Feasts of the past few days remind us that God hasn't called us to pig out at the church picnic, but rather to follow His Son onto the field of battle. How many of us ever even skip a snack in reparation for sins that cry to heaven for vengeance, much less do any real fasting. (I point the wagging finger at myself!)
St. Agatha's feast day yesterday offers women a model of chastity and strength and a reminder that the "fair sex" is not excused from suffering and the call to perfection. Determined to be the bride of Christ, Agatha refused the advances of her pagan admirer who turned her over to the authorities. Placed in a brothel, she suffered horrible indignities, but remained chaste. Her reward was imprisonment, gruesome torture, and finally martyrdom.
