Dying for Our Friend – Br. Jonathan Maury

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Br. Jonathan Maury

The Martyrs of New Guinea

Revelation 7:9-12
Psalm 126
Luke 12:4-12

On this day, the Church honors the Martyrs of New Guinea who gave witness to Christ by their deaths during the Japanese invasion and occupation of New Guinea in 1942 and 1943. 333 Papuans and clergy, teachers, and medical staff from a range of denominations, men and women, were killed by the invaders. These include nine Anglican missionaries and two Papuan martyrs who died while serving the material and spiritual needs of their friends in Christ.

When war in the Pacific began in 1941, civilian populations of European descent were evacuated from Australia’s island territories. Many Christians however voluntarily chose to continue in their ministries despite the danger. The Bishop of New Guinea exhorted  his flock, writing, “If we all left, it would take years for the Church to recover from our betrayal of our trust. If we remain—and even if the worst came to the worst and we were all to perish in remaining—the Church would not perish, for there would have been no breach of trust in its walls, but its foundations and structure would have received added strength for the future building by our faithfulness unto death.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches us of the sacred trust which is Christian friendship:

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

The SSJE Rule of Life reminds us brothers that “no honor exists that could be greater than Jesus calling us his friends. The more we enter into the fullness of our friendship with him, the more he will move us to be friends for one another… The Spirit uses the demands of friendship to further our conversion; struggles are inevitable as well as rewards… Fear can hold us back.  In these struggles we have the constant companionship of Christ to give us courage and joy.”

But Christ’s faithful trust and self-offering friendship is not imparted to only a select few but to all who give themselves to Jesus in faith. Friendship with Jesus is also implicitly the call to share the same friendship and trust with all of Jesus’ friends after his example: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Christ’s circle of friendship exists to bring eternal life in union with God to all creation. As such it requires the radical acceptance of everything which the world would have us regard as “separate” or “outside.” It requires the surrender of self in ways great and small for the life of the “other” who is also God’s beloved.

Living in faithful friendship with Christ’s beloved gave courage to the martyrs we remember today and ensured the vibrant faith and devotion of Papuan Christians of all churches witnessed to the present. We honor the English-born priest Vivian Redlich who forfeited his life in order to celebrate the eucharist with his people one last time. We celebrate Lucien Tapiedi, the Papuan catechist regarded as an apostle by his people, who gave his life in defending fellow Christians making an escape from ambush by native collaborators. Lucien’s witness and love extended into the future with the conversion of his murderer to faith in Christ. The martyrs’ witness of faithful friendship later resulted in the Anglican Church of Japan’s gift of bamboo crosses erected in the parish churches New Guinea as a mark of contrition.

And now what of us who follow in the martyrs’ steps as Jesus’ friends? To what new depths and tests of our “loyalty and faith” to Christ and to one another as friends of God are we invited?

Carrying these questions in our hearts, let us ask grace to hear Jesus’ response as with open hands we receive his risen Flesh and Blood. In communion and friendship with the Martyrs of New Guinea, we even now join that “great multitude that no one can count, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

Let us pray.

Jesus, fill us with your Holy Spirit that at our hour of faithful witness in laying down our lives in friendship we may fearlessly know what we ought to be, to say and to do. Amen.