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| Mark Ji Tianxiang Toxicomaniacus et Sanctus |
I have finally stumbled across the story of a Chinese man by the name of Mark Ji Tianxiang about whom Deacon Greg Kandra delivered a homily in September of 2011:
"He was a Chinese layman who was executed in 1900, along with dozens of other Catholics in his village during a bloody persecution of Christians. St. Mark was steadfast in his faith, and refused to renounce it – and for that, he gave his life. That is extraordinary enough. But so are the circumstances under which he died. St. Mark, you see, was an addict. An opium addict. In the 19th century, the Church didn’t understand addiction as it does now – and his life was seen as gravely sinful and scandalous. As a result, for 30 years Mark Ji Tianxiang was denied communion. Yet his devotion never wavered. Witnesses say that he sang a litany to the Blessed Mother as he was led to his death."
This story is particularly noteworthy to me since I too am an addict and an alcoholic. While I have been blessed with almost three decades in sobriety, this account of St. Mark reminds me that God does not count the number of years one has been sober as a measure of one's worthiness to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The fact of the matter is that none of us are worthy, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin are death. So what saved St. Mark, an addict who could not put down the pipe, and who lived a life of utter scandal and disrepute? Only one thing saved him: God's grace through faith. It is however ironic that St. Mark did not have the strength to put the opium pipe down, but he did have the strength to chose death before renouncing his Catholic Christian faith, and he did that even though the clergy of that faith denied him access to the Sacraments for the 30 years of his addiction.
God does not judge by the outside, nor as men judge.
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