ALWAYS, IN ALL WAYS ^_[1]

BIRTHED INTO HOSTILITY

1. The human person's first journey, and arguably his shortest, is birth. Accustomed to the intimacy of its mother's womb, an unborn child faces the daunting prospect of departing his prenatal haven and immigrating to an unpredictable, radical new existence. For all unborn children, birth looms as an arduous and profound rite of passage. The infant must sacrifice for the sake of blessing. To discover who he is, the child must liberate himself from the fruitful and hospitable womb in which he was conceived. He lays down the familiar to take up the unknown. He relinquishes the present that he may grasp his future. As well, the birth event forces the infant to confront loss of another sort: certainty. Not all of his needs will be met. Some will be misunderstood, others ignored, still others dealt with in a way which displeases him. He begins the arduous, life-long task of communicating to maximize the possibilities of his survival and happiness. From the standpoint of relationship, this is essentially the experience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Expelled from paradise by God, Adam and Eve were birthed into a difficult and visibly hostile world. Adam tilled the harsh and capricious earth and Eve labored throughout pregnancy and childbirth. With characteristic acerbity, the Genesis narrative documents man's swift plunge from paradise to murder. Cain's slaying of his brother Abel unmasks an appalling reality. Man has fallen so low in sin, and so far from God, that he is capable of rationalizing murder as a fundamental human need. He replicates the loss of his most vital, life-giving relationship--defined in the Genesis story as walking with God in the cool of the day [cf. Genesis 3:8]--by the deliberate killing of his own kind. Cain's murder of his brother--the "Lord had regard for Abel and his offering" [Gen 4:4]--underscores the long-running tragedy of murder in the name of religion. The intentions of both persecutor and martyr are highlighted in this dark story. The jealous persecutor, angered by his inadequacies, sets out to deceive and murder his sibling. The innocent brother's offense? An offering consecrated and pleasing to the Lord. Abel, whose blood Cain mixed with his sacrifice of firstlings [cf. Gen 4:4; cf. Lk 13:1], is martyred for the sake of his authentic worship of God. Cain's arrogance foreshadows the turbid conduct of the Jerusalem elite who accuse Jesus of traducing Mosaic law and corrupting what they perceive as legitimate worship. Christian victims of religious persecution interpret their sufferings in a forceful, charismatic way. Rejecting attitudes of passivity and impotence, they ennoble their sufferings as acts of martyrdom. The Christian martyr, while not idealizing his death, sanctifies his life precisely by the free-will offering of himself, in union with Christ on the cross, as a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord. By means of this greater portion, and through the intercession of the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church",^[2] the merits of the martyrs' deaths transcend those of Abel and shall not be taken away from them. Hence, when persecution against the Church is countered by the intentionality of martyrdom, the formidable power of the cross is unleashed: "It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." [Isa 25:9] For the sake of his holy name, his steadfast love and faithfulness and his elect, God will scatter the enemies of his kingdom and require a reckoning from those who shed the blood of his chosen people in the name of religion.

TOWERING TEMPEST

2. In the past century, atheistic totalitarianism and Islamic fundamentalism have scripted religious persecution into a passion play of epic proportion. Whether staged in urban cities or rural provinces, this morbid performance art requires little or no rehearsal. The script is simple and easily improvised. A government army unit or ragtag militia-mob claims the role of avenger, often choreographing their brutal scenes with firearms and gasoline. Christians, cast as the enemy, have little opportunity to practice virtues of fortitude and charity. The tragic themes of persecution vary little from one region to another, yet the action sequences are familiar--the homes, schools, businesses and churches of Christians are confiscated or destroyed. Many performances feature a dramatic disappearing act. Countless numbers of Christians never return home after the curtain of evil falls. Though this tragic scenario plays itself out repeatedly in third world nations, the topic of persecution is anathema to western governments and media. Nonetheless, the grim manifesto of religious intolerance is directed at national, even global audiences; persons, families, and villages who acknowledge Jesus Christ as their highest authority risk cleansing, that is, forced immigration, brutality and death. In the past century, millions of Christians have been martyred with a ferocity unknown even in antiquity. Today, hundreds of millions of believers live in third world countries whose regimes stigmatize Christianity and enforce harsh laws to suppress its practice. With numbing regularity, Christians are falsely accused of subversion and blasphemy. Militant atheism and theocratism--at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum and implacable enemies of each other--share a lust for conquest^[3] and not infrequently the same modus operandi (Lat. system, method) of officially sanctioned, organized pogroms against Christians. The bones of Christian martyrs--"crying to (God) from the ground" [Gen 4:10]--rise up to accuse arrogant juntas that claim to embody the soul of the people they rule and who insist that they own the free will of every member of society. Human bones are a melancholy sight. Whether a single bone or whole skeleton, the stark relics of a once-healthy and robust human being molest the living man's self-centeredness. The active, vigorous person shuns reflection upon the final event of his own mortality; he recoils from the grim certainty that, in the course of time, he will succumb to death entirely alone. Bones rattle his complacent assumptions, forcing him to confront the meaning of death and the inevitability of his own demise. For reasons not entirely clear--one's care for the remains of his own family members is markedly evident--man regards all human remains as worthy of respect. No matter where bones are found, they prompt the living to pause in silence. Bare, white bones testify that the story of the living is fragile and perishes easily. Remembrance is not possible without stories. When stories of the deceased are erased or discarded, the identity of those who played them out disappears. Sacred Scripture recalls a remarkable episode in the life of the prophet Ezekiel. The Spirit of the Lord carries the prophet to a forlorn valley filled with very dry human bones, the bones of a multitude of persons whose stories have vanished. The Spirit of the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy, to utter Words of Life, that every bone may hear and stir from the somber earth: "Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." [Eze 37:5-6] Ezekiel beholds the valley floor heaving, the bones swirling in a towering tempest--rattling, murmuring, sighing. He observes the bones coming together--bone to its bone [cf. Eze 37:7]--to assemble as skeletons of the vanquished and forgotten. Upon these spectral frames, the Spirit of the Lord weaves sinews and flesh and the "breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host". [Eze 37:10] The Lord, who cherishes the cries of the slain, speaks to Ezekiel. He declares that the great host is the great house of Israel. He urges the prophet to behold the multitudes hymn of lament: "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off." [Eze 37:11]

