This has all happened before. It is happening now. It will happen again. Our command is to endure, as those who came before us.

And he said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 6:34-38)

The Church did not last 2,000 years by crumbling under duress, or abandoning Jesus in favor of the world.

In our age of the Victim Olympics, where both Christians and non-Christians try to claim to the prize of the Most Outcast, Most Vilified, and Most Excluded from society, I’d like to share a story from history, from the year 177 A.D., that may be helpful in putting into perspective what anyone in America in 2023 has suffered, Christian or otherwise.

This will seem extreme at the outset, but will make sense once I read this story from the second century, and I’m just going to say it: we have no idea in America what it means to suffer for Christ. We have no idea what heroes of the faith look like any longer. We just haven’t seen it happen in our lifetimes. We think we do, but we don’t. People in Nigeria and Nicaragua are witnessing this kind of conviction in Christian witness today, but Americans are not, and thus we take it for granted what has been done for us.

Most of us haven’t been tested. Not yet. Yes, we’ve been tested in ways, but not like the people I’m about to tell you about. I’ve had struggles, but not like Blandina and Attalus.

My point in re-telling this event from history is to remind us of the tradition that we inherit, that we mostly ignore. We sit comfortably in the 21st century and grumble at the obligation to attend Mass, where we can openly receive the Eucharist. No one is there to stop faithful Catholics from gathering in groups. No one is rounding us up. These are luxuries that we ignore. These luxuries were bought with blood, and the first 500 years of the faith have stories that would make the disturbed author of Game of Thrones wince.

What we are led to believe right now is that the persecutions of Mark Zuckerberg and the Silicon Valley emperors are like the persecutions of Diocletian and the Roman Empire. This story I’m about to read is actually from France, where the budding church was being brutalized. If anything, this story should assure you that the deletion of an imaginary online life is nothing like what the early Christians suffered. They were meeting in secret out of love for Christ, and changing hearts and minds in flesh and bone meetings, one soul at a time.

Now, these moderns “cancellations” should be of concern, because they do indeed mirror what happens repeatedly in the history of Christianity, especially in the early stages of persecution. But in America we are not yet reliving anything remotely close to what was happening with early Christians, meaning those who lived before we even had a New Testament. We are only at the stage of the early Soviet Union so far. Words are being re-defined and scapegoats are being sculptured, but so far the only deaths are virtual.

But these martyrs met in the flesh and told the story of Jesus to one another, risking their necks to do so. There was nothing virtual about their secret meetings, nothing meta about their willingness to do anything to keep their faith alive, nor was there anything simulated about the path they took on their journey from social outcast to martyrdom. Let’s walk through this example from Lyons in the year 177. The first part should sound very familiar. This is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints, volume 2.

Saints Pothinus and his companions, the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne (A.D. 177)

The persecution began unofficially with social ostracism: "We were excluded from houses, from the baths, and from the market; and with popular violence-stoning, plundering, blows, insults and everything that an infuriated crowd loves to do to those it hates. Then it was taken up officially. (p 454, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, vol 2.)

This parallels what we see today, ominously, but not surprisingly. Social ostracism is underway, as Christendom is now seen as the enemy. But is this anything new? It’s not. It’s anything but new, it’s the way it always begins.

Witnessing to your faith is now a good way to lose your job, to lose your friends, and most likely, to lose your internet accounts, and maybe even your money as banks have now joined the game of cancellation. It is routine where I work to hear some kind of mockery of faith and to hear exclamations of “Jesus Christ” in anger. The name not only means nothing to most people in the IT world, it’s something to be openly joked about.

However, as anyone who finds Jesus knows, careers don’t satisfy. Money does not fulfill you like God does. God alone satisfies, as Thomas Aquinas said. Money, friends, reputations, and jobs? Those are just nice-to-haves. They are not must-haves. There is only one must-have and that is faith in Jesus Christ, because he is the redeemer and path to salvation. The one who understands that redemption would be a fool to throw it away, and would be raked with regret to abandon the one person who ever saved them. But as we continue through this, we can recognize that there is much more to lose than friends or internet accounts.

The story continues with an attack on the Eucharist, as has been going on since the Jesus’ first gave the Bread of Life discourse, and since Judas first turned away. The attack on the Eucharist goes hand in hand with persecution, and seems to resurface often, almost every time Christians are mocked or violated in the Lives of the Saints.

