Keep the Faith

Guest post by Fr. Scott W. Brossart, SOLT

The movie Silence by Martin Scorsese lifts up two Jesuits who deny their faith in public before others: “Apostastise or die.” A Buddhist speaks of “the path of peace and mercy, of holding your faith within: even if you denounce it on the outside you can still keep it on the inside. Renounce it outside of yourself but keep it inside so that you can stay and help others… this is the way of the Buddha and your way too. The two religions are the same in this… the way of peace. It is not necessary to win anyone over to one side or another when there is so much to share. I’ve been told to get you to abandon the faith. Step on your Jesus. It’s only a formality.”

Then there is an interior voice: “Come ahead now. It’s alright. Step on Me. I understand your pain. I was born into this world to share men’s pain. I carried this cross for your pain. Your life is with me now. Step…” and then the priest defaces the crucified Lord.

The movie seems to portray these priests as heroes who have kept the faith, even though they have not only publicly denied Our Lord, they also committed a sin of sacrilege, defacing the One who was crucified out of love for them. This is the mark of the Antichrist. To my horror, I have heard many Catholics proclaim this as a great movie.

Sunday’s first reading from Jeremiah teaches us that when we speak the truth and live it, we shouldn’t be surprised at the opposition. Those who belong to the world neither accept nor live the truth, for they do not accept Christ. The world seeks for us to denounce our Faith because we stand against its standards, its false gods.

If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you.
If you had been of the world, the world would love its own:
but because you are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.
Remember My word that I said to you:
The servant is not greater than his master.
If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you:
if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also.
~ John 15:18-20

I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world.
They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.
~ John 17:14,16

Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world.
If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh,
and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life,
which is not of the Father, but is of the world.
~ 1 John 2:15-16

We are called to be salt, to flavor everything around us; not to lose our savor, lest we be trampled underfoot for we have lost our purpose.

For example, if someone uses God’s name in vain, what good is it just to pray for them, when you have no charity towards that person by speaking up? Like passing by a person robbed, and you only pray for them but do absolutely nothing to help them. Our Lord warns us of this in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The person who help the person up and cares for them is the Good Samaritan, not the person who walks past them and leaves them in the ditch. No, we must lift others up, just as we desire to be lifted up out of our own mire and brokenness.

Love one another as I have loved you. Our Lord didn’t just pray for us, He did something about it. He reached out to us with His grace and speaks the truth to us so that we can be free. We must have the same love for others.

In Sunday’s Gospel, we see that we are called by Christ to give testimony of Him before others. We cannot do so by remaining silent and only holding our faith within. Our Lord warns us not to put our faith under a bushel basket and hide it lest it go out, but to put it on a lampstand so all can see it.

He desires to strengthen us:

“Fear no one… what I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”

He tells us later in this very same Gospel:

“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 boy in Gehenna.

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.”

___

Photo: Xuan Thinh Mai, Unsplash / PD-US