LIFE'S RIGHT TO LIFE

3. Yet hope is not undone, for every man experiences gain through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fundamental gain of all persons is human life itself and the uniquely human right to live happily and peacefully. That any one person's life may be extinguished or his contentment be uprooted is a cause for great lament (one recalls the tens of millions of aborted children in the United States) but his right to life, and by extension his right to peaceful and happy living, is a prophetic voice which no man, no government, nor any law can silence. Though suppressed for generations, the voice of life cannot be extinguished. That it will make itself heard in an acceptable time is inevitable: "...behold, now is the day of salvation!" [2Cor 6:2] Man's humanity and life's right-to-life are indissoluble. Man's flesh and spirit images the God-Spirit whose intention is unmistakable: all human beings abide in peace with one another. Whether natural or unnatural, the death of any human being is always a loss. Not surprisingly, the inverse is true. Regardless of the manifold possibilities by which a person may experience loss, the absolute certainty remains that all human life, despite its fragility or in spite of its power, is always gain! Murder is reprehensible, but not more so because the victim is Christian or even because he is Christian. Murder is murder, and death, primitive and inhuman, leads only to death. Militarism, whether theistic or atheistic, is nothing less than the mark of Cain, whose scabrous blemish is exalted by a "crooked and perverse generation". [cf. Phi 2:15] Any killing which ensues from an act of man's premeditated judgment is an execution, regardless of whether the person killed is a law-abiding citizen, unborn and helpless, imprisoned and guilty, or infirm and weary, or happens to be a self-effacing missionary, or still less a legion of third-world Christians swept away by an avalanche of ideological hatred. Jesus prophesies that the Church would share in his fate because its persecutors do not know the Father who sent him: "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." [Jn 15:20-21] Moreover, says Our Lord, the "hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God". [Jn 16:2] Holy Mother Church mourns for her children who are "being killed all the day long". [Rom 8:36] As well, the Bride of Christ honors her children who, like her beloved Groom, held their "first confidence firm to the end" [Heb 3:14] lest they be "judged to have failed to reach it". [Heb 4:1] The Christian community exalts its martyrs precisely because Our Lord exalts them: "He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name." [Rev 3:12] The Christian martyr conquers, not by "contending against flesh and blood" [Eph 6:12], but by waging spiritual warfare "against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places!" [Eph 6:12] These are the Spirit's words to the Church! [cf. Rev 2:7] Jesus, whose kingship is greater than this world, needs no one to fight for him. Nor when he was persecuted, did the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" [1Tim 6:15] retaliate: "...when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly". [1Pet 2:23] Of this sacrificial offering, the Trappist Thomas Merton observed: "This is the most complete revolution that has ever been preached. In fact, it is the only true revolution, because all the others demand the extermination of somebody else. But this one means the death of the man who, for all practical purposes, you have come to think of as your own self."^[4] To be a part of the true revolution of Christ,^[5] we accept burial through baptism into the death of our Lord in the sure hope that might rise to regeneration of life and resurrection from the dead. St. Paul cautions the Christian community to eschew acting in the place of God, the just and righteous Judge: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." [Phi 3:7-11] The Christian martyr's death is delivered from irrationality and fruitlessness because he lays it down freely in the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ, in the manner of his own resurrection, will take it up again. He surrenders his temporal life for the greater prize of eternal life and a place at the head of the heavenly banquet table. By dying for the sake of the imperishable nature, the Lord's people win for themselves the prize of immortality.

