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March 7th: Memorial of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs
Gospel text
Mt 10:34-39
Mt 10:34-39
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Gospel's Commentary
Today is the feast of two women —young nursing mothers— of the 2nd century who suffered martyrdom (Cartago, 203), during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. For the love of Christ they died as sisters when, actually, Felicity was Perpetua’s slave. The two of them —holding onto each other— endured the same torment in the same way.
—They surrendered to the Cross of the Lord with a view to "perpetual felicity", the only one that really matters.