Mission Monthly Newsletter April 2002

...Meditate on These Things. Phillipians 4.8

"Though young, she was not without knowledge, for knowledge of evil in those times reached even children’s ears early."

            Henryk Sienkiewicz - QUO VADIS  

     I have given much thought to this topic over the past few years and I believe its current relevance is of great importance.  The exposure of evil to the (Christian) young was clearly important in the story, Quo Vadis, set in ancient Rome during the time of the crazed Caesar Nero and the very beginnings of the Christian Church.  In our day this is worth investigating as we hope to raise God-believing children and prepare them to face the most important challenge of Christian life: desiring a relationship with our God above all things precisely because of the torturous reality that evil does not concern itself with the nurture of the eternal soul, but rather its destruction through idolatry and selfish pursuits.

     How does one describe “Rome”?  We are so far removed from that corrupt empire.  Or are we?  If I had to pick one word to define this civilization, one of the most dominant in history, I might choose “vanity.”  Whether one was poor and dispossessed or wealthy and influential, Roman (pagan) culture had little care for things other than the “self.”

     I am a member of the “me” generation and though we do not consider these to be “pagan” times, I believe that I have been influenced by many pagan subtle (and not-so-subtle) principles.  “If it feels good, do it.  If it tastes good, eat it.  If you want something, go for it.  Truth is what you want it to be.  If there’s something in your way, knock it down.  Do what you want, believe what you want, have what you want, say what you want.  Take revenge on your enemies.  To your own self be true.  Believe only in that which you can prove.  Satisfy your own will and desires.”  Have I been influenced by these self-empowering ideologies?  Yes!  Are these principles evil?  Evil is not some abstract image of a red-horned devil with a pitchfork.  Evil is that which denies Truth.  Therefore if it denies God Who is Truth and ANY of His commandments (or even twists them a little to make the lie seem, you know, okay) then we have to say yes, it is evil.

     Is it because we want to protect our children that we shield them from evil realities?  Or is it because we ourselves have been influenced by the vanity of evil and either do not want to admit it or in our pampered state we do not want to lose the coziness of our worldly security?  Jesus tells us directly, “Do not lay up treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume” (Matthew 6:19).  Isn’t this exactly what we (hopefully) are struggling with?  The Church fasts and repents in preparation of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, yet “Easter” in the greater society has become the domain of a cute, fuzzy rabbit.  I cannot help but think of the great Saint Sophia who was forced to watch her three young daughters tortured and murdered rather than offer incense to the pagan goddess Artemis.  “At the moment of their passion, the mother urged her valiant daughters to endure to the end: ‘Your heavenly bridegroom, Jesus Christ, is... eternal life.  When your bodies are slain by torture... the wounds of your bodies will shine in heaven like stars’” (Prologue of Ochrid, Sept. 17).

     The core concern of our faith lay open before us: God in Christ faced and defeated Satan, in life and in death, not so that we wouldn’t have to but rather to lead us in battle to His victory.  We need to prepare ourselves and our children to make uncompromising Christian choices.  Knowledge of our enemy should not be frightening; though it reveals the sorrow of the fallen nature it also candidly uncovers the self-betrayal of the enemies pride.  It is good because it shows us how and why we fight the warfare of the Cross.  Besides, in a world where the love of God is being relentlessly attacked by material idols and amorality, what can be more frightening than a heart grown cold towards God?