Why the Faith is So Beautiful

Look at this face:

Might have been taken on a fine summer day at a picnic.  A man with the world by the tail in the prime of life, his belly full of a good meal, thinking about what world to conquer next.

And you’d be right, in a sense.  This happy man is Fr. (now Blessed) Martín Martínez Pascual, who knows he is minutes away from being cut down by Spanish Communist bullets on August 18, 1936.  He is only 25 years old in such a short time has overcome the world and is about to conquer the next.  It’s that smile that’s the glory of the gospel.  Literally, not a care in this world anymore.

Bp. Robert Barron has observed that part of the reason for the veneration of the Cross is that it is a taunt.  The martyrs know that Christ has defeated not merely Caesar or the Sanhedrin, but sin and death itself.  Nothing can defeat the risen life of Christ.

That smile contains that taunt, but more than that taunt.  It is no mere schadenfreude over the failure of a few Commie thugs.  It is joy that he is about never have to worry about sin, death or hell again.  In a few minute, he will enter into his priestly ministry with a light heart, no longer burden by his own sins and able to intercede even for his killers with no hindrances from his sins left.  This man–this doomed man–is a supremely happy man.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. ¶ Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Re 12:10–12).