20th Sunday C – Persecution and the Good News
On a dry, hot, windy day, with the fire danger at its highest, I find it a bit unsettling that Our Lord should begin his discourse with “I have come to light a fire on the earth!”
Talk about bad timing!
And talk about some tough, sobering readings this week. We see Jeremiah, thrown into the muddy cistern for proclaiming the Word of God. The psalmist cries out “Lord, come to my aid!” The Letter to the Hebrews describes in vivid detail the sufferings of Christ for the Gospel and even Our Lord says that those who follow him will be subject to persecution even from those closest to them for the sake of the Gospel.
I’m going to speak today about one of the more difficult aspects of Christian discipleship. It will be quite sobering, some of it may be a bit depressing; but don’t worry, as with Jeremiah, I will take us down into the cistern, but at the end I will draw up out again.
Why were Christians persecuted in ancient times?
Because of the nature of their message, and the threat they represented to established internal power structures, they were rejected by the Jewish religious leadership of their day and eventually expelled from the Synagogue.
But in the Roman Empire in general, they were more or less left alone until 64 AD. What happened then?
Well, it helps to remember that the Romans were very religious people. They had a god and a religious observance for just about everything. If you went to the market or transacted other business, you made a short sacrifice to Mercury. If you wanted kids, you visited the Temple of Vesta, goddess of fertility.If the state went to war, which they seem to have done quite often, the sacrifice was to Mars. And everything in the Empire depended on keeping Jupiter happy. The security of the state depended on keeping the gods appeased.
So, in 64 AD, Nero fiddles, and Rome burns. Somebody as angered the gods? Who could it be? Well, they had this one religious group called Christians who refused to sacrifice to the gods. No wonder the gods were angry. We have to bring these people to heal.
So ironically, the early Christians were first persecuted as atheists.
But what about in modern times? Surely, the world has moved beyond such things, yes?
Sadly that is not the case at all. If anything, there is more religious persecution now than there ever was in ancient Rome. Christians seem to be getting the worst of it. The last 25 years have seen a dramatic increase in numbers and intensity.
According to a recent report ordered by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt of the United Kingdom, he persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near “genocide” levels. The report estimated that one in three people suffer from religious persecution. It found that Christians were the most persecuted religious group. It warned that Christianity “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.
In 2016, the UN found that 825,000, or 40%, of Syria’s 2 Million Christians have fled the country.
The Vatican Charity, “Aid to the Church in Need” released its “Religious Freedom Report” on Nov. 22, noting that 300 million Christians live in a country of persecution, subject to violence, arrest, and human rights violations.
According to the2019 World Watch List report by Open Doors, in the top 50 countries they tracked:
– 4,136: Christians were killed for faith-related reasons
– 2,625: Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned
– 1,266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked
Today, 11 countries are now considered at the “extreme” level for their persecution of Christians. Five years ago, North Korea was the only one.
During the past year
– 105 churches are attacked, burned or vandalized each month
– 11 Christians are killed every day for their faith
Why are Christians persecuted so much more today than they were 25 years ago? One factor, is that in the middle East and elsewhere, with the breakdown of civil order and religious extremism on the rise, minority Christian populations are extremely vulnerable. This is particularly true in areas where political boundaries are drawn along religious lines.
It is a heroic thing to be a Christian in certain parts of the world today.
It makes one appreciate the religious liberty we enjoy, at least for now, in our own country. Granted, there has always been an undercurrent of anti-Catholic bias in the United States. But today, one can also notice a growing anti-Christian sentiment, and the exclusion of Christian principles from the public square, as secular humanism seeks to establish itself, with increasing success, as the American civil religion. Don’t believe me, read the Humanist Manifesto at https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/
Jesus knew that his message of reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins would be opposed by those who will only see the world through the lens of power and influence. It was true then and it is true now.
The simple fact of the matter is that if we even try to live our Christian faith in peace; if we simply try to remain true to the teachings of the Church; if we merely proclaim the Gospel by the example of our lives, there are some who, thank God, will find it very attractive. But there are others who will find it very, very annoying, and they will do everything in their power to shut us up.
It was true for Jeremiah. It was true for Christ. It was true for the early Christians. It is true today. Sometimes the persecution is severe, as in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Sometimes it is more subtle, as it is here. But have no illusions. It is part and parcel of being a Christian
If that were the end of the story, there would be no point to being a Christian. And as St. Paul says to the Corinthians: “we would be the most pitiable of people.” (1 Cor 15:19)
But you and I both know that it is not the end of the story.
We are people of the resurrection. The suffering and death of Christ, and our own sufferings and death in this life, are a part of the Paschal mystery. But it is the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and our own resurrection at the end of the age which makes all the difference. By his passion death and resurrection Christ conquered sin and death, and reconciled all creation to the Father.
The supreme paradox of the Good News is that it is precisely through suffering and trial that the Christian is transformed; the Church is transformed and purified; and the world is transformed, so that we can become what God has created us to be.
We are people of the resurrection. So much so that St. Paul could say:
So what must we do in the present age to be people of the resurrection in the face of an increasingly hostile world?
I offer two things for your consideration.
– First, we must support other Christians whenever and wherever we can – by our prayers and by our practical support. This might include the aforementioned Aid to the Church in Need, or the Good Friday Collection for Christians in the Holy Land.
– Second, we must strive for personal holiness centered on the person of Jesus Christ. This is not easy. It takes prayer, it takes vigilance; it takes all of us supporting each of us, living our faith without compromise and engaging the world in charity for the transformation of hearts and the establishment of a just society.
It is a heroic thing to be a Christian in the world today. But it is nothing we have not seen before; and it is something, no doubt, we will certainly see again.
I suspect the late Francis Cardinal George of Chicago knew this when he said:
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history”
There is no greater call.