34th Monday in Ordinary Time
Saint Andrew Dŭng-Lạc and Companions, Martyrs
24 November 2025
Christ is worth everything
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Andrew Dŭng-Lạc and his companions,
117 martyrs from Vietnam who gave their lives for Christ between the 17th and 19th centuries.
Their stories vary
— priests, catechists, laymen and women, fathers, mothers, young people, and elderly believers —
but their witness is united in one truth:
Christ is worth everything.
Their feast invites us to remember the cost of discipleship,
but also the joy that transforms the cost into a gift freely given.
When the Gospel took root in Vietnam, it spread rapidly
— not through armies or political power,
but through humble missionaries and courageous laypeople.
The Church grew like a spark in dry grass.
And with that growth came fierce persecution.
Christians were hunted, tortured, imprisoned, exiled, and executed.
They were pressured to step on crucifixes,
to burn images of Christ,
to renounce their baptism.
If they complied, they would live.
If they refused, they suffered — sometimes horribly.
And yet the Church in Vietnam grew.
Because faith grew.
Because hearts burned.
Because the love of Christ was stronger than fear.
Saint Andrew Dŭng-Lạc, a diocesan priest, was not the most famous of them.
He was humble, ordinary, faithful.
What made him a saint was not the manner of his death,
but the manner of his life
— a life poured out for Christ,
a life that quietly formed him for the moment when the cost of discipleship would require everything.
His companions
— bishops, priests, catechists, parents, farmers —
died in different ways, but with one voice.
They believed that Jesus Christ is Lord,
and they would not deny Him.
Their witness confronts us with a difficult truth:
Fear is often the greatest enemy of faith.
Fear makes us silent.
Fear makes us compromise.
Fear makes us avoid the Cross.
But the martyrs teach us something fear cannot understand:
love is stronger.
They faced unspeakable cruelty,
yet their hearts remained free.
They did so because they knew that Christ had already conquered death.
They knew that suffering for Him was not a loss,
but a victory.
They believed — really believed — that
“whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The martyrs force us to ask:
What am I afraid of?
What keeps me from giving myself completely to Christ?
What am I afraid to die to?
What small sacrifices do I avoid that reveal a heart still holding back?
Their courage exposes our hesitation,
but not to shame us.
Rather, to invite us — gently, powerfully — to trust Christ more.
Martyrdom is not about pain.
It is about love.
The Vietnamese martyrs did not die because they hated the world.
They died because they loved Christ more
— and that love shaped every decision.
Most of us will not be asked to give our lives for Christ in such a way.
But all of us are asked to live for Him.
We are asked to be faithful when it is inconvenient,
to speak the truth when it is unpopular,
to forgive when it is painful,
to be generous when we want to hold back,
to withstand ridicule or misunderstanding,
to choose Christ over comfort.
This is our daily martyrdom
— the white martyrdom of fidelity.
Today, Vietnamese Catholics are among the most vibrant and faithful in the world.
Their ancestors planted seeds in tears that we now see blooming in faith, joy, and missionary zeal.
God always brings life from the witness of those who give everything for Him.
For strength for us to do the say we ask:
Saint Andrew Dŭng-Lạc and companions, pray for us.