EPIC TRAGEDY ^_[1]

BRUTALITY AND MARTYRDOM

1.  Amalek and his army might have prevailed at Rephidim if he had stormed the hill where Moses stood holding aloft the staff of God.  [cf. Exo 17:8-13]  As long as Moses did not grow weary and drop his arms, Israel's success was guaranteed on the battlefield below.  Aaron and Hur sat Moses on a rock and steadied his uplifted hands until sundown; thus, Joshua and his warriors vanquished Amalek for his unjust attack against the people of God. The pursuit of justice is a perennial one, and the record of history makes clear that most aggressors go unpunished; rarely do innocent tribes and nations secure retributive justice against their adversaries.  This morbid lesson is not lost on innumerable Christian communities in mission countries today against whom militant Islam and atheistic communism conduct horrifying campaigns aimed at nothing less than their total extermination.  Catholic families are suffering brutality and martyrdom on an unprecedented scale in Third World nations.  The most egregious offenders are the governments of China, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Cuba, Laos, and Uzbekistan and radical Islam.^[2]  Within these merciless regimes, Christian families bear the constant anguish of programmed persecution, systematic arrest and brutal imprisonment and torture.  They suffer the confiscation or destruction of their  jobs, businesses, homes, property, and Churches with dismaying regularity.  Large numbers of Christian children are kidnapped every year and sent to indoctrination camps to undergo forced conversion to communism or Islamic fundamentalism.  Village elders and fathers are murdered to break the will of their Christian communities; women and children are spared for forced labor and intimidated by the prospect of slavery and exile as punishment for forcible or passive resistance. Under a pall of severe sanctions and governmental intimidation, many Catholics understandably renounce their faith in the hope of remaining alive.  Random, wanton acts of rampage and revenge against Christians are now so numerous that attempts to document them for a comprehensive record has become impossible.  Not unexpectedly, Catholic mission priests, religious and laity are at greater risk today than ever before in the history of evangelization.  The number of Third World Catholics assaulted, kidnapped, raped, imprisoned and killed rises dramatically each year.  How many Christians are involved?  At this very hour, approximately two hundred fifty million Christians are at high risk for suffering organized persecution, militant aggression, injury and death.  It is estimated that four hundred million others live in hostile environments of politically and judicially sponsored oppression.  Martyrdom is the heart of this tragedy of epic proportion: approximately 160,000 Christians are martyred every year for one reason only: they bear the name of Jesus Christ.^[3]  

HOLY WARS AND IDEOLOGY

2.  The havoc wrought in the Lord's vineyard by principalities and powers and the world rulers of this present darkness  [cf. Eph 6:12]  imperils contemporary evangelization programs which build on the foundation of two centuries of the Church's best missionary efforts.  Both atheistic communist ideology and  fundamentalist Islamic jihads or holy wars perpetual a feudal model of religious and social conquest.  The hatred of Christianity enshrined in communist ideology centers on the fact that Christians acknowledge in God a higher authority than any government, society, organization or individual.  Communism fears obedience to any authority other than itself.  Communist ideologues especially fear the Catholic Church which submits in obedience to the moral and spiritual authority of Christ and the Petrine ministry.  They fear the Church's unswerving support for the freedom and dignity of all men and her profound influence on the course of world events--most notably the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.  The religion of Islam, amorphous and vulnerable to political manipulation by bloodthirsty extremists, has emerged from its dormancy and resumed war against Christianity--recall its conquest of the Christian Mediterranean and its multiple invasions of Europe--as a cultural and religious duty.  Fundamentalists loathe not reality but complexity; they fear not death but accommodation.  Nevertheless, Christians must avoid the temptation to take refuge in self-serving sociopolitical grandstanding.  Evil is not exclusive to China and militant Islamic countries as if it were absent elsewhere.  Wealth and power tend to dazzle citizens in first world nations, blinding them to the pervasive evils of promiscuity and pornography, broken families, addictive substances and violence, and the sinful consequences of contraception and abortion.  The Lord Jesus, speaking through the apostle John, denounced the lukewarm spirituality tolerated by affluent churches:  "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent."  [Rev 3:17-19]  While there is a clearly defined model of mission endeavors and work, no model presently exists by which Christians in the United States can respond promptly and effectively to the tragedy of Christians murdered for their faith.  Although persecution and martyrdom of Christians is grievous, both in kind and degree, it is vital for us to remember that decisive victory in this and in all things has been won for us 2,000 years ago by Christ on the cross.  Nevertheless, the potential for greater suffering in the meantime is magnified by ignorance and indifference in Europe and the United States.  What are we to do?  St. Paul admonishes us to persevere under harsh, even oppressive, conditions.  In truth, his words recall the formidable obstacles faced by the early Church whose mission was to "preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching".  [2Tim 4:2]  Catholics suffering in foreign countries have much to teach us about the meaning and depth of the words one, holy, catholic and apostolic church which we profess in the Nicene Creed every Sunday.^[4] 

