o you believe like Stephen, like Peter and Paul, 
like Joan and Cecilia, like Isaac and Oscar and Ita, 
Ignacio, Aldo and Catina, Grace and Matthew 
and all the countless others, 
that faith and the vision Christ has for the world 
merit more than a passing thought, 
deserve better than a weekly Sunday hour (if that) 
but are, as the young folk say, to die for? 
or harder still, to live for?

If so, then consider this: 
have we not heard the same Gospel as they? 
Is our world now more holy or just than when these 
gave up all to say no to what is and yes to what might yet be?
How does your life bear witness to the truth?

The blood of martyrs does not so much cry to heaven for justice 
as sing God’s praises to earth 
and call you and me to true conversion. 
A change of religion? Perhaps, 
but first and foremost a radical change of heart. 
  
To live each moment to the fullest, 
to do and say what is right – without counting the cost. 
To refuse to accept anything less than freedom and dignity 
for every human being and all of God’s creation, 
And above all, not to hide behind a dispensation 
for being “only human.”
This is the stuff of which martyrs and saints are made 
and the reign of God attained.

(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)