“You must return from whence you came, and there, in the lowest part of the prison, be stripped naked, laid down, your back on the ground, and as much weight laid upon you as you are able to bear, and so to continue for three days without meat or drink, and on the third day to be pressed to death, your hands and feet tied to posts, and a sharp stone under your back.”
This was the penalty for harboring a priest in Elizabethan England as pronounced by the judge. St. Margaret Clitherow knew this and, to avoid having her children testify in court, refused to plea whatsoever to any crime. Thus, her martyrdom came within fifteen minutes of the execution of the penalty. This occurred even though she was pregnant with her fourth child.
Hiding a priest, who could celebrate the Mass and the sacraments, was a capital crime because it was considered high treason. Priests were “traitors and seducers of the queen’s subjects.” But to St. Margaret Clitherow, whose two sons became priests, priests were men of God who brought people the Body of Christ.
We need to honor and respect the priests who bring us the Eucharist, who baptize us, who forgive our sins in the name of Christ, who preach the Word of God, who bring us together in community, who sacrifice themselves for our salvation. Priests act in personal Christi, in the person of Christ in their ministry. When we are forgiven, it is through their words that Christ absolves us. St. Margaret Clitherow died for the chance for priests to share Christ with her community. Would that we live for the chance to have priests share Christ with our community.
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