The Memorial of Saint Sixtus II and Companions
He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished.
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery — no end to the prey. The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, The horseman charging, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies
I will throw abominable filth on you and make you vile, and will make you a spectacle. It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her? Where will I seek comforters for you?"
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, At the time when their foot slides, For the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them." For the Lord will judge his people, And have compassion on his servants, When he sees that their power is gone, That there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
"See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
If I sharpen my glittering sword, My hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, And will repay those who hate me.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will give to everyone according to his deeds. Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom."
Pope Sixtus II was martyred in 258 AD, executed by Roman soldiers during a Mass in a cemetery catacomb — killed mid-liturgy, mid-service, in the very act of worship. His companions, including the deacon Lawrence, followed him in death within days. They didn't theorize about the cross. They carried it.
Which is exactly what Jesus asks of us in Matthew's Gospel today. "Take up your cross and follow me." Notice how this invitation comes with no asterisk, no fine print, no promise that the cross will be light or brief. What Jesus offers instead is something stranger and more radical: the paradox that losing our life is actually how we find it.
We spend enormous energy protecting ourselves — our reputations, our comfort, our carefully constructed sense of security. And there's nothing wrong with prudence. But underneath that protective instinct, there can be a deeper fear: that if we give ourselves fully — to God, to others, to the demands of love — something essential will be lost forever.
The readings from Nahum and Deuteronomy are jarring, full of warfare and judgment. But what they hold, beneath the thunder, is a theological anchor: ultimate justice belongs to God, not to us. We are not responsible for controlling every outcome. We don't have to clutch our lives so tightly.
Sixtus and his companions trusted that. They let go of the life they could see, and found the one they couldn't.
Consider what you might be holding onto today that's actually costing you more than releasing it would. Consider what "taking up your cross" looks like not in dramatic martyrdom, but in an ordinary Wednesday — in a difficult conversation, a moment of forgiveness, a quiet act of service no one will notice.
What are you protecting that might actually be worth losing? Where is Jesus asking you to follow, and what is making that feel impossible? What would it mean, today, to trust that God holds what you release?