Sixth Sunday of Easter

Radicalized Christianity 

A few years ago, a Coptic Christian began attending the local Lutheran Church but made it a point to introduce himself to me as our worship service was ritually more familiar to him. He told me of the many persecutions Christians were receiving at the hands of Muslims in Cairo and throughout the region. He had lost friends, been discriminated against, and was lucky enough to escape the rising violence for himself and his family. The violence and persecution had left him bitter and very much concerned that Islam in the United States posed a threat, and if allowed to establish itself would eventually dominate the country and subjugate everyone to Islamic law. He wanted to know if I would let my parish know about this danger.  Needless to say, it was a difficult thing to hear, and I didn’t want to encourage his fear though it was perfectly understandable given his experience in Egypt. Although I didn’t try to persuade him that his fears were not founded. I doubted Islamic law would replace the Constitution anytime soon, but I wanted to allow him to share his fears and pray with him. 

How would I confront such hostility to my faith? So many Christians are being martyred for their faith in the Middle East and the brutality of religious hatred deeply offends me, especially when groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and others misrepresent Islam to garner political power.  What can we as Christians do?  What countless others before us have done:  listen to the words of Christ:

 “...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”

It is love that brings us into communion with God; specifically, it is a love that goes beyond “love one another”….it is Jesus’ “love one another as I have loved you”.  The “as I have loved you” is the love of enemy. This love is the grace-filled response of Christ to those who hated him, to those whose weakened faith caused them to flee at the hour of his passion.

Does that mean we simply respond passively in the face of hostile injustice? By no means! The love of Christ is a love of action that makes us face our enemies without any weapons of harm, but weapons of conviction and faith to penetrate even the darkest of hearts. We act as witnesses to the truth in refusing to be controlled by the hate that fuels our enemies. There are many such examples in our history. In recent times, there is the witness of Maximillian Kolbe, OFM, Conv. who stood up to the Nazi by offering to take the place of one who was to be executed. They accepted his offer. Another modern example occurred on the night of 26–27 March 1996, when seven monks from the monastery Notre-Dame de l'Atlas of Tibhirine in Algeria, belonging to the Roman Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, were kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War and executed. They had received many death threats but did not abandon their monastery, which was a vital part of the local Muslim community that ministered to the health and well-being of hundreds through a clinic and food distribution. They turned no one away. Their refusal to leave was an act of profound faith that embodied in action Jesus’ command to love. 

While it is unlikely we would have to face such hostility or threat, we can easily begin the practice of loving those who hate us. There is no shortage of those who have contempt for religion these days. What we must witness to is the power such love brings in our mission to make the Good News good news.