Heroic witness in Madrid.
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The photos of participants of WYD in Madrid being harrassed by adult anti-Catholic protestors are taken from Thomas Peters blog. (He obtained them here.)
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Viewing these images, one cannot help but recall the persecution and martyrdom of Catholics which took place during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.
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ReplyDelete(Lemme try that again)
ReplyDeleteThe first image that came to mind when I saw that dude with the toweled head was Madame.
Stupid link. Try it one more time: Madame
ReplyDeleteI agree this is awful, and cannot be tolerated. But I wouldn't call it martyrdom. That kind of takes power away from real martyrdom. Just my 2p.
ReplyDeleteWell, looks the persecution has arrived, doesn't it? The photos of the nuns being harassed were scary too.
ReplyDeleteThom, aside from being bludgeoned to death or dragged by horses, one can experience an interior martyrdom of so many small things.
"They are already martyrs whom Christ has deemed worthy to be taken up in their confession, having sealed their testimony by their departure; but we are confessors mean and lowly" (Eusebius, op. cit., V, ii). This distinction between martyrs and confessors is thus traceable to the latter part of the second century: those only were martyrs who had suffered the extreme penalty, whereas the title of confessors was given to Christians who had shown their willingness to die for their belief, by bravely enduring imprisonment or torture, but were not put to death.
ReplyDelete(Catholic Encyclopedia)
The picture of the dude with the white thing on his head is worth a look magnified...the girls praying their rosaries, the woman holding a crucifix... a beautiful image
ReplyDeleteI wonder what they were saying though? The protesters I mean? Does anybody know? Were they people who had been abused in the past maybe? I mean we all bitch to each other here on blgger,so non-catholics or hurt ex-catholics will surely do this. I just wondered what the difference was, really?
ReplyDeleteIs it that we can see their bitchiness, whereas ours is held tightly inside our hearts or is only witnessed through our own eyes as we look around at Mass, for those we would call out and shout at, if it were part of the liturgical norm? I am not speaking specifically here of any one blogger, we have most of us, done this, since arriving on the planet and deciding mass according to our atmospheric preferences is the required form.
These protesters are shouting at Christ, maybe shouting out to Him. They are not ignoring Him, he likes that, not being dealt with in a tepid manner, He spits the tepid out. he can do wonders with the fired up types!
This kind of situation has happened to me a few times, a person asking me loudly what did I know about how 'it' felt and demanding to have 'it' explained, whatever 'it' happened to be. Tied up hearts speak in strange unfriendly languages sometimes.
Opressed people don't always look like serene saints in waiting, think of St Paul, he'd have cut your head off as soon as look at you, at one point in his life. Imagine the blog posts we would have done about him when he was Saul, he'd have given Corapi a run for his money, twitter headline wise.
Just once today, look at the protesters and see them as the Father sees them, just before He sends His Son to die for them. Would you send your Son for them? I don't think I could do that, so how close to the Father's heart am I? Close enough to consider myself a martyr of the Father's own calibre/substance? Nowhere near, in my case. I have a long long loooooooong way to go before I can judge those men and yet I claim almost daily to have seen some of God's light.
I know this might strike as odd, but when I saw the bottom pic (which I also posted on my blog) I thought:
ReplyDelete"That is somebody's daughter." Sorta the saying that people use when there is a scandalous pic of some young girl. Imagine seeing that pic as a parent, your child is halfway around the world and this is what you see...
WYD inspires this confidence... God places people in situations to become martyrs, confessors, saints, and sinners.
We must do our part and pray.
God bless you, shadowlands.
ReplyDeleteI have been praying for the protestors too Shadow and for an out pouring of grace on all of Spain.
ReplyDeleteI think we - the Church - needs the prayers of the participants of WYD more than they need our prayers - actually - we ought all to be united in that same prayer. Prayer and penance is the way to unity and a means to share in the sufferings of all humanity.
ReplyDeleteMore deeply, the prayer and example and witness the participants of WYD exhibit is a sobering reminder to what we are all called to be. These types of world-wide conventions, congresses, assemblies - what have you - demonstrate and reveal the Church Universal - united in Christ. There appear no factions, no divisions here, but all are one in Christ.
We need that experience to permeate the entire Body of Christ. The witnesses are there praying with and in the Church. Rather than pray for them - I think we need to pray with them. They are safe in the heart of the Church at this moment - the rest of us seem to be scattered.
But don't get me wrong - I do pray for them and the Holy Father.
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