Persecution

Remember the word that I said to you,  'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

John  15:20

Persecution.  History is replete with persecution.  Persecution presupposes injustice -- the sinful exercise of might by the powerful over the weak.  The Old Testament tells of Pharaoh, of the Babylonians.  The New Testament tells of the Romans, and the Sadducees and Pharisees.  We know undoubtedly of the sword of Islam, the wreckage of Middle Eastern society, the House of Tudor, the Armenian genocide, the Jewish genocide, the carnage of Stalinist Russia, ethnic cleansing, Pol Pot, Mao, Fidel Castro, and on and on and on.

Yet, as 20th century Westerners, largely unscarred by foreign incursions, strangers to tyranny, economically comfortable, and mutually supported by the social contract which protected the family unit and discouraged its disintegration, the 21st century is taking a chainsaw to our ability to be passive bystanders to everyone else's pain.

For a single Blog post, the expanse of persecution falling on faithful Catholics is too great to capsulate.  We've been betrayed on all fronts, from K Street to Main Street.  From San Francisco to Vatican City.   At home, at work, at school, and at play -- there's an unshakable reality unfolding that portends a new Passion of the Body of Christ.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments which will likely lead to the official, federal enshrinement of an existential lie.  Nonetheless, with the wisdom of George Costanza, we've collectively embraced a new national motto: "It's not a lie if you believe it."  Never mind Truth.  All that has been rationally handed down to us since, well, the beginning of recorded history, was wrong.  And may your neighbor have mercy on you if you don't agree.

Official Christendom has inexplicably arrived on the scene like firemen sent by Kurt Vonnegut, on many fronts betraying the Body of Christ: bending the knee to tax revenue, cowering to parade organizers, censuring loyal priests and nuns, dismantling traditional orders, and delivering prodigious ammunition to the enemies of our faith on a silver platter.

What to make of this?

Here's one indisputable reality.  God, the creator of the universe, the Son of God made flesh, who suffered and died for our sins, foresaw every turn in this unfolding crisis.  He foresaw from Gethsemane His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church entering the same garden at various points in human history.  He knew the Peters that would feed his sheep, and the Peters who would deny him.  He knew the beloved disciples -- men and women of all color and origin -- who would keep watch at the Cross.  He knew the hypocrites, the political thugs, the religious frauds, the vicious and the virtuous who would clash, and the unavoidable challenge of the Gospel: that one may have to choose between Christ and family, God and mammon, comfort and integrity, for the highest purpose, the highest good, salvation.   And, yes, He saw every Judas who would enter the sheepfold, sometimes the wolf, sometimes the shepherd himself.  

So there is comfort in this Easter season, in spite of what is transpiring -- Christ has already won the war against Death.  Regardless of how this all plays out, He knew we would be here this day, in these circumstances.  And He gives us the graces to be loyal sons and daughters of His Church, of the Truth that has been handed down through the ages.  We may lose heart in our country, our clergy, our friends and family, but we can never lose faith in Christ and the gifts of Scripture, the sacraments, tradition, and the continuity of doctrine guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.  The un-holy rigorist clings tightly to the idea that God is not a rigorist: that his commandments are negotiable by "reading the signs of the time."  The holy rigorist believes -- even if it means losing the world -- that loving God, loving His Word, and burning with zeal for His Church, is the highest good.

I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. 

1 Corinthians 7:29-31