“They…accused us of feeding on human flesh like Thyestes and of committing incest like Oedipus, as well as other abominations which it is unlawful for us even to think of, and which we can scarcely believe ever to have been perpetrated by men.”

These same accusations are happening today. In my next post, this is the topic, because where I work in 2022, the same accusation has been made. This “Catholics are cannibals” is one of the laziest attacks on Catholicism possible, but it makes for good scandal, so every generation trots it out, and every generation of Catholics have to explain it. The Eucharist may be the most hot-button issue of all time, because it requires faith, which is the whole point.

This has been going on since the beginning, where even St. Paul said those who did not believe in the Eucharist could not receive Communion. This is a never-ending line in the sand for Catholics, because the Eucharist is the “YES” to the whole Paschal Mystery, which is the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Acsension. The linkage from the Last Supper to being seated at the right hand of God all flows through the Eucharist.

For anyone throwing the accusation of cannibalism around today, you can bet with certainty that those people have never read, possibly never even heard of, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The charges of incest and cannibalism go way back for non-believers. Why? Because it’s great slander for sensationalism. It still gets much tread today. People love a scandal like that. Those who haven’t heard it clutch their pearls and exclaim, “What? Catholics eat people. Lord save us!”

And you can hardly go online without someone associating Christians with inbreeding. So these same charges from 177 A.D. are happening today. These accusers would probably be shocked to learn that the practice of inbreeding and incest actually went away because of Christianity, as the Church outlawed it in sixth century, making it extremely strict, so much that it had to loosen the rule in the 1200s because…well, let’s not go down that rabbit hole. I’ll just leave a link if you want to read Canon Law and it’s history on Consanguinity.

Social ostracism and mockery of the Eucharist is just the beginning of this story. So let’s go back to the year 177 A.D. and follow along what happens next in attempts to kill off Christianity in France.

When these things were made public, all were exasperated against us, including some who had formerly shown friendliness. . . The fury of the mob, the governor, and the soldiers fell most heavily upon Sanctus, a deacon…, on Attalus, who had always been a pillar and support of the Church, and on Blandina, a slave…When we were all in fear, and her mistress according to the flesh, who was herself an athlete among the martyrs, was apprehensive lest Blandina should not be able from bodily weakness to make her confession boldly, she was endued with so much power that even those who in relays tortured her from morning till evening grew faint and weary. All marveled how she could possibly survive, so torn and broken was her body. But in the midst of her sufferings she seemed to derive refreshment and peace from continually repeating the words, "I am a Christian, and nothing vile is done amongst us.” The deacon Sanctus also endured cruel torments with unflinching courage. To all questions that were put to him, he only replied, "I am a Christian." When all the ordinary forms of torture had been exhausted, red-hot plates were applied to the tenderest parts of his body until he appeared a shapeless mass of swollen flesh. Three days later, when he had revived, the same treatment was repeated. (p 455, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, vol 2.)

There was…a woman named Biblias, who was known to be frail and timid. Subjected to torture, however, she woke as it were from a deep sleep, and directly contradicted the blasphemers, saying, "How can those eat children who are forbidden to taste the blood even of brute beasts?” From that moment she confessed herself a Christian and was added to the company of the martyrs. Many of the prisoners, especially the young and untried, died in prison from torture, from the foul atmosphere and from the brutality of their gaolers, but some who had already suffered terribly and seemed at the last gasp, lingered on, confirming the rest. Bishop Pothinus, in spite of his ninety years and manifold infirmities, was dragged before the tribunal amid the railing of the populace. Upon being asked by the governor, “Who was the God of the Christians,” he replied, "If you are worthy, you shall know." Thereupon he was beaten, kicked, and pelted until he was nearly insensible. Two days later he died in prison. (p 456, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, vol 2.)

…Maturus, Sanctus, Blandina and Attalus were exposed to the beasts in the amphitheatre; Maturus and Sanctus ran the gauntlet of whips, endured mauling by beasts, and bore everything else that was done to them at the suggestion of the people. Finally, they were placed on the iron chair and roasted until the odor of their scorched flesh filled the nostrils of the crowd. But their courage never faltered, nor could Sanctus be induced to utter a word except the confession he had made from the beginning. After they had throughout that day supplied not merely the varied entertainment demanded in the games, but a spectacle to the world, they were offered up at last in the sacrifice of their lives. But for Blandina the end had not come yet. She was hung from a stake, to be the prey of the beasts let loose upon her. The sight of her as she hung with outstretched arms like one crucified and the fervor of her prayers put heart into the other combatants. None of the animals would touch her; so she was taken back to prison to await a further contest. Attalus, a man of note, was loudly called for by the crowd and was led round the amphitheater with a tablet borne before him on which was written “This is Attalus the Christian.”

