By Deacon Dominic Lawes
Tuesday 28 April, 2026
Feast of St Peter Chanel
God is always the one in control, he has a plan and it will come about. When we are called to have faith in him, we are called to have faith in that! Was not Stephen’s martyrdom, and the ensuing persecution the impetus for the spreading of the faith lands outside of Israel? What do we hear? Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. In other words, his death sowed the seeds of the faith. But Stephen would not live to see this. One sows; another reaps.
But at the core of it, it is God who converts, it is God who builds the Church. It is the voice of the Good Shepherd that echoes in the world, to which those who seek truth, justice, the good, recognise the voice and are led to Christ. We are his mere tools. We can choose to be tools or not, as the parable of the talents shows us, but where one fails, God will find another who will ensure his plan is realised. He truly has already won, now we must choose whether to remain in his victory or not.
This is an implore to be hard workers, sacrificial in spirit, and steadfast in faithful prayer unto the praise of Christ and detestation of the worldly spirit.
In so doing the world will be converted unto Christ, as prophesied by our Psalm, “Babylon and Egypt I will count among those who know me.”
Who has been given to us as an example of this today?
Saint Peter Chanel. The protomartyr and patron saint of Oceania. Here we have a French shepherd, ordained a diocesan priest but led by the Spirit to missionary work, in the image of St Barnabas and St Paul in Antioch. A paragon of the sacrificial, prayerful and hard-working driven spirit in Christ. But like St Stephen, it wasn’t until after he was martyred by the Chieftain of Futuna’s Son-in-law, bludgeoned with an axe, that the greatest fruits of his ministry were realised. One sows; another reaps.
After his death the Chieftain converted, along with his Son-in-law Musumusu, who asked for his grave to be placed outside the basilica where St Peter is buried so that people would walk over him to venerate St Peter. Of course, St Peter’s martyrdom in death was only a manifestation of his martyrdom in everyday life, driven by the same faith.
So then, what can we say for our own martyrdom? Perhaps we will be called to that most glorious and visible of martyrdoms as St Peter Chanel and St Stephen, participating in Christ himself. But for now, we live the martyrdom of everyday life in the vineyard of the world, attending to our daily duties, prayer and charity for one another in a patience dictated by faith. We may see the fruits of our labour, we may not. We live by faith and not by sight, trusting in God to bring about his harvest.