To the editor:
Good Friday service with the reading of the “Passion” and the “Veneration of the Cross” had a deeper meaning for me this year considering the events happening in our world today.
Approximately six weeks ago, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya and a few days ago, Al-Shabab, another Islamic extremist group, murdered 148 university students and personnel in Kenya who professed to be Christian and not Muslim.
This follows a pattern that has been happening frequently throughout many parts of North Africa and the Middle East. In addition to the killings, these groups are destroying churches and priceless artifacts dating back to Biblical times.
What is taking place now is very similar, on a smaller scale (at least for the moment), to the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jewish population of Europe during World War II.
In this country with 42 years of legal abortion, the rapid push for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and of same-sex marriage, the HHS mandate, and the government attacks against Christians of conscience who oppose such measures, I have a greater appreciation of the “cross” that faithful Christians will certainly bear if our government and culture continues to act is if God doesn’t exist.
Attacks on religious freedom in Libya and Kenya have led to Christian martyrdom while in this country Christians face potential fines, loss of employment, jail time, and accusations of bigotry and homophobia because they choose to follow Scripture, natural law, and the teachings of the Church.
The “Good News” is that “Jesus Is Risen” and Good Friday turns into Easter Sunday. Keep those images in your mind in the weeks and months ahead.
Patrick Hardyman, Blanchardville