E
E.E.N.S
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I read this post written almost a year ago on another forum; I thought it was pretty good, so I thought I’d share it with you.
I’ve been looking into joining the Secular (lay) Franciscans, and last year we had a friar talk to us about martyrdom. He explained that sometimes the bloodless martyrdoms are the hardest–those little sufferings we have to go through every day, and endure for years on end. At first I wasn’t too interested in that (I guess a variation of the Little Flower’s Little Way) since I’ve always been a lover of the great martyrs, especially those of last century.
But lately, with the increase of secular humanism and false liberalism across the globe, especially here in the West, I began to see the merit in these “little martyrdoms.” They are so harsh, they can sometimes be even more successful at detering us from the Faith than the bloody ones.
Hitler was quoted as saying, when talking about how to destroy the Church by executing its faithful, “Oh, don’t worry, we won’t make them into martyrs, we’ll humiliate and kill them as common criminals.” His idea was to mock the Church and to pretend to kill the saints for reasons OTHER than Faith, so as to suppress devotion entirely.
Now, in the next century, it seems to me that this idea of mocking and dubious “freedom of worship” found in the West can be more awful than the execution squads, or even the animal hunts in the Colesium, etc. The reason why the “little” ones tend to be so terrible is that the Church is mocked latently and others can’t even see the evil in the Church’s oppression.
Take current-day US, for instance. Here, we are told we have freedom of religion and we are taught that “all religions are deserving of respect.” However, how often are we mocked for our Faith, how often is the Church dragged through the mud, how often are we spit upon literally and figuratively, simply for adherring to the doctrines? We are so latently hated, we are even afraid to speak the Truth in fear that we will lose our friends and be called “zealots.”
If we disagree with contraception, we are laughed at and humiliated, accused of being stupid.
If we speak out against abortion we are called haters of women.
If we defend the Pope out of loyalty, we are called rigid and narrowminded.
If we question another’s agenda, political or religious, we are stomped on and quieted by the same people who claim to be so “tolerant” of diversity.
I’ve been looking into joining the Secular (lay) Franciscans, and last year we had a friar talk to us about martyrdom. He explained that sometimes the bloodless martyrdoms are the hardest–those little sufferings we have to go through every day, and endure for years on end. At first I wasn’t too interested in that (I guess a variation of the Little Flower’s Little Way) since I’ve always been a lover of the great martyrs, especially those of last century.
But lately, with the increase of secular humanism and false liberalism across the globe, especially here in the West, I began to see the merit in these “little martyrdoms.” They are so harsh, they can sometimes be even more successful at detering us from the Faith than the bloody ones.
Hitler was quoted as saying, when talking about how to destroy the Church by executing its faithful, “Oh, don’t worry, we won’t make them into martyrs, we’ll humiliate and kill them as common criminals.” His idea was to mock the Church and to pretend to kill the saints for reasons OTHER than Faith, so as to suppress devotion entirely.
Now, in the next century, it seems to me that this idea of mocking and dubious “freedom of worship” found in the West can be more awful than the execution squads, or even the animal hunts in the Colesium, etc. The reason why the “little” ones tend to be so terrible is that the Church is mocked latently and others can’t even see the evil in the Church’s oppression.
Take current-day US, for instance. Here, we are told we have freedom of religion and we are taught that “all religions are deserving of respect.” However, how often are we mocked for our Faith, how often is the Church dragged through the mud, how often are we spit upon literally and figuratively, simply for adherring to the doctrines? We are so latently hated, we are even afraid to speak the Truth in fear that we will lose our friends and be called “zealots.”
If we disagree with contraception, we are laughed at and humiliated, accused of being stupid.
If we speak out against abortion we are called haters of women.
If we defend the Pope out of loyalty, we are called rigid and narrowminded.
If we question another’s agenda, political or religious, we are stomped on and quieted by the same people who claim to be so “tolerant” of diversity.