ORDERLY, INDOMITABLE PROCESSION

4. The martyr's death is redeemed because the Son of God purchased his salvation--the transfiguration of man's most vital, life-giving relationship with the Father--by the great price of his own voluntary propitiation. In the hour of obedience--Jesus had been pried from the cross and sealed in the Arimethean's tomb--the Holy Spirit (Gk. Pneuma Hagion) abolishes the law of futility and silences the boast of death. He empties the grave of its most prized possession, reuniting the Son with the Father. In fulfillment of scripture, Jesus is counted as equal with God and exalted as Christ and Lord "to the glory of God the Father". [Phi 2:11] On the day of Pentecost, the Father and the Son send forth the Holy Spirit to the company of the disciples gathered in one place. Alerted by a noise "like the rush of a mighty wind" [Acts 2:2], Mary and the apostles witness the Spirit's procession into the entire house. Together, they are seized in a communion of divine fire which bestows upon each disciple a full portion under the sign of tongues. The Spirit-filled disciples speak in other tongues, each of the countless pilgrims in Jerusalem hearing the good news proclaimed in his own language--to the bewilderment and disbelief of many. Illumined by unquenchable tongues of fire--"I came to cast fire upon the earth and would that it were already kindled!" [Lk 12:49]--the Church carries the light that "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". [Jn 1:5] The Spirit--the Almighty's finger--inscribes God's covenant of love upon the hearts of all who wait for him with courage. The Spirit of Fire testifies that the flaming sword has been lowered. Man need no longer hide himself in loss and shame. Spirit-filled, he approaches God in the Eden of his deepest soul. He walks in the presence of the Lord that he may know times of refreshing. [cf. Acts 3:19] By the strength of his relationship with the Father, Christ redeems his people, restoring the divine-human relationship forfeited in the garden. The holy abode, to which Christ leads his people in steadfast love, is nothing less than the heart of his Father. Accepting that the Spirit is the instrument of grace by which love, justice, and mercy will triumph, how does one remain hope-filled despite the intentional killings of Christians, exponentially magnified by militant societies in the past century, which appear to be beyond the reach of God's divine plan? The Spirit (Lat. Spiritus: wind, breath, life), begotten of God into the fullness of divine personhood, and who "dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see" [1Tim 6:16], proceeds from the Father and the Son with full authority to accomplish their omnipotent will. Christ himself testifies to the fullness of the Spirit's fecundity: "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'" [Jn 3:5] "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." [Jn 3:8] One accepts Jesus' analogue on wind and Spirit with wisdom. The Spirit--silent, mysterious, and deliberate--is hardly capricious and arbitrary. To the contrary, its movement is forward, and its procession unfolds in a sublime, orderly, formal and indomitable manner. Christians know the Holy Spirit as the divine breath, the mighty wind, the Pneuma Hagion of God. The Book of Job prophesies the charism of spirit and breath by which the Church would one day identify the Holy Spirit--the "spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" [Job 33:4]--and the wisdom of God--"but it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand". [Job 32:8] If any theological statement can be said to encompass, if not actually signify, what the Church understands to be the Kingdom of God, it must surely be the procession of the Spirit. The Spirit, sent forth to empower God's kingdom on earth, is here to stay. Never will the Holy Spirit depart from the Church in this age or in the age to come. Moreover, the person of the Spirit processes, and its kingdom-procession with Christ as its head, is unstoppable.

LAYING DOWN, TAKING UP

5. No enemy of God's kingdom can partake in the Spirit's procession, nor can evil--disordered, swinish, and rampageous by nature--so much as take a step forward. Though evil may flood the world with lies, deluge mankind with idols, and unleash upon Christians a torrent of persecution and martyrdom, it is incompetent to process on its own. This present ages infatuation with evil and its multiplicity of savage, vengeful acts should not dismay those who, in the mind of Christ [cf. 1Cor 2:16], share in the Spirit's movement. Fanaticism finds no welcome in the body whose head is Christ. Impious hearts have no portion in the divine pilgrimage of mercy. No murderer is capable of processing under the banner of God's love. Christ safeguards the divine procession for the sake of the Spirit's name, and the "powers of death shall not prevail against it". [Mt 16:18] All principalities, all powers, all "world rulers of this present darkness", and "all spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" [Eph 6:12]--whether random or organized--are destined to stumble and fall! They will be swept away in the cleansing fire! Of this, we are absolutely certain. This is the gospel of victory, for the "kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power"! [1Cor 4:20] Love conquers hatred. The Father loves the Son who freely pays his vows to the Most High by laying down his life as an ransom for many and taking up his life as a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Gk. eucharistia). We entrust ourselves to the mystery of divine mercy--"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy" [Mat 5:7]--that Christ's laying down and taking up may confound the events of evil whose sole purpose is to dismember the procession of the Spirit. St. Paul rejoiced that from his impending martyrdom would flow "rivers of living water" [Jn 7:38]: "Even if I am to be poured as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me." [Phi 2:17-18] A two-fold blessing springs from divine mercy. God anoints the faithful disciple who lays down hatred and vengeance and takes up the cross of the compassionate Messiah. Further, God pours out goodness and mercy to overflowing upon Christians who, faithful to the prophetic tradition, are reviled, denounced, and persecuted for the sake of the Name. Obedient to their Lord's commandment--"love one another as I have loved you" [Jn 15:12]--they freely lay down their lives for the salvation of those who, like Saul, breathe murderous threats against the elect.

