“Yes, I am a king. I was born for this. I came into the world for this: to bear
witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”
What awe-inspiring words! How many people they have inspired down
through the ages! What numbers of people have chosen to even forfeit their
lives, rather than deny the truth. Right at the very beginning of Christianity,
after Christ ascended into heaven, how many Christians were put to death
because they would not renounce their allegiance to Christ. Who would die for
a lie? But they would for the truth, and not just any statement of truth, but the
Truth incarnate, a living person, Jesus Christ Himself.
It is because Christ witnesses to the truth about Himself, that Pilate begins to
see Him as innocent and tries to find a way to get him released, including
offering to release either Christ, or Barabbas, but it doesn’t work. The trial and
death of St Stephen, the first martyr, in The Acts of the Apostles, bear several
similarities to the trial and death of Our Lord. Both are brought before the
religious authorities. The turning point that leads to Christ’s conviction is when
He identifies Himself as the Son of Man that they will see seated at the right
hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. This, they consider
blasphemy. Stephen sees a vision and says “I can see heaven thrown open ...
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”, and the reaction is the
same. Then when Christ dies, He forgives His persecutors, saying “Father
forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Stephen says, “Lord, do not
hold this sin against them”. (See Acts 7:55-60.) By his life and his death he
gives witness to Christ.
But what about a more modern example or two? All over the world, there are
Christians who are being persecuted, and even put to death, for their faith. And
then there is something called white martyrdom. This is where you are not put
to death (which would be red martyrdom), but where you have to endure
persecution and struggle to remain faithful to Christ. In various cartoons and
other children’s programmes, there would be the storyline where the bad guy
captures the good guy, but rather than killing him, he decides to imprison him
and keep him alive, so he can suffer, seeing the bad guy take over the world.
Of course, what happens in those cartoons or programmes is that the bad guy is
somehow defeated and the good guy is released or escapes from capture.
How does that compare with Christ? He died, yet He lives and reigns, and
death has no power over Him anymore. We all have to give account of
ourselves to Him. He is the One who will return in glory to judge the living
and the dead; He is the King of the universe and if people have chosen to do
something different to His law of love, they will be held accountable for it.
“[All] who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”
But how do we know what is the truth and what is only something
masquerading as the truth? In the first reading, it finishes with: “His
sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which shall never pass away, nor will his
empire be destroyed.” We can think of this in terms of Christ reigning in
heaven, but there is also a way in which this is true on earth. Jesus said: “You
are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the
underworld can never hold out against it.” (See Matthew 16:18) Christ
establishes His kingdom on earth, which is the Church, and He promises that
the gates of hell will never hold out against it. Jesus didn’t want the message of
Christianity, after the death of the last Apostle, to be corrupted, otherwise it
could be said that the gates of the underworld had triumphed. He had to give
the Church some way of remaining faithful to the truth, including those times
when Satan would disguise himself as an angel of light, and convince some
people that white is black and black is white. That was why He gave us the
Catholic Church and the papacy. Otherwise, who knows what is right and
wrong, what is true and what is false? The Pope and the Church are not their
own masters; they can’t make up their own doctrines. They have to live under
the authority of Christ. Individuals can fail, even individual members of the
clergy. Even the Pope is not infallible in everything he says and does. But we
do have a clear, unchanging message that has been passed down for two
thousand years by the Holy Spirit, helping us to come to a deeper
understanding of that truth as time goes by. It means that we can be the person
who built his house on rock, not on sand, and know that we have the truth, and
that the truth is worth fighting for. That’s how we too can give faithful witness,
like St Stephen, to Christ; to Christ who said: “Yes, I am a king. I was born for
this. I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are
on the side of truth listen to my voice.”
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk