On today’s calendar there is a host of saints who are listed as “martyrs”: John Nepomucen, Hebedjesus (along with sixteen priests, nine deacons, six monks, and seven virgins, whose names are not recorded), and Abdas. By my count, that totals 41 persons who are remembered each May 16th on the Calendar as “martyrs” for the faith.

The generally notion is that martyrs are those who are killed for being Christian by virtue of holding fast to their faith. The emphasis is always on the death part of martyrdom, and this is frequently accompanied with the idea that being killed in this way provides a “Go Directly to Heaven, Do Not Tarry in Purgatory” card.

Well, it turns out that, originally, the Greek word, μάρτυς (mártys), meant “witness” or “truth-teller.” It was a judicial term, and it referred to those who, in our more modern, television-influenced parlance, “promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” with respect to what they saw or experienced first-hand.

This is huge. Seriously. It forces upon us all the question of why aren’t we ALL martyrs?! The quick answer is because “then we’d have to tell the truth!!” We’d have to say when things are not meaningful, we’d have to say when things are stupid, we’d have to be honest about what we see, we’d have to not be “selectively silent” because it would create discomfort. We’d have to admit what matters to us, what we like, what moves us…and what does not. And this is only conceivable if we ground ourselves in the liberating power not only for us but for others that comes from telling the truth.

So, read this last paragraph over. Join me in glimpsing what courage it requires to be a martyr-in-the-truth-telling sense. Conflict really seems unavoidable. And then, when conflict arises, what if we continue to be a martyr (i.e., not be silent about or back off from the truth)? What if we set aside all the wonderful rationalizations that we have on hand to mute ourselves for “the good of all”? What if we forgo false worries (another form or rationalization), like “I’d be hurtful! I’d be bitchy all the time! I’d be unpleasant! I’d be mean!” Since when is it hurtful and bitchy to tell the truth about our own experience? Since when it is bad for those around us to hear our truth? And if others don’t like what we have to say about our own experiences, then is that a sufficient reason to be silent, or to shave off parts of it, or to mold it into acceptable forms that bear little resemblance to the our truth even all the elements are somehow smushed in there together?

To be clear, martyrdom is not about telling others what THEY should experience, witness, believe, do, or think…no more than a witness in a courtroom is telling this to others. But martyrdom is a no-turning-back commitment to tell that truth of ours… the whole truth… and nothing but that truth.