Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan

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Tuesday, 6 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all called to remember the obligations and the focus that all of us should have in the Lord as Christians, that is as those who have believed in the Lord and accepted Him as our God and Saviour. Each and every one of us have been entrusted by the Lord with the Law and commandments which He has taught and shown to us. However, we cannot just be blind followers or merely paying lip service to the Lord through those Law, commandments and obligations. Instead, we must be truly genuine in obeying God, in our wholehearted commitment to follow Him and to do His will, and we must always be filled with love for Him, in committing ourselves wholly to the path that He has led us all into.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, in which the King of Israel, the great and renowned King Solomon, dedicated the Temple that he had prepared and built for the Lord, and in today’s passage in particular we heard of the moment when the King prayed on behalf of the whole people, offering their prayers and thanksgiving to the Lord, before the Holy Presence of God present on the Ark of the Covenant. The King thanked and praised the Lord for all the wonders and great things which He had done on behalf and for the sake of all the people, and praised Him for the Covenant which He had made and constantly renewed with all of the people dearly beloved to Him, and showed the humility of the people upon God’s willingness to dwell among them in the humble House which the King had prepared and built for Him.

That House, the Temple of God in Jerusalem, also known popularly as Solomon’s Temple, was far from simple or small, as it was well-known throughout history as a great marvel of mankind’s works, as a grand House and Temple that was built for the purpose of Divine worship. What King Solomon meant was that, no matter how glorious or grand the Temple of Jerusalem might have been, but there is truly no place could have been worthy enough to contain the Lord, the Master of all the whole Universe, the King of Kings and Almighty God, He Who is almighty and all-powerful. But yet, God willingly came down to us, to dwell in our midst, and He wanted to show His people that He truly loved them all, reaching out to them and gathering all of them back to His loving Presence.

But in time, the people’s love and obedience for the Lord became merely a formality, and they did not love Him wholeheartedly anymore. Although King Solomon had been faithful to the Lord during the early years and period of his reign like David his father before him, but in the later part of his reign, he likely became corrupted by power and worldly glory, and he ended up being easily swayed by his many wives and concubines, who caused him to disobey God and to sin against Him, in doing what the Lord had forbidden, by raising altars and idols to the pagan gods to satisfy the needs of those wives and concubines, and this was when political and worldly desires trumped the need for one to be truly faithful and committed to the Lord. The later kings of Israel and Judah after Solomon also often did the same things, in disobeying the Lord and not being truly and wholly committed to Him, and thus leading the people into the path of sin and evil.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the interactions and disagreements between the Lord and the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who had disagreed with Him and His disciples on how they practiced the Law of God, the various rituals and customs which the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law followed, obeyed and enforced upon the people of God. As a context, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were particularly fanatical about their version of obeying and following the many customs and practices of the Jewish people, and they represented an extreme in the particularly strict and rigid application of the Law and the commandments of God. They were a party and faction that were then powerful among the Jewish people who advocated very literal and strict interpretation of the Law, and placed very particular attention to the details of the rituals and practices of the Law.

However, this had led them being overzealous and overly focused on the practices, rituals and customs of the Law that they had forgotten about why the Law and the commandments of God were given to His people in the first place. They placed a lot of barriers and obstacles on the path of the people of God, by treating those who have not obeyed the Law of God in the manner that they preferred and liked, with contempt and opposing them, like what they had done to the Lord and His disciples, stubbornly and fiercely trying to defend their way of obeying and following the Law, even though their fanaticism and efforts ended up making them truly foolish and unable to appreciate and understand the true intention and meaning of the Law, just as the Lord pointed out their folly before the people who were listening to Him. The Lord rebuked those Pharisees and teachers of the Law for their overly exaggerated focus on the externals but failing to understand and appreciate the interior orientation of oneself towards God, which they had neglected.

This is why, we are all therefore also reminded through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, that we should not be merely paying lip service to the Lord, to His Law and commandments, but we must develop and deepen our relationship with Him, or else, it will be easy for the temptations of worldly matters, attachments, glory and desires to turn us away from the path towards God’s grace. We must not be swayed by worldly temptations of wealth and desires like that of Solomon, or by pride and ego, ambition and greed like those of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who had allowed themselves to be tempted and swayed by all those things that they all fell into the path towards their downfall and sin. We must strive to strengthen our faith and dedication to God, and not be easily tempted by hardships, challenges, and the allures of worldly comfort that we may always remain firm in our faith in the Lord.

