26 How the Church Has Changed the World the man!” Cunning strategy, that. But Jesus glanced his way, and “Rock,” Peter, left the area andwandered into the night, weeping bitterly. Now he stands and speaks. “Men of Israel, do not be amazed,” he cries. For the promised Messiah had come, and they had put to death the Lord of life, but God has raised him from the dead, “and of this we are martyres!” Thousands of repentant sinners would be baptized on that day, says Saint Luke. But Peter knew what kind of final witness, what martyrdom, awaited him. The risen Lord had told him there would come a time when men would bind him and take him where he did not want to go. He would be crucified upside down, on the Vatican hill, outside the walls of Rome. God is the ultimate witness The history of the Christian faith is the story of that great cloud of martyrs which surrounds us all. Some of them, like Saint Sebastian, his body riddled with arrows, died violent deaths at the hands of Roman persecutors. Others journeyed into pagan lands, like Saint Boniface, and toiled to bring the truth, knowing that eventually it would cost them their lives. Others, like Saint Damien of Moloka’i, accepted a permanent exile from their
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