Ss. Perpetua and Felicity
Of course during this Holy Season of Lent we “downgrade” the liturgical celebrations of the saints to commemorations, but I would like to mention a little about these two noble women. They both lived in Carthage (northern Africa) at the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries. They were martyred on March 7, 202 and St. Perpetua wrote a wonderful description of the horrors of their imprisonment, “The Passion of Perpetua,” to which is generally appended a description of their martyrdom by a witness (some think it was Tertullian, the great early Christian writer). Here is a bit of my reflection on these two women which I shared at Mass this morning.
Lent is a time for us to identify the idols in our lives — those things to which we place more importance on than our relationship with Christ. Idols are distractions, counterfeits, things that we think will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts and bring us true and everlasting happiness. Of course idols cannot truly satisfy, they cannot make us everlastingly happy. Only God can. He made us to be in communion with Him, to share His divine life. That is the destiny written on our hearts, for which we yearn. That is why St. Augustine said, “My heart is restless until it rests in You, Lord.” So what are we unwilling to give up for Jesus Christ?
St. Perpetua was a young mother, and St. Felicity actually gave birth while imprisoned for her faith in Christ. Both of them were urged to renounce their faith in Christ so that they could raise their children. In her “Passion” St. Perpetua expresses her anxiety for her son, and Felicity’s daughter, but she knew that to deny Christ would be to deny her destiny; the deepest yearning of her heart. Undoubtedly she remembered the words of Jesus, that anyone who was not willing to leave mother, or father, or family for Him was not worthy of Him. Perpetua, Felicity and their fellow martyrs placed all their trust in Christ Jesus, and they offered up their lives for their destiny, and as a witness to all of us.
What are our idols? Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace and strength to give up our idols, to truly live for Him first.
