25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
First Reading: Wis 2:12, 17-20
Second Reading: Jas 3:16-4:3
Gospel Reading: Mk 9:30-37
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, who makes life inconvenient for us and opposes our actions,” the godless say.
The late Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, told me that when he came to Vancouver, in 1991, the secular media were neutral, but by the time he retired, in 2004, they were hostile.
How should we react?
“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits,” St. James says.
We cannot always change injustice, Pope Benedict XVI noted, but we can resist it passively by mourning it rather than ignoring it or conforming to it. The world cannot tolerate such mourning for it constitutes an accusation. Accordingly, the world persecutes those who mourn “for the sake of righteousness.”
Those who mourn like this are blest, “for they shall be comforted,” Jesus said in the beatitudes. So are those who are persecuted, “for God is their Lord.”
However, mourning may not be enough. God may call us to martyrdom. After all, peace and gentleness led Jesus to his death - and many Ugandans in the 19th century to martyrdom.
Our knowledge of these martyrs comes primarily from Father J.L. Ddiba’s 1935 book, Religion in Uganda, based on interviews with contemporaries of the massacre, including three who were spared in order to warn others.
In 1879, King Mutesa of Uganda allowed the Missionaries of Africa, the White Fathers, into the country. In less than a decade, they built up a community of about 200 Christians, many of whom lived at court.
In 1885, Mutesa was succeeded by his son, Mwanga, a violent man and a pedophile. The Christians, led by 25-year-old Catholic Adolphus Mukasa Ludigo, the king’s chief steward, were kept busy trying to protect the king’s pages and attendants.
When the king killed a Protestant missionary, Joseph Mukasa, a Catholic member of the royal household, confronted him, and the king ordered him killed. As the executioners tried to tie his hands, he said, “A Christian who gives his life for God is not afraid to die.”
He was beheaded and his body burned but he first forgave Mwanga and pleaded for his repentance.
Charles Lwanga then became leader of the Christians at court. In May 1886, when Mwanga’s page Mwafu told the king that Denis Ssebuggwawo had been giving him religious instruction, Mwanga sent for Ssebuggwawo and thrust a spear through his throat. Then, he had the royal compound sealed and summoned his executioners.
That night, Lwanga baptized four catechumens. The next morning, Mwanga ordered, “Those who do not pray stand by me. Those who do pray stand over there.”
Fifteen boys and young men, all under 25, identified themselves as Christians. They included 13-year-old Kizito, newly baptized; Matthias Murumba, an assistant judge; Andrew Kagwa, a Kigowa chief, who had converted his wife and several others; and Mbaaga Tuzinde, son of the king’s chief executioner, who declined an opportunity to escape. Mwanga ordered that they trek 60 km to Namugongo and there be burned alive.
En route, they passed the White Fathers’ home. Kizito was laughing and chattering, one of the priests reported, and James Buzabaliawo, a soldier who had joined the rest voluntarily, pointed upward with his bound hands, declaring, “This is nothing to the joys you have taught us to look forward to!”
“No doubt your god will rescue you,” the king’s chief counsellor said sarcastically to Matthias Kalemba, one of the older boys.
“God will rescue me,” Kalemba replied. “But you will not see how he does it because he will take my soul and leave you only my body.”
In all, 13 Catholics and 11 Protestants died, declaring, “You can burn our bodies but you cannot harm our souls.”
Mwanga expelled the White Fathers but lay Christians carried on. When the priests returned after Mwanga’s death, they found 500 Christians and 1,000 catechumens.
Pope Benedict XV beatified the martyrs in 1920 and Pope Paul VI canonized them in 1964. Their feast day is June 3.
Father Hawkswell has now finished teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English, however the course remains available in both print and YouTube form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Starting Sept. 22, he will again teach the course in person on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 4885 Saint John Paul II Way, 33rd Avenue and Willow Street, Vancouver, and Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon in St. Anthony’s Church Hall, 2347 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver. The course is entirely free of charge and no pre-registration is necessary.
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