'A
madman burns Christians like human torches'. We remember the martyrs of 64 A.D.
Inside
the west doors of Westminster Abbey is the Grave of the Unknown Soldier. Many
countries have a memorial to an unknown soldier, which represents all
those who died in war. On civic feast days members of the Royal Family and
visiting heads of state lay wreaths and flowers knowing that in honouring that
one soldier they honour all. A nation’s official remembering - in stone,
statue, ceremony or speech - guards against a sort of national amnesia whereby
we forget the sacrifices and lessons of the past.
The
Church’s calendar is also a continual public remembering of people and
theology. Today, the 30th June, we remember the Christian men, women and
children who were cruelly tortured and executed in Rome in 64 A.D. by a
deranged emperor named Nero - and all for their supposed disloyalty and
treachery. Vivid contemporary descriptions of those persecutions have
survived from such as the Roman historian Tacitus, who relates that some
Christians were sewn into the skins of animals to be attacked and consumed by
beasts and others slathered with wax, tied to posts, and then burned alive as
human torches to illuminate Nero’s garden parties. Others were crucified.
Nero's persecution was not some spontaneous outburst of evil, but a calculated,
considered and refined attempt to get Christians and their teachings out of the
way.
Today we commemorate these early Christians in the same way in which they
would have commemorated Christ's death, which is by prayer and sacrifice. Here
in June 2020 we are separated from 64 A.D. by many centuries, but we are united
with those people by our common faith and we remember them because it is good
to remember them, their prayer, their sacrifice and their witness to the grace
and truth of Jesus Christ.
Let
us pray. Anonymous first martyrs of 64 A.D. Rome your sufferings are still felt
today in the same Church of Christ to which you belonged through baptism.
Through your example and prayers help the baptised of today to be as courageous
as you in witnessing to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. Amen.