The Church today also celebrates the Feast of the Holy Japanese Martyrs, the Twenty-Six Martyr Saints of Japan, namely St. Paul Miki and his companions in martyrdom. They were all martyred in the city of Nagasaki, during a time of particularly harsh persecution and repression of Christians throughout the whole region of Japan. At that time, Japan had been a very fertile ground for the Christian faith for a few decades, and the Church was growing rapidly there with the efforts of the missionaries and the support from the local rulers accelerating the process of conversions and the growth of the Church both among the elites of the community as well as among the general population. However, oppositions against the Church and its missionaries grew, and at that time, the de facto ruler of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi feared the foreign ties of the Christian missionaries, and hence, announced edicts that began restricting the activities of Christians, and in some cases, actively persecuting them.

For St. Paul Miki and his companions, they were arrested by the Japanese authorities, and were tortured and made to suffer because of their Christian faith. Among the twenty-six individuals were both foreign Christian missionaries and priests, as well as the local Christian converts, who were all put to suffering and hardships because of their faith. They were all eventually sentenced to death after refusing to betray and abandon their faith in God, and they all chose to suffer and die rather than to give up their Christian faith and beliefs. They were condemned to death and to be punished by crucifixion in an effort of mockery to the death of Christ on the Cross. From Kyoto, the seat of government of the Toyotomi government, St. Paul Miki and his companions, the twenty-six faithful people of God went on a long, almost a thousand kilometres of march to Nagasaki, the site of their martyrdom. They were ridiculed and tortured along the way, but they continued to glorify God and chanted ‘Te Deum’, the glorious hymn in honour of God’s greatness along the entire way.

The perseverance and faith of St. Paul Miki and his faithful companions in martyrdom, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan, all of these have shown us all what it truly means to be Christians, to be full of love and commitment to God, and as they laid crucified on a hill in Nagasaki, their place of martyrdom, pierced by lances in mockery of the Lord’s Crucifixion, they never gave up on their faith and continued to keep their faith in the Lord to the very end, despite having many opportunities to recant their faith and live. They showed their ultimate commitment and love for the Lord, and therefore gained the promise of eternal glory and true happiness in Heaven with God. This is what we are all reminded of today, so that in our own lives, we may also strive to follow the great examples of our holy predecessors, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, Who has always loved us and cared for us, continue to strengthen our faith, and may the intercession of the Holy Martyrs of Japan be with us always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 7 : 1-13

At that time, one day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.’ You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said : Do your duty to your father and your mother, and : Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God”) what you could have expected from me.’”

“In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother; and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.”

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Tuesday, 6 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5 and 10, 11

My soul yearns; pines, for the courts of YHVH. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o YHVH of Hosts, my King and my God!

Happy are those who live in Your House, continually singing Your praise! Look upon our shield, o God; look upon the face of Your Anointed!

One day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be left at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

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Tuesday, 6 February 2024 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

1 Kings 8 : 22-23, 27-30

Then Solomon stood before the Altar of YHVH in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He raised his hands towards heaven and said, “O YHVH, God of Israel, there is no God like You either in heaven or on earth! You keep Your Covenant and show loving kindness to Your servants who walk before You wholeheartedly.”

“But will God really live among people on earth? If neither heavens nor the highest heavens can contain You, how much less can this House which I have built! Yet, listen to the prayer and supplication of Your servant, o YHVH my God; hearken to the cries and pleas which Your servant directs to You this day. Watch over this House of which You have said, ‘My Name shall rest there.’ Hear the prayer of Your servant in this place.”

“Listen to the supplication of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray in this direction; listen from Your dwelling place in heaven and, on listening, forgive.”

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Monday, 6 February 2023 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the works of God in creating the whole entire world, the entire Universe and existence that we are living in today, and we are reminded of the love with which God has created each and every one of us. He loves us all, and He creates everything because He wants us to share in the love that He has, overflowing and ever present from His Being, permeating all creation and all of existence. We are all reminded of just how wonderful all of His creations are and most importantly, of Who it is that we serve and believe in, that is none other than the Lord Himself, the Almighty Master and Lord of all Creation, and we have to carry on this belief in our daily lives, just as the saints have reminded us through theirs.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis the account of the creation of the world from the very beginning of time. He created everything from nothingness as He alone above all else and beyond all else was, is and will always exist, from before the beginning of time, as we believe in God Who is Almighty and Eternal, and each members of the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. At the moment of creation, as we heard in our first reading passage today, we are reminded that God was present in all things and is the One carrying out the works of creation. The Father’s will embodied the Creation, while the Son, the Word of God, is the One that made everything into being, just as the Lord spoke ‘Let there be light’, and light came to being. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is everywhere as mentioned, present at all places and in the nothingness before Creation.

