Everyone remembers the emphatic and surprisingly profound words John Paul the second quoted from Our Lord on many occasions: “Be not afraid.” In 1978 these words were most appropriate. Roughly fifteen years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the world was spinning-and no one knew where the wheel would stop. The Holy Spirit had stirred the stock of humanity but so had the adversary. Intent on not letting the council be correctly understood and accepted Satan orchestrated the concupiscence of man to allow his passions to dominate his reason, starting with the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Reason being jettisoned from the culture, the world was antagonistic soil for the seed of Truth which the Church tried to sow into the hearts of men, namely, the seed of a true Christian humanism that gave due respect for the integrality of the human person, as well as do justice to the relationship each person owes to the Living God. Society, dominated by passions, emotions, and the centrality of the will, unfortunately, shaped the Church’s attitude very often more than this Christian Humanism and the Institutional Church established by Christ shaped society’s attitude. Many were awaiting the arrival of this new Pope from Poland on how he would shape the Church to be able to withstand society. And right from the beginning, with his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis, John Paul II said we as a church know where to go, we always know where to go, we go back to Christ. The Living Christ is always our refuge and strength even when the Church is beseiged from without and within. The Catholic Church is Christ’s body and if we remain faithful to Him, He will remain faithful to us. This is one enduring lesson of His pontificate as well as a lesson for anyone who has tried to remain faithful to the Church’s teaching, especially her emphasis on the sacredness of human sexuality, in the 1960s,70s,80s,90s.
But I believe it is insufficient moving forward to simply remind ourselves we do not have to be afraid of the society that scorns Christ’s teaching. Yes, society finds ways to persecute religious observance, to expunge Christianity from Christmas, to rob children of innocence and the unborn of life, to openly mock the hierarchy, and even to blame the decadence around us on the antiquated moral teachings of the Church. We will survive all attacks and nothing can separate us from Christ’s love, provided we remain faithful to his teachings. “You are my friends, if you do what I command you, ” Jesus told us at the last supper.
But now is the time to go on the offensive. Now is the time to fight for the very souls that seek us harm. We need to build on our new found courage by ‘not being afraid’ and begin to be not ashamed to openly call, question, invite, discourage, encourage, persuade, and influence-whatever is necessary, the sinful behavior around us and the sinners around us. Now that we know we must not fear the societal whirlwinds that can be downright perverted, let us confront head on the errors in others thinking and introduce them to the absolutely foreign, radical, and shocking truth of Jesus Christ. Since we are no longer afraid of persecution in general of the Church, we, as members individually of the Body under attack should not be ashamed if we are openly derided by fornicators, abortion advocates, eugenicists, atheists, agnostics, nominal christians, or members of other groups. Do we not possess the truth in Jesus Christ. Therefore we have no fear, we have no shame in proclaiming him loudly from the rooftops.