"CAN THESE BONES LIVE?"

6. Human bones are extraordinarily evocative. The symbolize the passage of time, aging, and mortality. Bones can reveal the state of a person's health or the type of violence committed against him. Bones cannot be sentimentalized or ignored. A stark reminder that human beings and human enterprises are finite, bones remind even the most hardened heart that every beginning is inevitably followed by an end. Bones are the litter of human history. The ancient Israelites of Ezekial's day did not perceive an afterlife. Any notion of "heaven" was incomprehensible to them. They did believe in a place of the dead called "Sheol." There, the "shadows" of deceased human beings were confined to a kind of nether world. Cultures of the Near East understood immortality as begetting descendants to carry on the family name and blood line. Israelites considered a short life, major injury, or terminal illness to be a punishment from God. There are times in our lives when, like dry bones, everything seems disconnected, pulled or fallen apart. The words "separation" and "split" characterize the present generation. We experience abandonment, divisive conflict, fractured relationships, the dismemberment of the unborn, the destruction of our youth through drugs and firearms, the loss of hope, the end of dreams. We watch our emotional and spiritual muscles and sinews shrivel up before our eyes. Many of us sit helpless among the pieces of our lives, sometimes for months and years, trying to make things fit. So many persons give up because difficult situations appear hopeless and unsolvable.

7.  Imagine for a moment that you are Ezekial. In every direction, north, south, east and west, all you can see are bones, very dry bones. The bones symbolize the triumph of folly and death for the entire nation of Israel. The fact that they are very dry tells you that the destruction of God's chosen people appears complete and irreversible. "Can these bones live?" asks the Lord. [Eze 37:3] With this simple interrogatory, the Almighty signals his intention to right what has been wronged, to raise up what has been laid down, and to restore what has been lost. Whereas Logos (Gk. word, Christ) and Spiritus have been revealed from the beginning, and announced to us through prophets and the Gospel, the day of the Lord will come to pass in an instant. The Lord, who suddenly comes to his temple, will gather the bones of his people to himself. He will speak to the bones of the martyrs as one would address an assembly. Not with the vocabulary of death will the Lord speak, but with words of everlasting life: "Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, says the Lord." [Eze 37:12-14] The bare, white truth is found in unlikely places.

8.  "When all things are subjected to (Christ)" [1Cor 15:28], the Holy Spirit will reunite the martyrs to their stories, and names to the nameless, and proclaim in the assembly what once was forgotten. Thus will emerge from man's cultural humus, like bare bones, the remembrance of the victims who were savagely cut off from hope and life. The sacred stories of the martyrs are living embers, the nascent fire by which the elect of a new generation kindles anew the shining lamp of salvation. Lest we forfeit the light and the warmth of our own humanity, we must preserve the contemporary martyrology of God's people. Marks of the Spirit, sacred stories are indispensable for the coming-into-being of the human being. May we never be silent! May we never forget! May we never cause the martyrs to suffer a second death! The story of Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones reminds the believer that the measure of his life will not be revealed fully until the end of the age. Spirit and Resurrection do not exempt us from pain or harsh and capricious trials in this present life. But they do empower man to replicate the saving event of the cross. Will he renounce his pride and self-interest, take up his cross daily? Will he follow Christ by loving God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving his neighbor as he loves himself? The dark reign of futility and death is destroyed that hope may endure forever: "It is fitting to make merry and glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found!" [Lk 15:32] We trust that Christ Jesus will lead his chosen people dry-shod through the hellish, raving sea of persecution--hurled by the breath of the Spirit into a wall "on their right hand and on their left". [Exo 14:22] We trust that Christ will lead them to a "better country, that is, a heavenly one". [Heb 11:16] To our conviction that human nature is perfected in the sufficiency of God's grace, we may add the absolute certainty that all human life is always and in all ways gain.