Tuesday of the 7th Week of Easter
Acts 20:17-27 | Psalm 67:10-11, 20-11 | John 17:1-11
But life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me – and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)
As Christians, we are called to “bear witness”, to testify about the unfailing love of our Creator. To most, including myself, this is difficult enough when faced with simple questions that expose our weak knowledge of our faith.
It gets even more unnerving when we find out that in the original Greek, what we know now as “bear witness” was actually διαμαρτύρασθαι (diamartyrasthai, “to testify fully”).
Note the root word: martyr. It’s because many reacted to the witness-bearing of people like St. Stephen and St. Paul with death-dealing, that the formerly neutral word for “I tell you, brothers and sisters, that Jesus is the Son of God” has taken on a darker “please don’t ask me to proclaim your divinity, for I don’t want to die painfully” meaning. This is hardly a concern in Singapore, but I would certainly share the hesitation of most Christians who were called to identify ourselves as such by gun-toting hostiles in a foreign land.
So, since we’re free to testify to our beliefs locally without fear of public lynching or beheading, all that’s left is to shore up our personal knowledge of our faith. We each have to come to that in our own way; mine starts with writing this blog every day.
Blessed journey to martyrdom, dear brothers and sisters.
Lord, you are the source of all that is good and right. Send the Holy Spirit upon us with the strength to fortify our faith with daily scriptural examination, and the courage to proclaim that You are the Lord of Love with our words and especially our deeds. Amen.