“Don’t be afraid. I will be with you always.”
These words the Lord uttered have echoed through the centuries in the two thousand years since His coming on earth to share the destiny and redeem the sins of mankind. These words must have accompanied the first Christians as they were being led to their death for the sake of their faith. They are a source of comfort to men and women of all nations as they struggle to remain faithful to the Gospel in the midst of trials and tribulations. It is estimated that more Christians were martyred during the last century than in all the previous centuries altogether. In Nazi concentration camps, especially in Dachau, in Soviet gulags, in China, and others, countless Christians have died holding fast to the faith of their fathers.
Today, of course, the persecution of Christians continues unabated. Sometimes this results in actual loss of life, especially in the developing world. In the Western world, this persecution is often more subtle but no less insidious. How many people in certain countries have had their medical career hampered or even cut short because of their refusal to carry out medical procedures, like for example abortion or euthanasia, that go against their moral principles? How many teachers are marginalized (this perhaps will come about even in Malta in the not too distant future) for promoting the Church’s teachings on matrimony, which clearly states that there is only one form of (indissoluble) marriage, that is, between a man and a woman and that God “male and female he created them”? How many parents are ridiculed for telling their children that chastity is indeed possible, that the use of contraceptives is wrong and that the only place for sexual relations is within the sacrament of marriage? Our society increasingly resembles the Roman Empire towards the end, decadent and corrupt, teetering on the brink of collapse. Unbridled immorality and corruption, rampart adultery, divorce, the killing of the innocent (the unborn), the promotion of the culture of death where the elderly and the disabled are often seen as being disposable since they place unbearable burdens on a society for which consumerism is the primary factor and the glorification of homosexual behaviour, which gravely offends God.
Where do Christians stand in all this? Firstly, they must be thoroughly aware of both Christ’s teachings and those of the Church. This is of the utmost importance since sadly a silent apostasy is taking place within the Church herself where there are some who express views that are contrary to what the Church teaches and which effectively put them outside the Church, even if not formally so.
Therefore Christians must take cognisance of the fact that their non-conformism to the prevalent norms of society will be a cause of uneasiness and even of hostility from those who are at one with what this society promotes. Christ himself foresaw this when he warned, “They will hate you because of me.”
Our secularised society promises so much particularly when it strives and often succeeds in doing away with the Judeo-Christian tradition, especially where sexual morals are concerned. Sadly, it delivers very little. This is where the Christian ideal comes in. Christ had spoken about a “little flock”, that is disciples of His whose number might be small but whose manner of living, despite frailties and limitations, will still offer light and hope in so much darkness and confronted by so many unanswered questions. Christians can never be disheartened notwithstanding the prevailing neo-paganism, comforted by Christ’s words that they should never be afraid because “I have overcome the world.” The collapse of Nazism and Communism, which had both vowed to vanquish Christianity, the present economic crisis gripping our Western world so arrogant, blind and determined to eradicate Christ and His Gospel, is enough proof that the last word is always God’s. Whether one admits this or not is utterly irrelevant.
Jacqueline Calleja
BALZAN