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Do Not Be Afraid Kristina Cooper looks at what our Christian response should be in troubled times
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In his annual address to the diplomatic corps in January this year the Pope commented, “Never as at the beginning of this millennium has humanity felt how precarious is the world it has shaped. I have been personally struck by the feeling of fear which often dwells in the hearts of our contemporaries.” Culture of Death The Pope throughout his pontificate has warned us of the dangers of pursuing what he calls the culture of death and sees the terrible situation that humanity faces at the moment, as being the consequence of us turning away from God and his ways. “So much insecurity, so many thoughtless reactions originate in our having abandoned God, the rock of our salvation,” he commented shortly before Christmas. This was he said “the ultimate cause of personal and social disorder, of all selfishness and oppression, of violence and revenge.” Of course there are no easy solutions and Jesus warns us in the gospel that in the end times, because of the increase of evil, the hearts of many will grow cold. The question is, is this true of us too? How are we responding to the situations around us? The Pope reminds us “When every human means seems to fail, believers turn to God… Even when the Christian feels humanly impotent before the tide of evil, he knows that through prayer he can count on the omnipotence of God who does not abandon those who trust in him. Even if human means fade, hope in God never fails.” Only through prayer will we be transformed and strengthened God calls us to pray and pray unceasingly, for it is only through prayer that we will be transformed and strengthened and be able to give a Christian witness. For the authenticity of our prayer is shown by our behaviour in real life situations. Is this happening? It is interesting in reading Matthew 24 and 25 when Jesus speaks of the terrible things that will happen at the end of the age. He says, “do not be afraid” and “stay awake” or “be alert”. He tells us to be aware of what is going on but not get panicky. This is immediately followed with the parable of the talents, and the chastening parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus reminds us that whatever we do for the least of our brothers, we do for him. We are obviously supposed to be continuing to live our normal lives using our gifts and serving those around us not hiding away in bunkers with our blessed candles, frightenedly clutching our rosary beads. Will love or selfpreservation be our main instinct? I always remember a story told by Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship about the effect becoming a Christian had on the life of a Russian doctor. The man worked in a prison camp in Siberia and after his conversion he found he could no longer continue signing admittance forms sending political undesirables to psychiatric hospitals even though this was part of his job. He was aware of the danger of this rebellion and that it was a futile gesture, as someone else would just do it instead. But he, at least, did not want to co-operate with this evil. Then he found one of the guards was stealing food from his patients. He could not let this go on, so he reported the man, knowing that the man would probably kill him as a result. Which he did. And that would have been the end of the story but before he died the doctor told one of his patients in the camp what happened and about his faith. The doctor’s witness had a profound infl uence on the life and thinking of this prisoner, who was none other than Alexander Solzhensitsyn, who was to become one of the great Christian writers and voices of the 20th century. Keeping our eyes open Evil, however, as I have found, isn’t just outside. Evil is inside us too and circumstances simply serve to release it. The first enemy is always within, although we don’t always recognise it, and like to blame others for our suffering and anger. As Roy Hessian wrote so insightfully in his book, The Calvary Road, “it’s not other people’s sins that disturb our peace, only our own.” Self-righteousness is always the first sign that we have lost sight of the truth, for as St Paul reminds us it is not individuals we are fighting but sin and the powers and principalities that dominate our age. Hitler was just one man and he couldn’t have achieved what he did without the compliance of the German people. Some co-operated with him willingly, others not willingly, but he couldn’t have done it without them. I have to ask myself, if I had lived in Germany, how would I have responded? How do I respond to things today that I think are wrong? Too often, in my case with apathy. Paying the price We have had it easy as Christians here in the west for a long time. Now we perhaps will have to start fighting the evil we are seeing and paying the price for that struggle. This will not be easy, as apart from a war situation there is often no common identifiable enemy, but lots of little unjust situations, where we will be called on to just say “no”, without thinking whether such an action is right wing or left wing. I don’t believe it’s a matter of rushing out and joining the next cause we hear about, rather of simply asking the Lord to open our eyes in our own situation to see what he would have us do right where we are. Are we acting justly and unselfishly or are we co-operating with evil because of laziness, fear or self-preservation? Do we love our brother, or do we really only care about ourselves and our own families? For committed Christians, like for the pharisees that Jesus castigates so much in the gospels (see Matthew 23), our sins are usually sins of omission, which we don’t even recognise. Importance of prayer and community One of the keys to fighting evil I believe, lies in prayer and building community so we will be prepared and be able to support each other when times get hard. It is easy to see the hand of God when things are going well but are we prepared to see the same working of the Holy Spirit, when everything seems to be crumbling and we are suffering? Being a blessed Christian is not about having everything going well in our lives but rather of allowing our priorities and decisions to be guided by the Spirit of Jesus in us. The call of all the baptised, as the Holy Father has reminded us, is to become holy - to become saints - and because of the grace of God, this is possible for each one of us. We just have to turn to him and any trial can become a blessing and an opportunity to grow in holiness. This for me was underlined by a prophecy given at the recent meeting of European National Service Committees in Budapest which said “When things are going well, enjoy yourself, and when things are going badly consider this: God has designed the one no less than the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7.14). So let’s hang on to this piece of wisdom and rejoice in the Lord whatever is happening around us for He is at work and His kingdom will come!
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In
recent months there has been a flood of apocalyptic prophecies. The
threat (and now fulfillment) of war with Iraq has triggered all kinds
of cataclysmic fears and end time prophecies. And even from a human
point of view things don’t look good. The media is full of bad
news - wars, disasters, financial corruption, sexual immorality, juvenile
delinquency, terrorism and the frightening developments of medical
science. And evil no longer seems to be confined to my television
screen. I can’t switch off so easily when a person is stabbed
to death on a street round the corner or friends are mugged, when
people I know lose their pensions because of the downturn in the market
or feel compelled to compromise with evil because they want to keep
their jobs, to say nothing of the ongoing horrors of war in Iraq.
We
don’t know what the future will have in store, but we can be
sure that God will be with us in it. The question is will love or
self preservation be our main instinct? It is easy to be generous
when you have enough, but much more difficult when you don’t.
It is easy to stand up to injustice when you have nothing to lose,
but frightening when you don’t. Our brothers and sisters in other
parts of the world have in the past often had to live with institutional
evil and injustice. Many paid a high price for their Christian beliefs
or to stand up to injustice. University professors worked as janitors
because of their ideals, and in Latin America whole villages were
massacred for standing up for civil rights. Were they foolish?
