Courage, Holiness and a Love that Conquers Fear of Death

We are considering how Courage, like Joy, is one of the signs of holiness in our time.  In yesterday’s meditation, Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that we “must love something more than the fear of death” if we are to live.

What do we love more than the fear of death? The truth? Beauty? Goodness? Justice?  The Earth and her creatures?  The young who will be inheriting the Earth? Animals? Forests? Oceans and the beings who live in them? Rivers? Soil and the healthy foods that grow in its ecosystem? The poor? The oppressed? Prisoners?  The sick? Children?  Victims of war or hatred or projections?

Mugshot of Martin Luther King Jr following his 1963 arrest in Birmingham, Alabama. Photo: Birmingham Police Department. Wikimedia Commons.

The Student, The Nun & The Amazon – Part 4 of a 4-part documentary on Sister Dorothy Stang and her work. Here we witness Sister Dorothy’s vision, funeral, and legacy. Video by stringfilms.

When the Vatican silenced me for a year. I visited central and south America where I saw liberation theology and base communities in action and met many people who were putting their lives on the line.  One unforgettable lesson happened when I was spending time with Bishop Casigalida, a true prophet (and a good friend of Archbishop Romero) whose diocese was in the Amazon.

He let me sleep in his bed and I asked him about the sketch of him on the wall and he said it was made by a priest he knew before he was tortured to death in prison.

The week I visited they had a retreat for about 80 church workers defending the rain forest and the people in it.  One night they celebrated a simple mass in a gymnasium dedicated to “Our Martyrs” and at the end people were invited up to light a candle and name three people they knew personally who had been tortured and murdered defending the rainforest and the people.

One person said to me afterwards, “the hard part was limiting it to three; I know at least ten off the top of my head.”

These people wore jeans and tee shirts; they were ordinary people.  I learned something I had never learned in the comfort of North America: That courage is everywhere, it is in all of us.  But we need some great love to call it forth.

“Stations of the Cross 14,” Jesuit mission, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The military soldiers torturing Jesus are dressed in Bolivian uniform; the witnesses have the features of Bolivian men and women. Artist unknown; photo by Patrick Furlong on Flickr.

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest (2015), pp. 211-219.

Adapted from Matthew Fox, “Bishop Casalgalida,” in Fox, The Pope’s War, pp. 45f., 54-62.

Banner Image: “Tribute to Archbishop Oscar Romero.” Mural by Jamie Morgan, 2001, Balmy Alley, San Francisco. Photo by Franco Folini on Flickr