1 August 1987
Paris, France

My dear Confreres,

On an April day in 1655 St. Vincent communicated to his Community some news about Father Francis White, one of his Confreres who was working in Scotland. Father White, or Father Le Blanc as St. Vincent knew him, was living dangerously at a time when being a Catholic in Scotland was to live dangerously. To be a Catholic priest in that country at that time was to live even more dangerously. Father Le Blanc had been working in the mountains of Scotland, but was taken prisoner along with a Jesuit Father and brought into the city of Aberdeen. The heart of St. Vincent went out to his Confrere because, as he remarked in the news that he gave the Community, there were few Catholics in that part of Scotland who would come to the defense of Father Le Blanc and encourage him to stand strong in the faith. As St. Vincent reflected on the courage of Father Le Blanc, the figure of St. John the Baptist came to his mind.

You know, he said, there are different types of martyrs. Apart from the one of whom we have just been speaking, there is another, that of mortifying incessantly our passions, and still more another type of martyrdom, which is to persevere in our vocation in the accomplishment of our duties and our practices of piety. St. John the Baptist, for having had the courage of reproaching a king for the sin of incest and adultery which he was committing, was put to death for that reason. He is honored as a martyr, although he did not die for the faith. He died rather for the defense of that virtue against which the incestuous king had sinned. It is, then, a kind of martyrdom to allow oneself to be consumed for the sake of virtue. A missionary who is thoroughly mortified and obedient, who carries out perfectly his duties and who lives according to the rules of his state, makes it clear by this sacrifice of his body and of his soul that God merits to be totally served and that He must be completely preferred to all the advantages and pleasures of this life. To act in such a way is to proclaim the truths and maxims of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not by words but by conforming our lives to that of Jesus Christ, and giving proof of His truth and holiness to believers and unbelievers alike. Consequently, to live and die in such a way is to be a martyr." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 175).

For St. Vincent, martyrdom was more than shedding one's blood for the faith. In the language of my own country the distinction is made between what is called red martyrdom and white martyrdom. St. Vincent saw both red and white martyrdom in St. John the Baptist. What white martyrs have in common with red martyrs is a deep, personal love for Jesus Christ and His Church. "No one," wrote Cardinal Newman,"is a martyr for an opinion. It is faith that makes martyrs." ("Discourses of Mixed Congregations," p. 182). We would do well to ponder the Cardinal's words in the context of this Vincentian session. It is not the opinions, it is not the conclusions of this Vincentian month, that are of primary importance. It is the faith that each of us has in Jesus Christ and in the particular appeal which St. Vincent so confidently makes to us in the name of Jesus Christ. We are in no doubt about that appeal: it is to respond to Jesus Christ by preaching Him to the poor, by serving Him in the poor, by loving Him in the poor.

On this final day of the Vincentian month it is the red martyrdom of St. John the Baptist which is presented to us in the Gospel. Long before he suffered red martyrdom, St. John the Baptist had been a strong white martyr. His austerity of life gave force to his white martyrdom, as the Gospels testify.

Distant though St. John the Baptist may be in time from us, he is a contemporary figure because of his prophetic stand against Herod. St. John the Baptist may have lived in the desert, but he was not unaware of the social conditions of his time. He was forthright in what he said about justice. He denounced hypocrisy in high places. In a word, he spoke with the accents of an authentic prophet. An authentic prophet knows his place. He knows that he is only a voice and that his voice must sometimes appear to him to be but one crying in the wilderness. He is aware that his voice may well go unheeded. For all that he does not lose his peace of mind. An authentic prophet is always a humble man, for he knows, as John the Baptist knew, that he was not the light but he was giving testimony to the light. (cf. Jn 1:8).