During the Reign of Terror in the 1790s in France, a community of Carmelite Sisters had been held under house arrest for nearly 3 years. Throughout the entire time, pressure was constantly placed on them to throw away their habits, denounce their religion in Christ under the promise that they would then be free to leave and live like normal people. 11 of the sisters stood firm the entire time, until they were given a final choice: to give-up their habits and vows, or face the guillotine. In prayer and common discernment, they walked to their execution together, and singing hymns of love to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were executed on July 17th, 1794 and the Reign of Terror ended on July 27th.
Most may look at this in greater sadness, thinking that if they only could have delayed their captors for 10 more days, they would have survived. But there is a better understanding: It was their deaths and the sacrifice of their martyrdom that helped bring about the end to that horrific period in France.
From the beginning of our Faith and the foundation of the Church at the foot of the Cross, we have understood that the way to oppose violence and moral atrocities in the world, to bring an end to the most inhumane acts is not through war or protests and either violent, or even non-violent revolt. It may be a hard question to ask, but despite all of the changes that Dr. King’s work did in changing the political shape of racism in this country, has racism been brought to an end? Has it even been reduced very much with what we see today?
The Psalm tells us: “The just man is a light in the darkness to the upright” and our Lord to the Disciples: “You are the light of the world.” The way to bring about change is the way of the martyr and through acts of reparation for the sins and the wrongs of others. It is in hours of prayer and fasting, in the sacrifice of our comfort and the giving of charity to those who least deserve it.
We do not seek to change the world so that it is a better place for us to live in, because we know that our life is intended and fulfilled elsewhere, but so that it is a better place for others; so that they do not have to live in the darkness, or that their darkness can be at least a little lighter; to open the ways of salvation for those who are bound in the sins of hatred, of despair, and caught in their own terrors and fears.
Beginning on Fridays this Lent, and continuing after, we will be more intentional about Fridays as a day offered in reparation, through Adoration, prayers of the Divine Office and other groups and gatherings in the parish.