Martyrs in Training
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 23, 2024
Last month I wrote in this space about troubled marriages, and those faithful Catholics “who, finding themselves in a marriage that has gone sour, redoubled their commitment to be faithful.” They should be recognized as heroes of the faith: people who put their fidelity ahead of their comfort and convenience, people who suffered for their beliefs.
“The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church,” Tertullian said. Less dramatically but no less necessarily, the sacrifices of the faithful nourish the seed. Those sacrifices can vary in intensity, from accepting minor conveniences to enduring the “white martyrdom” of persecution. They all count. The Church needs heroes of all sizes and shapes.
The willingness to accept each day’s little troubles—the learned instinct to “offer it up”—helps one to prepare for more serious trials. Many of us today putter along with the confidence that although we are living an easy life, enjoying all our comforts, if we are ever put to the test we will do the right thing—much like the self-indulgent man who turns hero in Schindler’s List. It happens, certainly: playboys suddenly make dramatic sacrifices for a glorious cause. But it is far more likely that someone who has developed the habit of avoiding small discomforts will reflexively shy away from larger discomforts. An athlete who eschews tough training is not likely to win an Olympic medal. Someone who has never denied himself the little things is not a good candidate for heroism.
And we need heroes—if only to remind us that virtues are habits, formed by practice. We take little steps to build up the strength for long strides, and long strides to build up to soaring leaps. Thus as I wrote last month, I was edified to read the accounts of good Catholics who had dug in to save their troubled marriages, even when friends—and sometimes pastors—advised them to walk out.
But they are certainly not along among the unsung heroes of our faith. I think, too, of:
- The priests who tell engaged couples that they cannot continue living together before the wedding—knowing full well that most of those couples will find another more compliant priest to accommodate them.
- The people who tell friends that they cannot attend a second wedding while a first spouse is still alive, and explain, if questioned, that they cannot act as witnesses as a vow is broken.
- The corporate executives who decline to endorse Gay Pride.
- The bishops (sadly few in number) who instruct their priests not to administer the Eucharist to prominent Catholics who flout the laws of the Church.
- The parents who pull their children out of the schools where teachers instruct students to ignore moral laws.
All these people are likely to suffer for their choices: to suffer the loss of friendships, of popularity, of job opportunities, of income. But they will suffer much less than the martyrs. And we still do revere the martyrs, don’t we?
“None of us will ever be called to be martyrs,” a teacher assured my grammar-school class years ago. Even as a child I was puzzled by the blithe confidence behind that claim—so redolent of the comfortable Catholicism of a bygone era. Today, as anti-Catholic sentiments become steadily more virulent, no intelligent Catholic should doubt the possibility that we might face martyrdom.
But more important, we should realize that we are all called to be martyrs in the little things: to make sacrifices as necessary to preserve and defend our faith. In the early 21st century it is still unlikely, thank God, that we will shed our blood for the faith. Yet it is a certainty that, if we take the faith seriously, we will pay a price.
The willingness to endure suffering runs directly counter to the message that advertisers pound into our heads: the notion that we “deserve” our comforts: a relaxing weekend, a luxury car, another drink. Christians must reject that sort of foolish blandishment. We follow Jesus Christ, who really did deserve the best that the world can offer—and more—but instead accepted suffering for our sins. We “deserve” nothing more than to follow his example.
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Posted by: ewaughok -
Jul. 26, 2024 7:57 PM ET USA
I want to applaud Mr. Lawler in his support for Christians who live on the edge of martyrdom. Yet, often Christians are faced with martyrdom, especially in the contemporary world, without warning, simply shot, stabbed, set afire, beaten to death, without any of the steps of arrest, trial, ordeal, then at the end, a martyr’s death. When Christ said, “take up your cross and follow me,” this implies that there will be a crucifixion at the end of the road.