…

From the outset the confessors had given extraordinary evidence of their charity and humility. Though ready to give an explanation of their faith to all, they accused none, but prayed for their persecutors like St Stephen, as well as for their lapsed brethren

And then what happens? Surely all of those Christians who ran in fear, or abandoned their faith, stayed hidden, right? This type of spectacle of torture that pleased the crowd surely made every other Christian cower in fear.

No. The opposite happens. It encourages others, as they see plainly the faith in the heroic fallen, a faith far greater and more meaningful than anything the secular power could offer, and something worth infinitely more than this life here on earth, as dying for Christ’s name echoes in the words and actions of Jesus himself as he told his followers exactly what was to come: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends….It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you…If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first…you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me…Whoever hates me also hates my Father.” (Jn 15:13-27)

A doctor then stands up, and by doing so enters this river of torture, abandoning everything. Suddenly his reputation, his career, his family, his good name no longer matters.

Those who had formerly denied now boldly confessed Christ and were added to the sacred order of those who bore witness. Only those few remained outside who had never been Christians at heart. A physician named Alexander, a Phrygian by birth, was present while they were under examination. He had lived many years in Gaul and was well known for his love of God and for his boldness in spreading the Gospel. Standing close to the dock, he so openly encouraged the prisoners that no one could fail to notice him. The crowd, incensed at the profession of Christianity by those who had previously abjured, raised an outcry against Alexander as the instigator of the change, and the governor asked him who and what he was. "A Christian," was the reply. He was summarily condemned to be thrown to the beasts.

And there’s more. The defense of the faith and the Eucharist continues. The woman named Blandina undergoes ongoing torture and her children are killed before her.

Attalus, when he was being roasted in the iron chair, exclaimed, "This is in truth a consuming of human flesh-and it is you who do it. We neither eat men nor commit any other enormity!" "After all these", continues the letter, "on the last day of the single combats, Blandina was again brought into the amphitheater with Ponticus, a boy of about fifteen. They had been compelled day after day to watch the torture of the rest, and were now urged to swear by the idols. Because they refused and set them at naught, the multitude pitied neither the age of the boy nor the sex of the woman. They exposed them to all the torments, endeavoring unsuccessfully from time to time to induce them to swear. Ponticus, encouraged, as the heathen could see, by the exhortations of his sister, nobly endured every torment and then gave up the ghost. The blessed Blandina last of all, like a mother of high degree, after encouraging her children and sending them on before as victors to the King, hastened to join them-rejoicing and triumphing over her departure as if she had been summoned to a marriage-feast instead of being cast to the beasts. After the scourges, after the wild animals, after the frying-pan, she was thrown at last into a net and exposed to a bull. When she had been tossed for a time by the beast, and was completely upheld by her faith and her communing with Christ as to have become insensible to what was being done to her, she too was immolated, the heathen themselves confessing that they had never known a woman to show such endurance." The bodies of the martyrs were cast into the Rhone that no relic or memory of them might remain on earth. But the record of their glorious victory over death was quickly borne over the sea to the East, and has been handed on by the Church throughout the ages.

The martyrdom of the rest took various forms. In the beautiful words of the letter: "They offered up to the Father a single wreath, but it was woven of divers colors and of flowers of all kinds. It was meet that the noble athletes should endure a varied conflict, and win a great victory that they might be entitled in the end to receive the crown supreme of life everlasting."

Notice, before I wrap this up, that these martyrdoms were not done to be part of the “cult of martyrdom,” where people rush into the fire because it became cool. The “cult of martyrdom” is not from God, but rather the devil, because as soon as it becomes fashionable to be a martyr, it stops being martyrdom. But in days where Christianity is the enemy, like it’s becoming again now in America, witnesses to faith will arise, like Blandina and Attalus. Another Alexander will step into the breach. God doesn’t play our games. He doesn’t pursue being “cool” or seeking worldly status. He ignores those things. The martyrs that get celebrated are the ones that had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, who clung to God in the great storm of their life as representatives of the faith, to show others that the things of this world do not matter, not when compared to the joy of finding peace with Jesus.