God showed His might to us, by creating all things all around us, everything that we have ever known, all of the living and non-living things in this world and beyond. He made all things because He wants us all to share in His creation, and He made us all especially in His own image, to be the most beloved among all of His created beings, and we have also been given dominion over all things, as stewards and caretakers of all creation, to be the ones who are responsible over the governance over our world, to make good use of what we have been blessed with and to be kind and good to our nature and world as well. We are all reminded today of the immense nature of God’s ever present love and kindness, His compassion and good will towards us all in how He has provided for us everything we have in this world, is a constant reminder and urging for us all to stay true to our faith in Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the short account from the Gospels, regarding the work and ministry of the Lord among His people, as the Lord Jesus Himself, the Son of God, the same Word of God, Co-Eternal with the Father, present before the beginning of time, and the One through Whom God created the whole world, has come into our very midst, taking up our human existence and nature and being born into this world, to walk in our midst in the flesh, approachable and tangible to us. Thus, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we have come to behold the whole great love of God manifested before us and present among us, and we are reminded yet again just how fortunate for us to have been created amidst the vastness of this Universe, and at the same time just how beloved we are by our Lord and Creator.

Now, through these interesting set of readings today, all of us are called to remember our responsibilities as Christians to be faithful to God and to focus ourselves and our lives on Him, as we continue to lead a more worthy Christian life in our world today. Each and every one of us are God’s beloved people, and He has revealed Himself wholly and thoroughly through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, as well as through His Church and disciples, and also through the Holy Spirit Who has come down upon us and has been given to us all through the Holy Sacraments. The Lord has revealed Himself, His truth and love to us, so that we may come to love Him even more and come closer to Him, as He desires that we may all be reconciled and fully reunited to Himself, and no longer be separated from Him due to our sins and disobedience.

And as Christians, all of us are called to shine with the light of God’s truth and love, and our lives should be sources of inspiration and hope for many others, in how we live our lives centred on Him and His Law and commandments, and how our actions, words and deeds truly proclaim the glory and greatness of God, and full of the same love which God has lavished on us and which we now are expected to embody and show in our own daily living as well. We have the saints and the martyrs throughout the history of the Church to look upon for examples, and today in particular, I want all of us to look upon the great examples shown by St. Paul Miki and his Companions, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan, who were martyred a few centuries ago in terrible persecution, and whose faith and courage inspired many ever since.

St. Paul Miki and his Companions in martyrdom lived through during difficult time to be Christians in Japan. After having enjoyed a great period of flourishing and rapid expansion, which saw hundreds of thousands being converted and brought up in the Christian faith in Japan, during the last years of the Warring Periods, the authorities then under the leadership of Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to become suspicious and hostile against Christians, and began a period of increasingly intense persecution against the followers of the Lord. Due to the misunderstandings and political rivalries at that time, and fear of the foreign influences, Christian missionaries and laymen alike were persecuted, and twenty-six of them, including St. Paul Miki, a Jesuit seminarian studying to become a priest, were arrested and condemned to death.

They were ordered to march from the Imperial Capital of Kyoto towards the city of Nagasaki in western part of Japan, where the biggest Christian population and community was, a distance of almost a thousand kilometres on foot, while being tortured and humiliated along the way. Yet, St. Paul Miki and his Companions remained firm in their faith and stayed courageous and true to their commitment to God, and it was told that they sang the ‘Te Deum’ hymn all throughout the entire journey to their martyrdom. In Nagasaki, atop the hill where a shrine now stands in their honour, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs were crucified and impaled with lances, and were martyred for their continued dedication to God, glorifying God by their faith and life. They inspired many other Christians who remained firm in their Christian calling and devotion.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the great faith and conviction of the Holy Martyrs of Japan, St. Paul Miki and his Companions, let us all therefore dedicate ourselves to the Lord in the same way as well. Let us all commit ourselves to live our lives most worthily so that we may indeed glorify the Lord by our lives, and that we may carry out whatever vocations and calling that the Lord has called us all to do, and blessed us with the gifts and talents for. May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our journey of faith through life. St. Paul Miki and Companions, Holy Martyrs of Japan, pray for us! Amen.

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Monday, 6 February 2023 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 53-56

At that time, having crossed the lake, Jesus and His disciples came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognised Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside.

Wherever He was, they brought to Him the sick lying on their mats; and wherever He went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged Him to let them touch just the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were cured.

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Monday, 6 February 2023 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 103 : 1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c

Bless the Lord my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; o Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills. Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. Bless the Lord, my soul!

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Monday, 6 February 2023 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Genesis 1 : 1-19

In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘Day’ and the darkness ‘Night’. There was evening and there was morning : the first day.