"EXERT A GREAT EFFORT"

3.   I would invite you to start praying for our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ.  Pray without ceasing  [cf. Rom 1:9]  for their deliverance from evil.  Do not give up; the ones for which you pray are steadfast in the face of persecution.  Pray for peace and safety in Third World Christian homes and churches.  By praying for their freedom to worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you pray for your own. Intercede for them at mass and during your private prayer.  Always and everywhere, lift up to God his ambassadors in chains  [cf. Eph 6:20], supporting your missionaries and the people they serve.  I offer you a marvelous example from the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church and Patroness of World Missions, who never left the enclosure of her convent in France. Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart recounted the following conversation with the Little Flower in May, 1897, four months before the her death from tuberculosis:  "The infirmarian had told her to take a little walk for a quarter of an hour each day in the garden.  I met her walking painfully and seemingly at the end of her strength.  I said: 'You would do better to rest; this walking can do you no good under such conditions.  You're exhausting yourself.'  (She replied,)  'It's true, but do you know what gives me strength?  Well, I am walking for a missionary.  I think that over there, far away, one of them is perhaps exhausted in his apostolic endeavors, and, to lessen his fatigue, I offer mine to God.'"^[5]  Initially you are going to have to find your own way.  This is a global problem, occurring on an epic scale, but we cannot offer you a model or program because there is none at present.  No effective mainstream means--specifically the print and broadcast media in the United States--presently exists by which Catholics in the United States may be properly informed of the magnitude of atrocities and martyrdom confronting Christians in the Third World.  Catholics who celebrate the feast days of martyrs throughout the Church year remain largely unaware that more Christians have lost their lives in the 20th century, just for being Christian, than during the previous 19 centuries combined.^[6]  Make a great effort, therefore, to become informed.  Be alert to current events which provide clues to what is happening.  More and ore of this news is being made available.  The  National Catholic Register  weekly newspaper and the  Eternal Word Television Network, Global Catholic Network, for example, are reliable sources.  ZENIT News Agency--The World Seen from Rome on the World Wide Web provides a free daily news analysis for e-mail delivery.  You have access to media; you can take concrete and meaningful action.  In the words of St. Therese, "Exert a great effort."^[7]  Be creative.  For example, you can write letters to your elected officials informing them of the global crisis facing Christians and requesting their help.  Ask them to do everything in their power to respect the dignity of human life and the right of religious liberty, the preeminent social justice issues of our age.  Write or call your local newspaper.  Ask them to reprint relevant articles from the ZENIT news service.  Take a lesson from the gospel today and the widows unflagging persistence.  Our Lord says, "And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?"  [Lk 18:7] 

^[2]  Cf  Nina Shea,  IN THE LION'S DEN  (Broadman & Holman: Nashville, 1997)  1. 

^[3]  Cf  Paul Marshall,  THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT  (Word Publishing: Dallas, 1997)  pp. 253-255.   

^[4]  SACRAMENTARY, "Profession of Faith",  Nicene Creed  (1985).   

^[5]  John Clarke OCD, ed. and trans., ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX: HER LAST CONVERSATIONS  (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1977)  262. 

^[6]  Cf  IN THE LION'S DEN, 1.  

^[7]  ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX: HER LAST CONVERSATIONS,  142.