When FEAR is the Problem, MARTYRDOM is the Solution
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:28-33
If we think that we have made progress, we need to think again about the meaning of progress. If progress means having nature under our control, we may consider the spikes in natural disasters around the globe and the menace of viruses gone amok. If we contemplate technology, its human cost and casualty are staggering. As far as FEAR is concerned, human progress has scored ZERO! The story of Jeremiah, in our first reading, confirms that fear, especially the fear of death, is very present among us. Covid-19 revealed it to the world, in the past few months. The decline of Christianity is a daily reminder of the presence of fear among us. As Christians, who live in a world plagued by extremisms, we continue to show our cowardice and fear, except for very few martyrs—we fear to stand up for Christianity! The world defends economic interests, and could care less about human lives. Today, standing up for anything at all comes at a price, because ideas rule the world—money making ideas. The problem is that authentic Christianity is unwelcome; in fact, some human beings are out to exterminate it at all cost, either through bizarre ideas or violence against Christians. We are back to the days of Jeremiah, when one’s enemies are not only outsiders, they include members of one’s household—coreligionists; hence, the advice of Jesus is relevant for yesterday, today and tomorrow—“Do not be afraid!”
It might be surprising that even a prophet—Jeremiah—is afraid, the one who speaks for God and has a communication channel with God! Jeremiah’s was a case of double tragedy—betrayal by human beings, Jeremiah’s friends, and An apparent abandonment by God himself—he died as an exile in Egypt. This is the apparent conclusion from today’s first reading. The vengeance on Jeremiah’s enemies or those plotting and executing evil against him never materialized, but their plot against Jeremiah succeeded—he was thrown into a dry well, and he died in exile in Egypt as a refugee. With the lot of Jeremiah in full view, one may have difficulty blaming all the prophets, prophetesses, evangelists, preachers and Christian prayer warriors who think they can shout God into compliance everyday, especially on Sundays, with their prayer points. The bad news is that the prophets of Ba’al tried the shouting contest against the God of Elijah on mount Carmel and failed (1 Kings 18). There must be an alternative to shouting to intimidate God into compliance with what we want of him—martyrdom, the language and example of Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus Christ, the message of our gospel reading, that we must find the Christian attitude and response to fear, not in Jeremiah—our first reading.
“Acknowledgement” does not reveal the theological import of our gospel message today: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Matthew 10:32-33). Homologein, which our gospel employs (10:32-33), means “to confess”. With our empty churches in the Western Hemisphere and the blatant contradiction in Christian practices vis-à-vis overcrowded churches in continental Subsaharan Africa pits the nominality or Christianity-in-name (acknowledgement as a Christian) against the CONFESSION of Jesus as Lord. Only the martyrs and confessors (those who either suffered or died for Christ) were and are the veterans of Christianity.
Beyond Jeremiah’s evocation of vengeance against one’s enemies and persecutors, Jesus promises to reciprocate the CONFESSION of every Christian before his Father in heaven—there is a quid pro quo or a do ut des. One’s enemies and foes prepare one’s path to heaven by their nefarious activities, there is no chickening out of that reality on earth—no matter how lowly, religious or irreligious or highly placed—there will always be enough persecutors against us. Jesus teaches us a new way of dealing with evil and fear—martyrdom; Jeremiah’s approach is outdated, with the coming of Jesus Christ. According to Jesus, in today’s gospel, the Christian response is the total eradication of fear by the conviction that physical death is not the last word about human existence: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28).
The logic of God may sound odd and irrational, but what alternative does a Christian have? Paul anticipated this contradiction in this statement, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The example of Jesus Christ, according to our second reading, is that life is given each time life is taken: “how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many” (Romans 5:15). It is at the expense of the death of Jesus Christ that salvation and redemption accrued to humanity. Only martyrdom—either through protests in the streets, the denunciation of evil doers in politics, church leadership and the hypocrisy buried in our own deepest recesses—that will transform our world for the better.
You and I too are afraid, not only Jeremiah. The fear of imprisonment prevents us from standing up to be counted as Christians in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. Our political ambitions fuel our fears to fight for justice for the poor. The crave for acceptance by others make us compromise on our Christian beliefs. Our greedy for wealth and power deter us from exploring alternative economic models to crass capitalism. We deploy our diplomatic toolbox, when we should call a spade a spade. Fear feeds on our selfishness and denial of God in our choices. When we seek God and his righteousness, fear disappears because we only seek to please God alone, and we accept the lot God gives to us, instead of all our skimming/plotting for what we want for ourselves—our idols!
Hidden in every desire for vengeance is attachment to this world and its glories. In every martyrdom is a confession of detachment from the earth and the prioritization of heaven in our choices. Every plea for vengeance makes us worse than our enemies and detracts from our focus and gaze on the transformation of earth into heaven. A life of martyrdom is the only transformative power on earth worth emulating, because it realizes and makes present our core Christian prayer, as taught Jesus Christ—“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven . . . Forgive us our debts as we forgive those indebted to us” (Matthew 6:9-13). “Debtors” impoverish every economy and are a monumental weight to carry. Creditors inject liquidity and cash flow into an economy. So it is with avengers and life-snuffers, they retrograde and degrade the quality of human lives on earth, they are the expert developers of underdevelopment. On the contrary, martyrs are transformers of the human society and improvers of the quality of terrestrial lives—they die improving the lot of everything God created. The choice is yours, whether to develop underdevelopment because you are evil or to die defending the quality of God’s creation, being a martyr!