Stay Awake, Be Ready

Another day, another news report, another attack on Christians. This time, at a sleepy little backroad Baptist Church in Texas, defenseless families - women, children and elderly - were mercilessly shot down in cold blood by a self-proclaimed atheist. Yesterday, the day before, and for more days and years now than we care to remember, Christians in Iraq, in Africa, and where ever ISIS has spread have suffered the satanic attacks of those who hate Christians. Whether at a parish church in France, a Christmas Mass in Egypt, or a children's school in Pakistan, these violent and vile attacks on Christians occur because they are Christians. The perpetrators often demand, at the point of a gun, that the victims renounce their faith, and when they refuse, they are executed. Yet somehow, Christians, and especially Catholics, are told so often by the news media and the world that they are the “haters”, the bigots, the guilty ones, that many have come to believe it themselves. Somehow, the media narrative is more concerned with gun control, Islamaphobia, racism, or anything but the true cause: demonic hatred of Jesus Christ and His followers.

As followers of the crucified Lord, Catholics can expect persecution and even martyrdom, but we should also stand ready to defend our Christian faith to the very end. We should know our own history, not the convoluted stuff of black legends, but the whole truth. We should be aware that the Catholic Church founded the first hospitals, universities, and orphanages, and is one of the world’s largest charitable organizations. We should study the teachings of the Church, which are based in love and truth, always recognizing the dignity of the human person, while standing against behaviors that cause harm to the soul. We should be proud that Catholics have historically withstood persecution by atheist, pagan, communist, secularist, and even Protestant-led governments, and have responded with love and faith, giving witness to their persecuted Lord, and in the end, perhaps even converting the hearts of their persecutors.

So do not be discouraged when you see persecution, but keep the light of Christ burning in your heart. Fill your lamps with the oil of faith, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, courage, and love. Speak the truth in love, even when it’s unpopular, and never hesitate to defend the Name of Jesus. Stay awake. Be ready.

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” -1 Thes 4:13-14

Link to the Complete Text of Readings, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017