The White Robed Army of Martyrs Praises You

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

On this Fourth Sunday of the Easter Season, we read from chapter seven of the Book of Revelation in which John tells us of yet another vision in which another group stands before the throne of God and of the Lamb who was slain. He tells us of a great multitude from every nation, race, people, and tongue. A few verses before this vision, John had told us of the servants of God who numbered 144,000, twelve thousand from each of the tribes of Israel. These servants of God had been marked with a seal held by the Angel from the East. The people of John’s time would have recognized immediately that these servants of God were the people of the New Israel. Like the Roman legions, they were marked with a tattoo that identified them as soldiers, soldiers of a new empire over which God reigns. At this point it is important to remember that John is on Patmos because he has been exiled from Rome for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No doubt he had experienced the cruelty of the Roman legions who would have captured him and transported him to this penal colony.

However, according to John, God’s people, God’s army, were not simply Israelites but came from every nation. When they were joined to the 144,000 thousand Israelites, the multitude became so large that no one was able to number them. This multitude was dressed in the white robes of baptism and held the palm branches which had become the symbol of martyrdom. The word “martyr” means one who gives testimony to faith even to the point of giving one’s life for the faith. While Rome had used its army to expand the Roman Empire, God’s reign was built on the soil that had been watered with the blood of the martyrs.

One of the elders tells John that this multitude is made up of those who have survived the time of great distress. Here he is referring to the persecution of the Church by the Roman Empire. The vision is made up not only of those who have died for the faith in John’s time, but also of the hundreds of thousands who will suffer the same fate down through the ages. While we know the names of many of the individuals who have died for the faith, we will never know the names of all of them; for throughout the history of the Church, Christians of every nation have been called upon to give this testimony to their faith. The church greatly honors the martyrs especially during the Easter Season; for just as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus during this time, we also celebrate the many men and women who, like Jesus, picked up their cross and followed him to Golgotha.

In Eucharistic Prayer #1, also known as the Roman Canon, we include the names of a few of the martyrs who died at the hand of the Roman empire. However, we also remember those who have died for their faith in the entire 2,000 year history of the church which includes millions of people who have died just in the last 500 years. On October 18, 1964, Pope St. Paul the sixth canonized the 23 Anglican and 22 Roman Catholic martyrs of Uganda. On May 6, 1984, Pope St. John Paul II canonized the more than 8,000 martyrs of Korea, and on June 19, 1988, he also canonized the more than 130,000 martyrs of Vietnam. On April 23, 2015, Pope Francis canonized the 1.5 million Armenians who were slaughtered between 1915 and 1923. These are but a few of the multitude who come from every nation, race, people, and tongue.

When John wrote of his vision of the martyrs, his purpose was to remind his contemporaries who were suffering at the hand of the Roman Empire that just as Jesus had risen from the dead, so too would they. He writes that the Lamb who was slain, the Lamb of God, who sits at the right hand of the throne of God, would shepherd them and lead them to streams of life-giving water. This great army of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus will eventually conquer the many armies of the world who have persecuted them and put them to death. Our prayer today reminds all of us that we are also promised to stand before the throne of God if we persevere in our faith, giving testimony through the conduct of our lives in a world which still persecutes those who place their trust in the Holy One who sits on the throne of heaven.