Are we in a crisis mode where there is no sign of Hope?

Are we in a crisis mode where there is no sign of hope? 

The answer would be yes if our faith has diminished to a give-up and bury our heads in the sand.  Just like the Ostrich who buried its head so as to avoid the world around him, there is only disaster awaiting our weakened belief that God has indeed left us alone to figure out the possibility for survival on our own.   

Because many millions of Christians just celebrated the Resurrection of Christ from the sting of death and now heads to his Ascension before his disciples as they watched with total belief and trust in the divine life we all shall reach as well.  For us whose faith is now strengthened and have accepted our mission to spread the Kingdom of what Good News really means is the demand spiritually given to us as Christ picked you and me for a quest to reach the unchurched.     

It is the many who cannot understand what we adhere to as the churches still are open to believers in the world in spite of an attack from so many directions that clouds the reality of goodness and righteousness.

In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest.  “Full of grace and truth,” he came as the “light of the world,” he is the Truth.  “Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”  The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know “the truth that will make you free” and that sanctifies,  To follow Jesus is to live in “the Spirit of truth,” whom the Father sends in his name and who leads “into all the truth.”  To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: “Let what you say be simply Yes or No.”  (CCC 2466).

This is not a requirement of calling ourselves Christian; it is in fact a challenge of accepting our Batptismal promises, once each one understands what we or our God-parents spoke in our name.  Once the promise has been inaugurated, with our individual understanding, the mission handed to us becomes the same expectation that created untold saints and martyrs.  

Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death.  The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity.  He bears witness to the truth of the faith and the Christian doctrine.  He endures death through an act of fortitude.  “Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God.”  (CCC 2473)  (the last sentence spoken by St. Ignatius of Antioch).

The Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered to the end in witnessing to their faith.  These are the acts of the Martyrs.  They form the archives of truth written in letters of blood.  (CCC 2474).  

Is the Church looking for martyrs especially in 2026?  The answer is not a correct analysis for a written exam.  It is something that just may occur in our life that has been building from the execution of our Christian Baptism that can and in many cases will suddenly become the decision to accept suffering in ways that might appear as death but will remain as the suffering that our Lord experienced up to his Crucifixion.

From the first denial that Jesus felt as his words, “Today  this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Lk 4: 21),  We're already turning heads and hearts of those who would not accept the presence of God in their hearing.  The same scenario might very well appear in yours or mine lives as we take the role of prophet by our mission in the Church.

Don’t look for this to happen; but be ready to accept the signs that you or I may have been chosen, and as many before us in Church history have felt what martyrdom is like, prepare yourself as a blood brother of Christ.

Ralph B. Hathaway