God said, “Let there be a firm ceiling between the waters and let it separate waters from waters.” So God made the ceiling and separated the waters below it from the waters above it. And so it was. God called the firm ceiling ‘Sky’. There was evening and there was morning : the second day.

God said, “Let the waters below the sky be gathered in one place and let dry land appear. And so it was. God called the dry land ‘Earth’, and the waters gathered together he called ‘Seas’. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants, fruit trees bearing fruit with seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And so it was. The earth produced vegetation : plants bearing seed according to their kind and trees producing fruit which has seed, according to their kind. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the third day.

God said, “Let there be lights in the ceiling of the sky to separate day from night and to serve as signs for the seasons, days and years; and let these lights in the sky shine above the earth.” And so it was. God therefore made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the smaller light to govern the night; and God made the stars as well. God placed them in the ceiling of the sky to give light on the earth and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the fourth day.

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Saturday, 6 February 2021 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the narrative of the Lord as the Good Shepherd of all the faithful and as the One to guide all the people towards the salvation and eternal life found in God alone. Through Christ, the Lord has gathered all of us to Himself, and He has done this for us so that each and every one of us may be saved, and not fall into eternal damnation.

The Lord offered Himself as the worthy sacrifice and also acting as the High Priest in offering this gift that through His offering all of us receive the assurance of eternal life and true happiness, a joy that is everlasting and true, no longer burdened by the chains of sin. He has done all of these out of love for us, because He has seen how wretched we have been in our condition just as exemplified by our Gospel passage today.

In that occasion, the Lord saw how the people who were gathered to listen to Him were like sheep without a shepherd, without a guide and without a proper direction in life. He showed them the path towards His salvation and taught them even when He and His disciples were tired and exhausted. He dedicated Himself, truly like the Good Shepherd He is, patiently caring for the people entrusted to Him, loving them and showing them the true face of God’s love.

We have seen how God loved us so much that He willingly gave everything for our sake. Do we then appreciate the love He has shown us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Many of us often forget about God and we only remember Him when we need something from Him or require assistance from Him. When things are good for us, and when everything is fine, we quickly forget about Him and carry on living our lives in the same way and routine, again and again.

As Christians, all of us are called to live our lives with God at the centre of our lives and existence. We should do our very best to dedicate our actions and our daily living to glorify God at all times, to the very best of our abilities. We are all called to be inspiration for one another, to be exemplary in how we lead a Christ-like life, to be filled with love for God and to be filled with love for our fellow brothers and sisters.

The Lord has called us all to follow His example as the Good Shepherd, to show love and care for one another, and to be genuinely compassionate towards those who need our help and attention. He wants us to live up to our Christian calling and be genuine Christian at all times, dedicating ourselves to serve God and to stand up for our faith whenever it is necessary. That is how we inspire others to follow the Lord and be faithful as well.

Today, all of us celebrate the memory of the great saints, St. Paul Miki and his companions, the Holy Martyrs of Nagasaki, the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan. At that time, the Church in Japan had been going through a period of very rapid expansion that saw hundreds of thousands of people converting to the Christian faith. However, the initially supportive authorities began to be wary of the rapid expansion and powerful influence of the Church, and the then Regent of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi began to persecute Christians throughout the realm.

St. Paul Miki was among those who were arrested for their faith, and they were tried and condemned to death in Kyoto, the then Imperial capital of Japan and the seat of the Regent. St. Paul Miki and his companions were forced to undergo the most painful journey from Kyoto to Nagasaki, halfway across Japan on foot, a distance of almost a thousand kilometres, to the place of their martyrdom. Perhaps the authorities hoped that some among them would give up and abandon their faith.

On the contrary, St. Paul Miki and his companions, the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs took courage in God and sang the glorious hymn ‘Te Deum’ in praise of God throughout their journey, thanking and glorifying God as they marched towards their deaths. They remained faithful to the very end and faced martyrdom with courage, receiving from the Lord, their Divine Master and Good Shepherd, the crown of true and everlasting glory and happiness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to follow in the footsteps of our holy and devout predecessors? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the good cause of the Lord and to spend the time and effort to proclaim the greater glory of God through our own lives, our actions and deeds? Let us all reflect on this and discern in what way we can live up to our Christian calling, in following the call and example of Our Lord, our Good Shepherd and Master. May God continue to guide us and bless us abundantly in all of our good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 February 2021 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Mark 6 : 30-34

At that time, the Apostles returned and reported to Jesus all they had done and taught. Then He said to them, “Go off by yourselves to a remote place and have some rest.” For there were so many people coming and going that the Apostles had no time even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a secluded area by themselves.

But people saw them leaving and many could guess where they were going. So, from all the towns, they hurried there on foot, arriving ahead of them. As Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began a long teaching session with them.