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From the Kitchen Table

Martyrs

by Peg Luksik

Holy Week. The days when Christians remember the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the One called the Christ. Churches will be full. Schools and businesses will close. Believers will spend time in meditation and prayer.

But then, for many, the week will be over and life will go back to normal. And in the condition called normal in America today, anything animated by faith is somehow suspect. Even for those who would self-describe as Christians.

The idea that one follow a standard based on principles of faith is counter-cultural. A person who decides to do so often hears that he is just being a martyr. It is never a compliment.

Perhaps the Roman who faced the lions in the Coliseum heard the same thing from their neighbors when they refused to worship Rome's pagan gods. Perhaps they were also told that they should compromise because they had to live in the real world, and in the real world, principles of faith must give way to the pragmatism of success.

Today we name them martyrs as titles of honor. We recognize the power of their witness. But those who were dying horribly in a hot dusty arena with the echoes of thousands of their neighbors cheering for the lions in their ears probably didn't feel very honored.

They did, however, make a decision to allow principles of faith to direct the courses of their lives. No matter where those courses led them.

When they died, they had no idea if their deaths would serve any pragmatic purpose. They had no premonition that future generations would praise their courage. They had no knowledge that the witness of faithfulness provided by their martyrdom would become the inspiration for the conversion of many.

The very neighbors who cheered for the lions were so moved by the example of Christians who would brave death rather than renounce their faith that they sought out ways to invite that faith into their own lives. Those who died convinced their neighbors that a faith worth dying for was a faith worth living.

Because they were willing to be "just martyrs", a civilization was changed.

Our modern civilization is changing too – but away from the Judeo-Christian culture that made us great. The fact that there are those intent on destroying the faith is not unique to our culture. In fact, it has been a constant fact from Good Friday onwards.

The failure of the destroyers in the past has not come from lack of money or power or intent. Their failure has come because there have always been Christians who were willing to be martyrs – to allow principles of faith to direct the courses of their lives. Even if those courses led to an arena filled with lions.

The increasing success of the destroyers today can be linked to the lack of such willingness on the part of so many Christians. The prevailing wisdom is that principles are fine, but we live in a real world so we have to be practical. And that practicality is exactly what the destroyers want.

Good Friday was not practical. The martyrs in the coliseum were not practical. Faith is not practical. It reaches beyond practicality to change hearts and lift souls. That is something the destroyers cannot understand. That is something they cannot defeat.

So as we celebrate this Holy Week, let us together look for ways in which we can become living martyrs –witnesses to the wonder and glory of the Faith we profess to cherish.