BE NOT AFRAID OF THEIR TERROR

 A SERMON FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

There’s a part of the Divine Office which we read every morning, that’s called the Martyrology.  This Martyrology lists the saints to be celebrated each day, and sometimes gives a few details of their life.  I was particularly struck the other day by the following passage: “At Rome, in the time of Nero, the commemoration of many holy martyrs.  Being falsely accused of having set fire to the city, they were cruelly put to death in various manners by the emperor's order.  Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs, other were fastened to crosses, others again were delivered to the flames to serve as torches in the night.  All these were disciples of the apostles, and the first fruits of the martyrs which the Roman Church, a field so fertile in martyrs, offered to God even before the death of the Apostles.”

We all grew up learning about the exploits of the Roman martyrs.  We know about the catacombs where the early Christians hid themselves, secretly worshipped, and buried their dead.  We know how they were fed to the lions  in the Roman Colloseum.  What we often fail to appreciate, however, is that these were real people, as real as you and I, all trying to live their lives like we do, trying to stay close to God, obeying his commandments from day to day, sometimes rising higher on the path of holiness, and other times falling into temptation and sinning.  They had the same emotions, the same aspirations for a comfortable life of stability and prosperity, the same ambitions for their children, and of course, the same fears.  They belonged to the same Church we do, and had the same faith and beliefs, the same hope that they would save their souls, they all tried their best to love of God and neighbor.  But then something happened.

It was on the night of July 18 in the year of our Lord 64, three years before the martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.  The emperor at the time was Nero, who, we all know, was a cruel tyrant who persecuted the Christians.  What you might not know is that Nero’s mother had manipulated her way into power by marrying the former emperor Claudius and then poisoning him so that her son Nero could take his place.  Like the election of Joseph Biden, it was the political theft of power, but no one could do anything about it.  Now Nero, also like Biden, had an agenda.  Like Biden, he had no real love for his own country, in his case the city of Rome, nor for its citizens, but wanted to enrich himself and, by means of some rather fanciful infrastructure projects, turn his dominion into a series of palaces and gardens for his own enjoyment.  That, of course, would mean that any common citizens who currently occupied this space were seen by Nero as merely obstacles getting in the way of his evil plans.

And then, on the night of July 18, 64 AD, Rome caught fire.  How convenient!  The Great Fire of Rome started near the Circus Maximus and burned for six days.  When it subsided, it suddenly and mysteriously re-ignited and burned for another three days, totally destroying two-thirds of the city.  The historian Tacitus gives us numerous details about the disaster, including reports that various mobs of looters were adding to the destruction by setting fire to public buildings and deliberately spreading the inferno.  Many of these later claimed that they had been acting under orders, and as an organized group, similar to Antifa and Black Lives Matter today.  Nero, who not surprisingly was absent from the city during the fire (as legend has it, merrily playing his fiddle while Rome burned) needed to avert suspicion from himself.  And what better target for his accusations than those Christians!  Just as today’s Democrats find Christians the most acceptable target for their hatred, Nero found them the perfect scapegoat: they turn the other cheek, they don’t stoop to the same vile practices as their accusers, and they will more or less happily take whatever penalties (or vaccines) are given them, rather than fight back and rebel.  It’s exactly what’s happening today, as Christian churches of all persuasions, but particularly Catholic churches if you notice, are being increasingly attacked, attempts are made to undermine our faith and morals with an onslaught of open perversion everywhere we turn, and the complete failure of those in power, even our allies, to protect the values we hold most dear. You compare this with ancient Rome, and things start to make sense, don’t they?  Because those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.

It is a troubling comparison, because it makes us wonder how far in the same direction the current regime in this country is prepared to go.  Be certain of this, though: they are either waiting for, or even preparing for, something similar to the Great Fire of Rome.  Hitler tried it, and quite successfully, when he burned down the Reichstag and blamed the Jews.  It worked for him, and look what happened to the Jews!  Why would we not expect that Biden and his thugs are plotting something similar?  They’ve already tried it when they blamed Trump-supporters for the so-called “insurrection” of January 6 when the Capitol building was “attacked.”  The frenzied reaction against conservatives put a stop to any last half-hearted attempts to claim the election was stolen.  Next time it could go to another level.  Maybe another pandemic, far worse than the last one, which they would blame on those of us who refuse to take their vaccine?   Or some kind of coordinated attack on abortion clinics, to be blamed on right-wing militia groups?  The assassination of Biden even, no doubt by so-called “Trump supporters.”  The possibilities are endless.  But whoever does it, whatever form it takes, it will be the Christians and the conservatives who will get the blame.  And one way or another, they’ll want to confiscate our guns and then feed us to their own version of the lions.

I say these things today, not to fill you with fear, but to prepare you for what could so easily happen.  And to caution you that on no account should we ever be remotely connected with any violent act ourselves.  We may be angry, very angry, but we must not fall into the trap of giving them the excuse they are looking for to persecute us with impunity.   We must behave like Christians, no matter what level of frustration or even hatred we might feel surging within us.  Anger begets violence, and to be violent in these fragile times is exactly what they’re hoping for, that we will give them an excuse to crack down on us, closing our churches, shutting down any remaining conservative voices, arresting us for “hate speech” and worse. 

I haven’t left much time to focus in on the words of our first Pope, St. Peter, in today’s Epistle.  But even back in his day, he knew the answer to all this “Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify Christ the Lord in your hearts.”  Instead of taking to violent methods to rid our nation of evil, let us not “render evil for evil.”  Rather let us “seek peace and ensue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”  If we want God to hear our prayers, then, we must not resort to evil methods in the hope that good may come of them.  Let the face of the Lord not be against us, but against those true perpetrators of evil who hate God and hate us for loving God.  Even if the city or the nation burns to the ground around us, we must continue our prayers and our love of neighbor, being not afraid of their terror.  For “who is he,” asks St. Peter, “that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”  They can feed us to the lions, certainly, but they cannot come close to harming the real “us”, for our souls are beyond their reach.  God will see to it that we receive the graces to survive even death when the time comes.   Come to this realization and you will have peace.  Seek this peace, as St. Peter says, “Seek peace and ensue it.”  Because if we ever are called upon to suffer for righteousness’ sake, “happy are ye, blessed are ye.”