastrous eight years of Obama's presidency we have seen the Christian Church and especially the Catholic Church attacked like no other time in history of the United States. 

We are forced to endure abortion, the intentional murder of defenseless babies, touted as "woman's health." What is so insidious about this is that our enemies including the radical Muslims are procreating at an greater rate then Christians of all ilks are. In America in the years ahead they will be able to achieve political power and sharia law may be imposed on all Americans. Look at China and the issue they have today because of the murder of girl children and their one baby policy. A race of people with just males making up the fabric of society is eventually going to age out of contention for being a world power.

Legislation, Obamacare, and the HHS mandate to be specific, is forcing Christians to support the providing of contraceptives to all that want them through our health insurance system even though this goes against our deeply held beliefs and is making people like the Little Sisters of the Poor criminals subject to fines.  Something is wrong here.  

We are supposed to recognize gay marriage in direct contradiction of God's law. President Obama celebrated the Supreme Court's decision by illuminating the outside of the White House, symbolic seat of our government with the colors of the "rainbow" which the sodomites have co-opted as the symbol of their unholy community.  

In retrospect I think that the crimes of Henry VII were mild compared to the offenses we routinely commit against God on a daily basis. Henry VII caught himself up in the trappings of this world and allowed pride and avarice to control his life.  Yet, Henry although he was disappointed that his wife only bore him a female child, he did not kill the child. In China, a girl child is likely to suffer death on the day of her birth. 

I do not envy the confirmads of 2016 because the beliefs of the common man will be directly against the beliefs taught by the Church that Christ founded. I have not however lost all hope because I know that the victory is already won and that Christ will put all of His enemies under His feet. Where sin abounds the grace of God also abounds and I believe that our youth will be up to the task of defending the faith because the Holy Spirit will be at work at them. Jesus promised that His Church will be built on rock and that the gates of hell will never prevail against it.  What Jesus has said will come to pass.