By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
There never was a commandment that says: “Thou shalt not offend thy brother or sister.”
One might be forgiven, however, for believing there may be a new and improved version of Christianity popularized as globalism or immigrant mania where all is sacrificed, even one’s own offspring, to assuage the needs of those overlords who, perhaps, refuse to have children of their own.
Recently, Facebook temporarily suspended Fr. John Higgins for his retelling of the history of Islam’s onslaughts against the West. When the truth itself is considered offensive, all true Christians must be ready for martyrdom. These are the times that will expose Christians of convenience or cultural Catholicism for the superficiality which lurked beneath a conforming exterior.
Witness is often no more than attending Mass on Sunday, loving your family by working at an honest job, and coming home at night when it’s done. Caring for spouses and children is the everyday heroism of most men and women and a beautiful way to witness to love of Christ.
Christ taught us to “love one another.” But that was the beginning of many problems at the same time that it was the solving of others. Hatred at one time in history was a mark of loyalty to family and patria. The law of the tally counted offenses in order to return them one for one.
Christ taught us that we ought to lay down our lives rather than unjustly take another. He did not have in mind that we at the same time refuse all self-defense. He praised the faith of the centurion in the Gospels without requiring that he lay down his arms. He also stipulated only that soldiers “be content with their wages.”
So Christ did not envision the complete eclipse of the means of self-defense in founding the faith. He calls us to hold both in balance. Loving others at one time might mean defending them, in particular if they cannot defend themselves. At other times, as in the case of Christian martyrs, we confess our faith in love of Christ and lay down our lives at the same time that all means of escape from our captors are precluded. God calls us to martyrdom and as a result will invite us to “enter into the joy” of the Lord by taking the place prepared for us in His presence from all eternity.
With the certainty of God’s love visible in Christ we also live in times which call for extraordinary witness in simply stating the truth. Words that Christ Himself uttered have come offensive because the Christian consensus of the West is no more. The price of mass apostasy is measured by the cost of simply remaining in the truth.
God is the only Being who can be loved only after He has given love in giving Himself. The Holy Spirit is that gift and does not speak of Himself but rather witnesses in us to Christ. The working of the Holy Spirit is evident in the lives of the Egyptian martyrs who within the past month were killed while on pilgrimage to a monastery in the desert.
One by one, adults and children were hauled off the bus by militants and questioned, “Are you a Christian?” All answered in the affirmative. The Holy Spirit was speaking in them through their witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Horrible enough to be presented with the possibility of denying Christ once, they were then presented with a second opportunity to lose their lives in the next world by saving them in this one. They were each then also asked if they would deny their faith and become Muslim. They all refused. As a result many were martyred that day. Others were wounded. They did not choose — they were chosen and called by God to that witness of blood.
Why was the choice of the Egyptian martyrs necessary at all? It was so because Christianity is true and Islam is false.
Our fellow witness with them in the West may be unbloody, but it is equally necessary. Though in our cities it is increasingly possible that we may die by terrorist incursions there is a far more insidious war being waged. The betrayal of apostasy comes from within and dresses itself up in respectability, but beneath that whited sepulcher there are only dead men’s bones.
Christians may go to church every Sunday and even receive Christ in the Eucharist but their actions deceive if their love is not of Christ. Christ offended the Samaritan woman by telling her that her beliefs were false, that they could not bring life. He told her that He alone is the “living water” that she will need to truly live, forever. She chose to accept and believe in Him rather than react by being offended. Every person is presented with a like choice.
Our duty is to imitate Christ and to offer His love by sharing Him with others. We must do this as the cost of loving Him no matter how much it may entail that we step outside our comfort zones. How others react to our witness is our call to martyrdom. Rejection, ridicule, and public opprobrium are worthy rewards for Christian witness — no matter how much less spectacular they may be than the bloody heroism of our Egyptian brothers and sisters.
Putting Christianity into practice is our simple witness. Teaching that Christ has authority to command our actions as well as our words makes us offensive to many. Simply stating, for example, that marriage can be only between one man and one woman increasingly places us outside of the realm of public respectability.
For some, insisting they have a right to conduct their public business in a manner consonant with Christian moral teaching has entailed catastrophic financial loss. It is now considered law that marriage is redefined. Morality now, our “betters” say, has nothing to do with the matter. Many apostate Christians will continue to assert that Christ has no claim that entails they risk their jobs in order to put His words into practice in all areas of their lives.
Facebook doesn’t care how many beautiful photos of Mass we post online. But specifying what the One teaches whom we adore thereby can get us banned. A simply recounting of the facts of the history of Christianity by Fr. Higgins gained for him the badge of heroism. Witness in an age when words which convey truth are judged offensive will make martyrdom more common than we imagined when first we learned that truth.
Praised be Jesus Christ now and forever. Thank you for reading
@MCITLFrAphorism
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