Seventh Sunday after Pentecost 2014

Martyrdom means bearing witness to God. Every soul that seeks in pureness of heart to know God and obeys the commandments of God is a martyr, bearing witness by life or by words.
In fact even if it is not a matter of shedding blood, the soul is pouring out its faith because it is by faith that the soul will be separated from the body before a person dies.
That is why, in the Gospel, the Lord praises the person “who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the Gospel.” That person is blessed because he too is going to meet martyrdom simply by living in a way that is different from the crowd, because he is following the rule of the Gospel for love of his Lord.
The truly righteous are set apart from the world because they produce the fruits of grace in their actions. They do this because they have been able to become a friend of God and to obtain a place at the right hand of the Father, as the Apostles have done.
St. Clement of Alexandria

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