Persecution

I have a big fear. The fear is that, one day in the future, I will be asked to choose between my life and Christ and I will choose the former. I pray often that if the opportunity for martyrdom should come my way, that I would be given the grace to faithfully and boldly choose Christ. These aren't just words, I literally pray for this all the time.

I'm not a superstitious person. I'm not one you see reading all the apparitions and the book of Revelation trying to figure out what's going to happen next or when the world is going to end. I generally try to live for today, not tomorrow. But recently, something has changed both in my life and that of my family. Persecution. Persecution for holding true to our faith. To be honest, there have always been the "normal" daily persecutions of "you guys worship saints, the pope is the anti-Christ, blah blah blah..." But recent persecution has come from our own friends and even our own family. Even if the world is not going to end tomorrow, I think anyone can see that something is going on out there, something is changing in the intensity and force of the way Satan is acting in our world.

I came across this status update the other day on my Facebook page:

"Getting hammered on the blood of christ is f****** metal". 

Shocker, I know.  I of course, responded to the update, not trying to convince this person of the true prescence of the Eucharist (trust me, I have already spent hundreds of hours in discussion about this with this person) but merely trying to come to an agreement that this was extremely offensive to Catholics and disrespectful to other people's religion. No agreement could be made. In fact, after a while of conversering over the internet, other people started to chime in with comments like:

"I drank the whole cup once. I'm pretty sure it was Easter Vigil, and my mom woke me up for Communion. Y'know, a kid is thirsty when he first wakes up."


and:


"Religion doesn't have to be respected. It shouldn't be respected. It's superstitious, credulous, stifling of reason, and an exaltation of faith, believing things without evidence. People are indoctrinated at infancy and taught never to question those beliefs. Then, they are insulted by those who prefer reason and rationalism. They are owed no special privilege not to be offended. 'Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.'"


What a crazy time to be living in. A time where the very idea of God is not only disrespected, but seemingly repulsive. What kind of future can this attitude (one that is becoming more and more popular) possibly hold for Christians? It seems there is a very fine line between not respecting a person's religion and not respecting the person. People today seem to be getting a little too close to that line. I can think of a few times in history where that line was crossed, where one group of people thought that another group of people were undeserving of respect in any form, and we all know how that story ended. God forbid I or my children should ever have to live through something as horrific as the holocaust. But still, even if we do, I am still so thankful for this faith. A faith worth dying for.

***Update: Click on over to The Mantilla Diaries to watch an awesome video on dying for the Faith (plus, you'll love this girl, she has a great name!).