Wednesday 22 June 2022
Ss John Fisher, Bishop, and Thomas More, martyrs
2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord – Psalm 118(119):33-37, 40. Matthew 7:15-20.
You will be able to tell them by their fruits
I wonder if Saints John Fisher and Thomas More saw Henry VIII as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. ‘By their fruit you will recognise them’. On this day in 1535 John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and cardinal, laid down his life for his faith on Tower Hill. Two weeks later Thomas More was similarly executed. On this feast of these two great men of the 16th century we read in the first reading about a different king. He was Josiah who vowed to follow the law of God. Henry, of course, had different ideas. On More’s tomb in the King’s Chapel on Tower Hill are inscribed these words: ‘Thomas More, Knight, Scholar, writer, statesman, Lord Chancellor of England 1529-32. Beheaded on Tower Hill, buried in this chapel 1535. Canonised by Pope Pius XI, 1935.’ By our fruits will God recognise us?
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