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We live in a time when there are forces that would have us believe that the motivation behind their evil acts is a righteous one with martyrdom as the vehicle for such an attainment. But the forfeiting of one’s life for one’s faith, the sacrifice of one’s being for the greater good of the community, either way we look at it, such scenarios are charged with emotion. If this truly is martyrdom, blowing oneself up in the company of strangers who do not believe with the fervency we or our kind possess, taking out lives that doctrinally differ from our theology, creating havoc and chaos repeatedly and ceaselessly murdering in the name of our god, then what is this other thing?

What is it when one is quietly living one’s faith, tending to the needs of the unfortunate, not on occasion but as a way of life? Mother Theresa was renown for this type of service and humility. She died the same week as Princess Diana of Wales, not as a martyr but as a modern day saint.

One of my favorite books, though I never read it in its entirety, is Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The early accounts of innocent — having committed no crime other than that deemed against the State or empowered — people who refused to deny their spiritual beliefs and suffered death at the hands of potentates and popes, is both eye-opening and sad, no matter how triumphant the final result, namely, their martyrdom, might have been. So dying peacefully as a saint or dying as a murdered saint are two scenarios on the flip side of the coin that has humility, service, love, compassion, and faith on the other side. (more…)

It is nothing new perhaps, and also, perhaps not generated as news most of the time, but let us not forget the blunt inhumanity of those who wish to make Islamism an international staple, especially as the moving targets are now — as of the past few weeks — being attacked in cold blood:

Taliban gunmen kill Christian aid worker in Kabul

And

Christian families flee Mosul after death threats

And more skerry stuff from the current crackpot now ‘in awe’:

Bush calls meeting pope a ‘moving experience’

So, where have I been all month…? Oh, thinking…. just thinking.