Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

Lectionary: 311

In the days when he was in the Flesh, 

he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears 

to the one who was able to save him from death,

and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from  what he suffered; 

and when he was made perfect, 

he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

The Letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as the Son of God and the Priest of God. Perhaps, after these many centuries, we are not surprised by these titles. But we might not yet expect that he learned obedience through suffering, or was made perfect. Our catechists insisted that he suffered and died for our sins; we have walked the fourteen Stations of the Cross and contemplated the five Sorrowful Mysteries. Whenever we enter a Catholic church we see the crucifix above the altar.

Yes, the Man suffered. And he did so as God.

Had he not been God his agony would have been pointless; just as horrible and futile as the genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries. What hope did these men and women have as they were pushed into gas chambers and corrals where they could be quickly and efficiently liquidated like so much inventory? How many Americans have been murdered or taken their own lives for no apparent reason and no benefit to anyone? Death has always appeared to the conscious mind as unnecessary, futile, a huge waste. 

But we believe that Jesus, by his death became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

That Good Friday in Jerusalem, so long ago, opened a window into the mystery of God; we see through it an unexpected, inexplicable mystery. To gaze upon a crucifix is to consider the eternal, ecstatic surrender of God the Son to his God-and-Father. There is also the endless outpouring of the Father's love for Jesus, and the utter surrender of the Holy Spirit which they pour upon us. Seen through that luminous window his death makes sense. It has purpose and meaning and offers hope to those who have not yet died. 

Jesus had died and been raised for only a short time before his Church discovered -- to our wonder, amazement, horror and delight -- that he was calling others to follow on his dark path of martyrdom into the brilliant light. The deacon Stephen was the first, the Apostle James followed soon after. And then many men and women died cheerfully, under brutal circumstances, rather than surrender their faith in Jesus. Among them, Saint Agnes, a child martyr.

in the controversies of our time concerning our Catholic faith and traditions, sexuality, women's rights and freedom, the legend of Saint Agnes has been given new energy. The following is taken from her Wikipedia entry;

According to Robert Ellsberg, in his book Blessed among all women: women saints prophets and witnesses for our time,

In the story of Agnes the opposition is not between sex and virginity. The conflict is between a young woman’s power in Christ to define her own identity versus a patriarchal culture’s claim to identify her in terms of her sexuality. According to the view shared by her “suitors” and the state, if she would not be one man’s wife, she might as well be every man’s whore. Failing these options, she might as well be dead. Agnes did not choose death. She chose not to worship the gods of her culture. ...Espoused to Christ, she was beyond the power of any man to ‘have his way with her’. ‘Virgin’ in this case is another way of saying Free Woman.[9]

The Christian need not take a position in any of these several controversies except to recognize the radical freedom of faith. Created in God's own image we find our freedom where Jesus found his, in obedience to the Beauty he called Father. In every age Christians conform to many standards of their time, and rebel against others; but they do neither for the sake of conformity or non-conformity. Their pole star is a faith that shines in darkness.

We see in the cross of Jesus, freedom; and find in our own obedience, eternal life.