Birthdays, thankfulness, sadness, and fortitude

Today I must give God thanks for my 37 years of life which I have now completed.  I must admit, however, that this time of the year is almost always the time when I most miss my family.  I have never quite figured out why.  I suppose it's a mixture of diverse factors.  My birthday always falls around Thanksgiving which is truly a familial celebratory time of the year.  Perhaps, it is just psychological and, when it's your birthday, you just have to think about from whence you came.  I really don't know.  I know that, for others who, like me, have left all to follow Christ, Christmas was oftentimes the most difficult time of the year in terms of "homesickness".  However, that usually wasn't the case for me.  That strange feeling of loneliness creeps up most at this time of the year for me.  Maybe I am just weird!!!

Today is also the feast of a whole slew of martyrs from Vietnam.  It is estimated that, over a period of about 250 years from the 17th to the 19th century, 130,000 Christians would have been martyred.  Only 117 of these have officially been canonized, but this is certainly a staggering amount.  This kind of witness certainly beckons a question from us... how great is our faith?  Are we willing to die for it?  We are invited by today's gospel (Lk 21: 12-19) to meditate on this.  Jesus said that this "will be a time for you to bear testimony".  That "bear"ing "testimony" is exactly the Greek word from which we get the English martyr.  "You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's sake.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives."  I guess we have to be ready for any and all eventualities.  Let us pray that God may grant us the faith that, if we might ever be called to give our lives for His name, we would be ready and willing to do so.... let's ask for an increase in the virtue of fortitude!  Maybe one of these years, I will be able to overcome my "loneliness" at this time of the year with an extra dose of fortitude!!!