Bear Witness

To use Memorial Day as a starting point, I thought I would review some Christian martyrs who gave their lives to further the Christian message. In Greek, the word martyr means "witness" and the verb form, martyred, means to "bear witness" or "give evidence." I focused on Apollonius who was a Roman senator, renowned for his learning and wisdom. When one of Apollonius' slaves publicly denounced him as a Christian the case was remanded to the Senate where a remarkable debate took place between the prefect and Apollonius. "Are you bent on dying?" asked Perennis? "No," said Apllonius, "I enjoy life; but love of life does not make me afraid to die." Apollonius went on to give an eloquent apologia that clearly outlines the beauty and the value of Christianity. He argued that Christianity is superior by its concepts of death and life: death is a natural necessity which has nothing frightening about it, while the true life is the life of the soul. Above all, Christianity surpasses paganism through the work of Christ, the revealing Word of God and teacher of moral life, who became man to destroy sin by his death. Despite his eloquent defense, Apollonius was condemned to death in 186 A.D.



My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, May we be ready to bear witness and give evidence of your teachings and our salvation through Jesus Christ. In this country, where men and women have died to protect our freedoms, we may be challenged socially and economically because of our religious convictions, but we do not have to risk torture or fear that our lives are in jeopardy. Let us not take for granted our freedom to meet and worship, but instead greedily take advantage of our opportunities to meet as regularly as possible and to share openly our faith. Let us hear the words of Apollonius as he gave evidence to his faith:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
give us a measure of Thy Spirit
that we may be enabled to obey
Thy teaching to pacify anger,
to take part in pity,
to moderate desire,
to increase love,
to put away sorrow,
to cast away vain-glory,
not to be vindictive,
not to fear death,
ever entrusting our spirit to immortal God,
who with Thee and the Holy Ghost
liveth and reigneth world without end."
-Apollonius (from part of his defense before Perennis)

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0418.shtml
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0418.shtml