Tuesday, 5 June 2012

A message for Christians and God-fearing people — Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko

JUNE 5 — To serve God is to speak out about evil as a sickness which should be brought to light so it can be cured. To serve God is to condemn evil in all its manifestations.

Government means service. The first love of the authorities should be for those whom they govern. And if this is really were the case, if this basic Christian truth became part of real life, if the authorities were moral, if Christian ethics dominated the principles of government, how different our lives would be...

The whole activity of Jesus Christ was aimed at making people realise that they were created for the freedom of children of God. Let us be strong through love, praying for our brothers who have been misled, without condemning anybody but condemning and unmasking evil.

The yearning for freedom cannot be stopped by violence, as violence is the weapon of those who do not possess the truth. Man can be crushed by violence but not enslaved.

A Christian fulfils his duty only when he is stalwart, when he professes his principles courageously, when he is neither ashamed of them nor renounces them because of fear or material needs. Woe betide a society whose citizens do not live by fortitude. They cease to become citizens and become more like slaves.

It is fortitude which creates citizens, for only a courageous man is conscious of all his rights and duties. If a citizens lacks fortitude he becomes a slave and causes immeasurable harm not only to himself but to his family, his country and the Church.

Fortitude is an essential part of one’s life as a citizen. In order to remain spiritually free men, we must live in truth. To live in truth means to bear witness to it to the outside world at all times and in all situations.

The truth is unchangeable. It cannot be destroyed by any decree or law. Courageous witnessing to the truth leads directly to freedom. A man who witnesses to the truth can be free even though he might be in prison...

We can overcome fear only if we accept suffering in the name of a greater value.

* Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko was a Polish priest who preached against communism and who was murdered by agents of the Polish Communist internal intelligence agency.

A Malaysian Insider reader sent this piece in, believing that it may provide moral clarity for God-fearing Malaysians.

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