Recently I viewed a Public Broadcasting documentary about Mexico, its rich heritage, which included an exploration a popular holiday, the Day of the Dead. This festive yet reflective holiday is a celebration of life, and of ancestry - a day believed to reunite all those who died with the living. It is an important day that brings back the memory of deceased loved ones, lest they be forgotten.
This celebration came to mind today as I prepared to celebrate the memorial of Saint Wenceslaus and St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions. They go back a long time: Wenceslaus to the year 1000, and Ruiz and Companions to the 1600's. But their lives were significant then, and are worthy of special remembrance by us today.
Wenceslaus was raised a Christian by his grandmother, but his mother and brother were not Christians. As a ruler he brought about some strict reforms and was resented by some of the nobility. His brother invited him to a religious festival where Wenceslaus was murdered; in fact, martyred.
Lawrence Ruiz and his Companions were Dominican associates and were martyred in Japan. Lawrence was a husband, a father, and a Filipino.
In the reading from the prophet Zechariah, we heard how people of all nations flocked to Jerusalem convinced that God was there and that they would find favor with him. We heard how strangers, non-Jews from every land frantically sought to join the Jews journey saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
This was the motivation that compelled men like Wenceslaus and Lawrence Ruiz and his companions to follow Jesus. They were resolutely determined to journey to what would be their Jerusalem. Like Jesus, who was a rejected by the Samaritans because His destination was Jerusalem, the holy city, so too, our martyrs today were rejected by those of their day because our martyr’s destination was also the holy city Jerusalem.
We would be remiss if we did not have a fitting remembrance and celebration of these our ancestors in the faith who remind us that, like Christ, who laid his life down for us, they too laid down their lives for others.
Saint Wenceslaus, Saint Ruiz, and Companions, pray for us.
