When prayers are answered with a YES and when prayers are answered with a NO, the answer is ALWAYS that there is merit in those prayers for all eternity.
Saint Zoe of Rome is an interesting Saint. She died in 286AD, after having converted to Christianity – alongside her husband – during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.
Emperor Diocletian, having been encouraged by Caesar Galerius began the last of the major persecutions of the Christians in the Roman Empire. This persecution resulted in destruction of churches and the torture and execution of Christians who refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods.
Such Christians included Saint Zoe. Zoe was a noblewoman who had suffered from a medical condition that caused her to be mute for six years. She met Saint Sebastiana and fell at his feet. After he made the sign of the Cross over her, Saint Zoe was immediately able to speak again - miraculously. During her healing, she had a vision of an angel standing next to Saint Sebastian holding a book that contained all the preachings of Saint Sebastian. Saint Zoe’s first words to Saint Sebastian following her healing were to give thanks to God and to praise Him.
There were many people – witness to the healing of Saint Zoe – who were converted through this witness of God’s power and her faith. One of those converts was Saint Zoe’s own husband, who was a Roman official and who was a witness to this miracle of faith.
Of this group of converts, Saint Zoe was the first to be martyred for her faith. As she was greatly devoted to Saint Peter the Apostle, it was easy enough to find her as she was arrested while praying at his tomb. She was martyred by being hung by her hair from a tree with a fire burning beneath her. Her body was later thrown in to the Tiber River. When Saint Sebastian was imprisoned and awaiting his own execution, she appeared to him in a vision to tell him about her martyrdom and Glory in Heaven.
And I have been thinking about that today, because it could seem – in Worldly terms – that Saint Zoe’s healing was completely pointless. After all, what is the point of having one’s speech restored miraculously, if they are going to lose their life under horrendous circumstances only a short time later? There really seems no point at all in that. And yet – in an eternal sense, there was such merit in that healing. After all, it brought others to God. And perhaps – so too did her death…? After all, what could possibly be more motivating in faith than to understand that a person would carry with them – to their death - their firm belief in the power of God?
And I have been reflecting on that today, because it seems that when prayers are answered with a YES and when prayers are answered with a NO, the answer is ALWAYS that there is merit in those prayers for all eternity. And perhaps that is the only perspective that I really need to take…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments