"Many men and women in the history of our Church have been willing to die for their faith. The deaths of these martyrs inspired people to believe that there is more than this life. Giving their lives was a tremendous form of evangelization. They died for the sake of the kingdom to come. However, in this day and age, we need people who are willing to live for their faith."
John R Woods, Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within.
Yesterday I posted that I had found a couple of insights from Dr. Wood's book, and shared one of them. This is another. I sometimes wonder if we live in a despairing age which at times makes the error of romanticizing martyrdom via death at the expense of other forms of martyrdom (the word basically means "witnessing," and so there are other forms of this than literally dying for one's faith). Martyrdom via death only has some effect because this life is worth living, and because while our hope is for something in the next life, it must be lived in this life.
Being eager to die in this life--welcoming death so that we can be rid of this life--is not martyrdom, but rather is spiritual suicide.
No comments:
Post a Comment