Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
In today's first reading from the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy, we encounter a difficult verse: "In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). This is a difficult verse, but it highlights one part of the Christian life that some tend to ignore, namely that being a Christian is not a way to avoid suffering, even suffering caused from persecutions. Some who claim to be Christian religious leaders have taught that if you are suffering or are being persecuted, then something must be wrong with you. Like Job's "friends," these misguided individuals think that suffering and persecution are evidence of sin. They are not. Just look at Jesus, look at the ways in which He was persecuted and how He suffered, and yet He had done no wrong.
A popular evangelical preacher once remarked metaphorically that you can tell how good a Christian is by counting the arrows in their back. There is some truth in this, even if it was overstated. If we are living good and upright lives, we are bound to meet some resistance. In the early Church, during times of persecution, Christians would be rounded up if evidence could be found that they were in fact Christians. In some parts of the world, this still happens today. Much is made, for example, of the horrible killings in Darfur. Some estimates are as high as over 200,000 primarily Muslims killed (by the Muslim government----the conflict here is more racial than religious) in Darfur. This is inexcusable. What is less reported, however, is the over 1,500,000 Christians who have been killed in southern Sudan, not to mention the estimated 25,000 Christian children who have been sold into slavery in Sudan. Indeed, more Christians were martyred during the 20th century than in all other previous centuries combined. The 21st century is not looking any brighter.
Does this mean that if we don't personally experience such persecutions ourselves we are doing something wrong? Of course not. There are many ways to be persecuted. But, if we have never in our lives had someone make fun of us, get angry with us, criticize us, do something mean to us, say something offensive to us, or something similar (or worse), on account of our Catholic Christian faith, we certainly need to thank God for that, but we also should do one of two things. Either ask ourselves whether or not we're really reaching out to a diverse group of people, or are we remaining comfortable in our closed safe groups. Sometimes we might need to step outside of our comfort zones. The other more pressing question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not there would be sufficient evidence to condemn us if being a Catholic Christian became illegal. I think most of us at some point in our lives have encountered some resistance from someone about our Catholic Christian faith and practices. As St. Paul's letter confirms for us today, this is to be expected. The key for us is to remain faithful (2 Timothy 3:14). Got will take care of us.
I think today we should set aside some time to pray for those Christian brothers and sisters, who are so often neglected and ignored by the media and by the powers of this world, who are being persecuted across the globe. Let us be especially attentive to this if we ourselves do not feel persecuted for our faith. We are one body, and when any members of that body are persecuted, we all are persecuted.
- Jeff Morrow