October 16, 2021 - Saturday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 4:13,16-18
Ps 105
Lk 12:8-12
St. Paul exalts the faith of Abraham, who became the father of many peoples precisely because of his faith. It is by virtue of faith that promises are fulfilled. The law given to Moses is good and holy, but it is only a temporary stage in the overall plan of salvation, which instead is fulfilled in Christ Jesus and is universal in scope:
Brothers and sisters:
It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, I have made you father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be.
In the Christian reading of Psalm 105, God’s same universality and fidelity is affirmed, he who has always remembered his covenant promised to Abraham and his descendants, long before the gift of the law:
You descendants of Abraham, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones! He, the Lord, is our God; throughout the earth his judgments prevail. He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations – Which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. For he remembered his holy word to his servant Abraham. And he led forth his people with joy; with shouts of joy, his chosen ones.
We can see in today's Gospel passage an explanation of what St. Paul affirmed in the letter to the Romans: it is not the law alone, but faith that allows us to recognize Christ as the fullness of the promises made to the Fathers. At the moment when Jesus feels hostility and rejection towards him growing, he asks his faithful ones to acknowledge him, not to deny him. He assures them that the Holy Spirit will intervene in their defense when they are dragged into court and he will prompt them in what they should say:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
In recent times, in the Algerian Church, 19 Christian martyrs have given us a great example of faith and evangelical courage. They not only ceaselessly acknowledged Christ, but also upheld their place of service even when given an alternative. Even more, they loved and forgave their persecutors in advance. These martyrs served the few Christians present in the country, living in friendship and fraternal dialogue with Muslims (who are also children of Abraham, the common father of all), and, in trying to alleviate their neighbor’s suffering, they gave testimony to all - regardless of race or religion - of that love which is possible and can be made visible even in the tragic moments of a civil war.
One of these 19 martyrs was the Dominican Pierre Claverie, Bishop of Oran, a pied-noir, born and raised in Algeria. He was assassinated along with his young Muslim driver Mohamed Bouchikhi on August 1, 1996, during the civil war. He was beatified in Oran in 2019, along with his 18 companions.
On the occasion of his enthronement in the cathedral of Oran, on October 9, 1981, Bishop Pierre had made clear in his homily his understanding of his mission and that of the Church in an independent and totally Muslim Algeria:
Yes, our Church is sent on a mission. I am not afraid to say it and also to say that I am joyful to have entered into this mission with you. There are many misunderstandings inherited from history that rest on the mission and missionaries. Today we clearly say that we are not and do not want to be aggressors […]. We are not and we do not want to be soldiers of a new crusade against Islam, against non-believers or against anyone else […]. We do not want to be agents of an economic or cultural neo-colonialism that divides the Algerian people in order to better dominate them […]. We are not and we do not want to be of those proselytizing evangelizers who believe they are honoring God's love through indiscreet zeal or a total lack of respect for their fellow man, for his culture, for his faith […] But we are and we want to be missionaries of God's love as we discovered it in Jesus Christ. This love, infinitely respectful of men, does not impose itself, does not impose anything, does not force consciences and hearts. With delicacy and through its presence alone, it frees what was chained, reconciles what was torn apart, restores what was broken […]. We have known this love and have believed in it […]. It grabbed hold of us and fascinated us. We believe that it can renew the life of humanity if only it is acknowledged a little […].
In a text written six months before his death, entitled Humanité plurielle, he wrote:
In this experience of closure, then of the crisis and the emergence of the individual, I acquire the personal conviction that humanity is only plural and that, as soon as we claim - in the Catholic Church, we have had the sad experience of it in the course of our history - to possess the truth or to speak in the name of humanity, we fall into totalitarianism and exclusion. Nobody owns the truth, everyone seeks it. There are certainly objective truths that are beyond all of us and to which we can only reach after a long journey and by gradually reconstructing this truth, drawing something from other cultures, from other types of humanity, what others have also acquired, what they also searched for on their path to the truth. I am a believer, I believe that God exists, but I do not claim to possess this God, neither through Jesus who reveals him to me, nor through the dogmas of my faith. One does not possess God. We don't possess the truth and I need the truth of others.
At the end of June 1996, Pierre Claverie went to Prouilhe, the birth place of the Dominican Order and he delivered his testament in a sermon:
After the start of the Algerian tragedy I have been asked more than once: “but what are you doing over there, in Algeria? Why do you stay in that country? But finally shake off the dust from your shoes, and come home.” Home... but where is really our home?... We are in Algeria for the sake of this crucified Messiah, only for his sake! We have no interest to safeguard, no influence to defend, we have not been driven by any masochistic perversion, we have no power, but we are there as at the bedside of a friend, of a sick brother, holding his hand and wiping the sweat from his front! Only for the sake of Jesus because it is he who is suffering because of this violence that spares no one, crucified again in the flesh of thousands of innocent people.
Like Mary, the Mother, and the Apostle John, we too find ourselves at the foot of the cross where Jesus dies abandoned by his own and mocked by the crowd. Is it not the duty of every Christian to be present in the places where someone is rejected and abandoned?... Where can the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ, be found if not in the forefront? I believe that it dies of not being close to the Cross of his Lord. Although it may seem paradoxical, and St. Paul has demonstrated it with clarity, strength, vitality, Christian hope, the fruitfulness of the Church come precisely from there, from nowhere else and in no other way. The Church deceives itself and misleads the world it is aligned with the other powers, as a humanitarian organization or as an evangelical movement loving to be noticed. In that way it will shine, but not burn with the fire of God, “strong as death”, as the Song of Solomon says, because here all is really about love, love first of all, and only love, a passion that Jesus has given us the taste and has shown us the way. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s own life for the one you love!”
Giving one's life: this is not reserved for martyrs or maybe we are at least called to become martyrs, witnesses of love’s free gift, of the free gift of our life. This gift comes to us from the grace of God, given to us in Jesus Christ. Giving one's life is this and nothing else! In every decision, in every act, it is concretely giving something of oneself: one's time, smile, friendship, one's ability, presence - even if silent, even if powerless - one's attention, material and moral support. or spiritual, one's outstretched hand ... without calculations, without reservations, without fear of losing...
(Homily at Prouilhe, June 23, 1996 : La vie spirituelle, Cerf Editorial, Paris 1997, p. 833-834)