Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - One word found everywhere in writings, including ecclesiastical works is “challenge”, to indicate, in substance, worldly things which provoke the Church. The term is a call to fight a duel or compete in a sports race or some other test on equal terms. Extended it can mean asking someone to say or do something thought to be false or impossible. Do you think the world challenges the Church on equal terms? This is an example of the ideological optimism which has characterised and continues to mark the views of no few Christians with regard to the relationship between the world and the Church. Did not Jesus say: “You will meet tribulation in the world, but have faith I have conquered the world” (Jn 16,33)? Did not Saint Paul urge us to be: “Happy in hope, strong in tribulation ” (Rom 12,12)?
In Post-Council decades the term challenge has replaced that of tribulation, or ‘painful thorns' , metaphoric or material. Very subtly some are even trying to corrode the Christian concept of martyrdom. Let us see why.
Martyrdom is first of all witness to the truth of the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God”, and resistance to the “ constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2113). Today, as in the past, the temptation of idolatry presents itself in old and new forms: from Satanism, to power, pleasure, the State… an unusual form is the absolutising of values such peace, solidarity which are totally relative to the first: “I am the Lord your God…” or made into absolutist idols, in the “Beast” of Revelation (cfr Rev 13-14). “ Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God” (CCC, ivi).
Another point helps underline that the concept of martyrdom is univocal: like Jesus in front of Pilate, Christians know that in front of the world they are called to bear witness to the truth (cfr CCC n. 2471), they must not be ashamed of Christ. We know that many Christians today, especially some in certain associations, many led by ecclesiastics, demonstrate in the name of values, promote initiatives to support various realities without ever mentioning Jesus Christ or faith or prayer, as the only effective way to overcome the world, understood as a reality which adores the Beast and rejects God. This is another effect of relativist ideology which tends to confuse martyrs with heroes and pool them in “ecumenical martyrologies”.
This explains the Catechism's definition of martyrdom: “ Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. the martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity.” (n. 2473). Charity for which Christians die is first of all love of God - as must be ascertained in causes of sainthood-. On this charity depends love of neighbour as oneself, which otherwise would be mistaken for impetus of generosity deriving ultimately from the affirmation of one's ego. So the Christian martyr: “ bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine, endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts, - says St Ignatius of Antioch - through whom it will be given me to reach God” (ivi).
Therefore it is the truth which renders free, not 'values' abstractly and ideologically understood. Contrary to what many think, following Vatican II, in no way has the Church “renewed” the ecclesial concept of martyrdom and so Christians can be martyrs if they die for peace, or for the liberation of their country or out of charity, separate from faith in Christ.
The only cause of martyrdom remains “hatred towards faith in Jesus Christ”. The persecutor inflicts material martyrdom, torture and death; the persecuted suffer, forgiving like Jesus did. The “peace” for which the early Christians died was “communio” of the Church of which they were members and which they refused to abjure, since the Church is the body of which Christ is the head. This was so for the 498 Spanish martyrs beatified recently by Benedict XVI. Christians know they must all "experience many tribulations before entering the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14,22). Not “challenges” then but tribulations. We will continue our reflection in the near future. (Agenzia Fides 3/11/2007; righe 52, parole 750)
