Charlie has posted a strong warning to all of us on his blog about the current spiritual warfare we are facing. https://charliej373.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/the-lion-in-the-streets/ In the comments section, this meditation on the 21 new martyrs really touched me. I think about these brave men often, and felt there was some deeper meaning to mine from their witness. The Holy Spirit delivered it to me tied up with a big red bow through this dear man: José Tomás says: February 21, 2015 at 8:23 pm Charlie, one thing that many people manifest here frequently is their fear of not having the strength to man their posts when the storm comes. I would guess most of us feel this fear in greater of smaller proportion. I think that the two most serious temptations for us are Pride (as per above) on one hand, and fear / despair on the other. So, if you don’t mind me going somewhat off-topic, let me share some of my musings of today. While I was praying the Rosary with my 12-y-o daughter a couple of minutes ago, something struck me. We use a booklet written for children that she is very fond of. It offers small summaries of each Mystery and adds small comments. In one of them today, it repeated this simple truth: “Do you trust the Lord? When God asks something from us, there is nothing to fear. Remember: even if it seems difficult, He is always at our side”. Although this may seem almost a platitude even for my well catechised daughter, today it struck me as lightning. Why? I have seen the 21 Coptic Martyrs video yesterday. Then I read the following article this morning: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/brother.of.slain.coptic.christians.thanks.isis.for.including.their.words.of.faith.in.murder.video/48412.htm Amazing! I shared it with my daughter (earlier today), translating into Portuguese and adding a couple of comments. First, I told her that this is probably the first time in History that True Martyrdom is captured in video. There have been other videos of Islamic murders, but in this one we saw The Real Thing, complete with the Martyrs invoking the Name of the Lord just before being beheaded. I felt like being transported in a time-machine to the I-III Centuries. Exactly like the narrations of Roman Empire persecutions, and the murder of so many Saints so dear to us. Next, that this is an amazing confirmation of – if not the their historicity – the plausibility of those accounts. Many secular historians have put those accounts aside as “legends”, and perhaps many of us have suspected of some “embellishments”, so common, for example, in medieval “Lives of the Saints”. How is it possible that a person is going to certain, horrible and very painful death and they are not desperately screaming or something? Ok, death penalty convicts also go to the electric chair without putting a show, we are told, but what about their friends and relatives? Their parents? What about the widow in Maccabeans? Surely this cannot be true. This is legend. Friends and relatives and – gasp – parents! – celebrating the death of their loved ones? Well, if we doubted that in the past, no more reason for that. We can see it now, in high definition, color videos! Another thing that strikes me is that these martyrdoms today have put us closer to the first centuries martyrs than to any other martyrs in that long list of our History. Surely, we know of Saint Paul Mikki and other martyrs in the Far East or in Africa, but they seem distant. The Imperial martyrs are closer to us, if for nothing else because of us having been exposed to them by everything from Hollywood movies to basic catechesis. And then, the last thing (and more important) only came to me when my daughter read that “platitude”: “Do you trust the Lord? When God asks something from us, there is nothing to fear. Remember: even if it seems difficult, He is always at our side”. Pretty basic, huh? But… do we really really, from the bottom of our hearts, believe that? If we did, we would not be afraid, and fear would never have a hold on us. What came to my mind when I heard that today, after having heard it for the zillionth time, was this question: Who were these martyrs? I knew they were not missionaries like those far eastern or African martyrs, but who were they? So, immediately after we finished praying, I found this: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/02/18/coptic_martyrs_were_poor_but_near_to_god_/1124305 See? Absolutely ordinary people! No priests! No monks! No missionaries! No “religious fanatics”. Just very plain and ordinary Christians! Poor workers migrating to support their families! A miracle caught on camera! Secularist / atheists may explain away the martyrdom of missionaries or other “fanatics”, and point to suicidal bombers, Jim Jones etc. But how will they explain away that these poor, illiterate, married-with-children (some about to be born and never seen) menial workers would choose to die with “Yeshua” on their lips, instead of simply acknowledging Allah and his Prophet? (I know, I know that they will try to explain it away anyway, but I think they will be pushing *their* plausibility envelope a bit farther than usual.) For me, this is extremely comforting, and obviously one of the reasons why God permitted it (not only the martyrdom per se, but the whole video show put together by satan) was to reassure us Christians here in the West. Yes, “When God asks something from us, there is nothing to fear. Remember: even if it seems difficult, He is always at our side”, not a truism, not a platitude, but a very real Truth. The Lord, in his mercy, not only gave His strength to those humble workers (one more reason this resembles the first century martyrs more that any one that came afterwards), but he also took the “opportunity” to “secure it on camera” to let us know that he *indeed* gives his strenght, and we are not required to be paragons of high holiness to claim that. This has been God’s high-tech, contemporary way to say once more: “Be Not Afraid!”
To paraphrase a quote from Gen Patton's 3rd Army speech: "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by being a Martyr for The Faith. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard be a martyr for his faith. St Michael be with us in the battle that comes. Amen!!
The point being made is a good one, and is certainly the best context in which to view the level of Christian persecution taking place there. .....However, we should not romanticize this video. I think we then risk being manipulated exactly the way the "producers" of the video intended to manipulate the world. .....And I use the term "producers" very literally. If you are following the news, it is now mainstream reporting (FOX news) which is showing that yes, these men are dead and are martyrs......but NO, they weren't killed on camera, and NO this was not an authentic setting. Experts now agree: -This was done is a studio -Using green screens -superimposed fake seashore setting -Fake audio -even CGI animated individuals in some scenes -and the flow of blood on one martyr was most likely faked as well. High tech trickery, though murder & death IS real and taking place prior to. Virtually all of the beheading videos bear these same traits. Seems like there is more going on here than meets the eye. More powers behind them than we are understanding....
A pity. But God and the angels were watching..and I am sure cheering. Holy Egyptian martyrs , pray for us.
