Martyred for the silliest reason

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S what happened to St. John the Baptist. (cfr. Mk 6,14-29) Just because he did not want to lose face before his guests, King Herod finally chose to give in to the request of a dancing girl who, advised by her scheming mother, asked for the head of St. John.

We should also somehow expect this kind of ending of our life here on earth. We face sinfully complicated situations and evil schemers in our lives, making us vulnerable to suffering like St. John the Baptist. We always have to contend with sinful situations and wicked plots and suffer the consequences. We should just be ready for this eventuality.

In this regard, we have to learn to lose the fear of suffering and death. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life.

He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55)

So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death in this life. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death.

Let’s just remember that death definitely does not have the last word. It’s life, everlasting life with God in heaven, or God forbid, eternal condemnation in hell. Neither are pain and suffering the main ingredient or the ultimate goal of our earthly life. It’s joy, peace, victory, success, offered to us by Christ himself, our savior.

We need to be clear about these fundamental truths, so we be guided properly in our life, making the right choices, since our life is also not a matter of fate or luck, but rather of choice, first that of God who chooses to love us in spite of whatever, and that of ours. But we have to learn to choose properly.

Whatever situation we may find ourselves in, including the worst scenarios possible in our human, earthly condition, we can always manage to find joy and peace if we allow ourselves to be guided by our Christian faith, rather than by our human estimation of things alone.

We have to look at death from the point of view of faith. This gives us the ultimate measure of reality. Objectivity is not only a matter of the senses nor of the intellect. We cannot simply rely on our feelings, our hunches, our reasoning. We have to use our faith, which our Lord in the first place gives us abundantly.

We need to overcome any fear we may have of death. Any fear of death is actually without basis. If we are consistent with our Christian faith which we should not only profess but should also live out, we know that when it comes, however it comes, it is the time when God, our Father and Creator, wants us to be with him.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com