Two bombs in Christian areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed 35 people or more on Christmas Day yesterday, according to the BBC.
One bomb killing 11 people exploded in an outdoor market in a mainly Christian neighbourhood, followed shortly after by a bomb outside St. John's Catholic Church, just as Christmas Day worshippers were leaving the church, killing another 24.
On the Feast of St. Stephen today, we remember Pope John Paul II's Angelus message of 2003:
"The death of the martyr is a birth in Heaven."
The pontiff reminds us of all Christian communities around the world who suffer persecution because of their faith. Like St. Stephen, stoned to death outside Jerusalem in the first century AD following false accusations against him, the suffering of Christian martyrs imitates the suffering of Christ. Their blood shed out of their love of God.
As Pope Benedict XVI said in his St. Stephen's Day Angelus message of 2006:
"Their death [of the early Christian martyrs] was not a reason for fear and sadness but of spiritual enthusiasm, which always gives rise to new Christians. For believers, the day of death, and even more so, the day of martyrdom, is not the end of everything, but rather the 'passage' to immortal life, it is the day of the final birth, the 'dies natalis'."
"It is no accident that the Christmas iconography sometimes represents the divine newborn child lying in a small sarcophagus, to indicate that the Redeemer was born to die, He was born to give His life in ransom to all."
Echoed by Pope Francis I in his Angelus message today, appealing on behalf of all Christians who suffer violence, discrimination and injustice. Nevertheless, he said Christians ought not to be surprised by such mistreatment, since Jesus said such things would happen.
It is this consistency in the Church throughout the papacies and throughout the ages from the beginning of the Christian era from which we derive stability, comfort and hope.
Without the spiritual dimension, Christmas is reduced to just another "holiday", an excuse for shopping, gluttony and parties. That, too, is a form of discrimination against Christ - an attempt to distort Christ's birth into something without Him. A more subtle form of the marginalisation of Christianity but not so different to the oppression of Christian worship in Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa, China and Indonesia.
Even Britain is heading down the perilous road of banning or diminishing Christmas, e.g. in 2002, the British Red Cross ordered its 430 charity shops nationwide to remove all Christmas decorations from its shop windows in case they were "offensive" to Muslims.
The irony is that one of the excuses for the Second Iraq War in 2003 was to impose the "superior" values of Western "civilised democracy" upon them. Well, that went well.
This morning, the BBC Radio 4's Thought for Day slot on the Today programme invited an atheist to broadcast his 'faith', (he kept saying he didn't have one), despite previous assurances from the BBC that the traditional 50-year-long, daily religious slot would not be hijacked by the humanist/secularist/atheist brigade. The politically correct, right-on BBC has been under lobbying pressure for some time to include an "alternative" Thought for the Day by non-religious speakers. They got round it by having two. Cop-out.
St. Stephen's Day without remembering St. Stephen and Christmas without including Christ is like trying to build a house without builders. A house of cards that will eventually collapse.
O Great St. Stephen, the scriptures tell us that your face was like an angel's as you witnessed to the truth of Christ. Please ask the Holy Trinity to fill my soul and the souls of all my brothers and sisters throughout the world with a deep hunger for the truth that comes from the heart of Jesus, and also with the loving courage to embrace and profess the truth even amid difficulties, confusion and persecution. May the serenity and peace which were yours at the hour of your stoning be ours as well as we wait in hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
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| Stoning of St. Stephen attributed to Luigi Garzi (1638-1721) |
One bomb killing 11 people exploded in an outdoor market in a mainly Christian neighbourhood, followed shortly after by a bomb outside St. John's Catholic Church, just as Christmas Day worshippers were leaving the church, killing another 24.
On the Feast of St. Stephen today, we remember Pope John Paul II's Angelus message of 2003:
"The death of the martyr is a birth in Heaven."
The pontiff reminds us of all Christian communities around the world who suffer persecution because of their faith. Like St. Stephen, stoned to death outside Jerusalem in the first century AD following false accusations against him, the suffering of Christian martyrs imitates the suffering of Christ. Their blood shed out of their love of God.
As Pope Benedict XVI said in his St. Stephen's Day Angelus message of 2006:
"Their death [of the early Christian martyrs] was not a reason for fear and sadness but of spiritual enthusiasm, which always gives rise to new Christians. For believers, the day of death, and even more so, the day of martyrdom, is not the end of everything, but rather the 'passage' to immortal life, it is the day of the final birth, the 'dies natalis'."
"It is no accident that the Christmas iconography sometimes represents the divine newborn child lying in a small sarcophagus, to indicate that the Redeemer was born to die, He was born to give His life in ransom to all."
 |
| Nativity of the Lord Byzantine icon |
Echoed by Pope Francis I in his Angelus message today, appealing on behalf of all Christians who suffer violence, discrimination and injustice. Nevertheless, he said Christians ought not to be surprised by such mistreatment, since Jesus said such things would happen.
It is this consistency in the Church throughout the papacies and throughout the ages from the beginning of the Christian era from which we derive stability, comfort and hope.
Without the spiritual dimension, Christmas is reduced to just another "holiday", an excuse for shopping, gluttony and parties. That, too, is a form of discrimination against Christ - an attempt to distort Christ's birth into something without Him. A more subtle form of the marginalisation of Christianity but not so different to the oppression of Christian worship in Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa, China and Indonesia.
Even Britain is heading down the perilous road of banning or diminishing Christmas, e.g. in 2002, the British Red Cross ordered its 430 charity shops nationwide to remove all Christmas decorations from its shop windows in case they were "offensive" to Muslims.
The irony is that one of the excuses for the Second Iraq War in 2003 was to impose the "superior" values of Western "civilised democracy" upon them. Well, that went well.
 |
| Marketplace in the Doura district of Baghdad Christmas Day 2013 Channel 4 news photo |
This morning, the BBC Radio 4's Thought for Day slot on the Today programme invited an atheist to broadcast his 'faith', (he kept saying he didn't have one), despite previous assurances from the BBC that the traditional 50-year-long, daily religious slot would not be hijacked by the humanist/secularist/atheist brigade. The politically correct, right-on BBC has been under lobbying pressure for some time to include an "alternative" Thought for the Day by non-religious speakers. They got round it by having two. Cop-out.
St. Stephen's Day without remembering St. Stephen and Christmas without including Christ is like trying to build a house without builders. A house of cards that will eventually collapse.
O Great St. Stephen, the scriptures tell us that your face was like an angel's as you witnessed to the truth of Christ. Please ask the Holy Trinity to fill my soul and the souls of all my brothers and sisters throughout the world with a deep hunger for the truth that comes from the heart of Jesus, and also with the loving courage to embrace and profess the truth even amid difficulties, confusion and persecution. May the serenity and peace which were yours at the hour of your stoning be ours as well as we wait in hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
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