Blessed Isidoro Ngei Ko Lot and Blessed Mario Vergara: Consecrated in Truth
“I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world…
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
- John 17:14, 17-19
The days of the Easter Season that fall between the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the great Solemnity of Pentecost are a sort of “time between.” Like those first Christians, we find ourselves in an attitude of waiting, recalling all that the Lord had promised and anticipating the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Readings from the Gospel this week, present for us some of Jesus’ final teachings, including today’s excerpt from the “Priestly Prayer” of John chapter 17, during which Jesus offers a profound prayer to his Father for the sake of his disciples, both those present at the Last Supper and those who could come in the future.
In the Gospel proclaimed on Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter, Jesus prays in a particular way that those disciples who suffer “because they do not belong to the world” may be consecrated “in the truth.” As Bishop Richard Sklba has observed, “truth is precisely what consecrates and set his disciples apart.” He continued:
“It is knowing the full truth about God that makes the disciples of Jesus different and therefore ‘holy.’ This difference, however, is not something that creates an isolation of arrogance or superiority. True holiness includes by definition an impetus toward the mission of sharing that truth with the larger world. Because the disciples have been blessed to know the truth, they are sent forth just as Jesus was sent forth from the Father into our world.”—from Easter Fire
As we consider what it means for us, as disciples today, to be “consecrated in the truth,” we can look to the example of many of the great missionary saints, including Blessed Isidoro Ngei Ko Lot, who was martyred in Myanmar on this day in 1950. Although Blessed Isidoro is not on the universal calendar of the Catholic Church, his story helps to shine a light on today’s Gospel.
Isidoro was born in 1918 to a peasant family in Kayin, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Following the death of his parents, he was raised by an aunt and uncle and attended the local primary school. As a teenager, he expressed a desire to study for the priesthood and he spent six years in minor seminary. World War II brought his studies to an end, however, and he returned to his village and opened a school for the local children.
In 1936, Father Mario Vergara, an Italian priest of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME) was assigned to Myanmar and the local bishop missioned him to a poor mountain region where he established an orphanage and a sanitorium that cared for more than 80 children. When the Second World War broke out, Father Mario was sent to a British POW camp in India for four years. After the war ended and he was released, he returned to his missionary duties.
“May their heroic fidelity to Christ be an encouragement and an example to missionaries and especially to catechists who in missionary lands carry out a precious and irreplaceable apostolic work, for which the entire Church is grateful.”
-Pope Francis speaking of Blessed Isidoro and Blessed Mario at his General Audience on May 21, 2014
In 1948, after the Myanmar had achieved independence from the British, Father Mario met Isidoro and asked the him to join him in his missionary efforts, serving as a catechist. Because of the instability with the country, however, guerilla forces and local militias claimed power in various parts of the country and often targeted missionaries and those who had become Catholic. After Isidoro and Father Mario defied the rebels by speaking out on behalf of the poor, they were captured and murdered together on May 24, 1950, in Shadaw, Kayah, Myanmar.
Blessed Isidoro Ngei Ko Lat and Blessed Mario Vergara were beatified together in 2014.
While the stories of Blessed Isidoro and Mario are inseparably connected, it is easy for us to focus our attention on the ministry and service of a missionary-priest like Blessed Mario. However, we have to be careful that we do not undervalue the selfless witness of lay missionaries and catechists, which is a beautiful expression of the lay vocation (see Evangelii Nuntiandi, nos. 70-73). This is why Pope Francis could offer these words on the work of these dedicated lay Christians:
“[We cannot forget] the countless lay men and women who directly took part in the spread of the Gospel through catechetical instruction. Men and women of deep faith, authentic witnesses of holiness, who in some cases were also founders of Churches and eventually died as martyrs. In our own day too, many competent and dedicated catechists are community leaders in various parts of the world and carry out a mission invaluable for the transmission and growth of the faith. The long line of blesseds, saints and martyrs who were catechists has significantly advanced the Church’s mission and deserves to be recognized, for it represents a rich resource not only for catechesis but also for the entire history of Christian spirituality.”—from Antiquum Minsterium, no. 3
As we recall the life and witness of Blessed Isidoro and Blessed Mario today, we can see the fruit of lives consecrated in truth. Rather than simply hold as precious the gift of faith, Isidoro and Mario went out, sharing with others what they themselves had received. Blessed Isidoro, while he was never able to fulfill his dream of being ordained a priest, nevertheless offered his life—his very self—for the sake of the Gospel and the poor with no thought of status or reward.
Looking forward to that day when we recall the gift of the Spirit’s fullness on that first Pentecost, the liturgy and these two martyrs invite us to reflect on our own call to mission and evangelization.
How does your encounter with the one who is Truth inspire you to move forward in mission?
What gifts have you been given to help hand on faith in Christ to others?
Blessed Isidoro Ngei Ko Lot and Blessed Mario Vergara, pray for us.
By the power of the Holy Spirit we pray, Almighty God: make us docile in believing the faith and courageous in confessing it, just as you granted the blessed Martyrs Isidoro and Mario that they might lay down their lives for the sake of your word and in witness to Jesus. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect from the Mass for Several Martyrs during the Easter Season