A comparison in the Bible is made to silver or gold being purified in the fire. The “dross” leaves the gold or silver when it is heated into liquid and cooled into pure bullion or coins. The dross gets burned away in different ways for different people, as we each have a temperature that we can handle, and God knows exactly that temperature, and will only give us what we can endure. Your temperature is likely much lower than Blandina and Attalus. But recall the words, “By your endurance you will gain your soul.” That is the call to cling to Jesus when everything else burns away, and everyone gets that opportunity, to stand in the furnace, whether it is dramatic or not.

Yes, some people’s dross may be getting burned away by the social ostracism of their workplace, or by getting kicked off of Twitter or Facebook or TikTok. Corporations are asking us to bow to idols and many have done so. Burning away the dross is an ongoing process, as you are conformed to the life of Christ. Mockery and social ostracism and forced agreement is certainly the beginning, and a harbinger of more to come.

What else is new?

The current culture may even be a blessing to Christians in many ways, because it puts us into the same situation as Abraham, who was called out of his homeland. He had to make a choice. To follow the culture or to follow God. That is yet our choice today, the very same as Abraham.

A calling comes to those who God chooses, as the sheep hear his call. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27) Being called out of New York, Los Angeles, or Silicon Valley is a gift. A step in opposition to the culture is the first step toward God, in joining his fold. Even getting kicked off a social media platform can set you free from the chains of technology, and ultimately, the lies of media. Few people today realize the immense campaign against Christianity that has taken place, but once the light strikes you, the billboards and alarms appear everywhere. Only through a massive, coordinated effort has the message of Christ been diluted, and still it rings out to those who hear the call.

Technology gave anti-Christians a tool that Nero, Diocletian, Lenin, and Mao would have loved to have in suppressing the Word of God. They resorted to murdering Christ’s followers, but it is far more effective to talk a person out of his or her faith, than to create martyrs. This is why the main effort now is to silence anyone who speaks the doctrines of the Church, of Christ, because the only other option is to kill them, and that is bad public relations. The bloody option has been tried over and over and failed miserably, and will fail again. One martyr makes a hundred new Christians, like the many-headed Hydra of Greek myth. Many nations have tried the killing spree as the solution to ending the message of Christ, and it has proved ineffective. Governments throughout time have tried to kill the idea of Christ dying on the cross to take away our sins by killing the followers. The governments of Rome, the Ottomans, France, the Soviets, Mexico, and countless others have tried to murder Christ - right up to today in Nigeria where the threshold of genocide has been passed.

The message of Christ persists, despite the massive efforts of the sword. The greatest error any Christian ever made was to think the message of Christ would be delivered by the sword, and any leader that ever claimed otherwise was as confused then as those today who claim that Jesus didn’t command chastity. The spin of Jesus’ words changes with the desires of the era, thus when the lust for conquest and gold seized the minds of men, the false Gospel of the sword seemed a good tool for bringing civilization to savages, just as America has done with the Gospel of democracy, which is yet another false Gospel. So today, the intention of the enemies of the Church is to silence it, to ostracize it, to make it appear evil, because that is all the enemies have. In their attempts to silence and ostracize, they don’t realize that the truth always comes out. It cannot be suppressed by the sword, but neither can it be silenced by the government, for the moment it is prohibited to be Christian, the sheep will again hear his voice. In short, there is no way to suppress God, because, well, he’s God. If God wanted for this to play out through violence, he would, and Jesus even says so.

“Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt 26:52-53)

St. John in writing the apocalypse echoed this, mentioning that prison and death must sometimes be the way that we adhere to God:

“Let anyone who has an ear listen: If you are to be taken captive, into captivity you go; if you kill with the sword, with the sword you must be killed. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” (Rev 13:9-10)

The culture we have now pretends to have sheathed the sword and is trying to defeat the message of Christ with words, with arguments, and often with well-dressed lies and shiny campaigns. To make matters seem worse, we have fallen men and women in the Church, which is not surprising for anyone that understands The Fall and Original Sin. But every tool in the box is being used now to stifle and remove the full message of Christ from society, and to the unbelievers, silence means victory.

The silencing of Christians is the name of the game, not the killing of them. The cancelling of them is the cure. But this will also fail, as this method, too, has been tried time and time again. While the culture attempts to delete and cut out the parts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that don’t fit with the marketing of “Sex sells” and “To each his own,” Christianity is once again having the dross purified from it, and new saints will emerge. The problem with knowing that Jesus is the truth is that everything else that is being sold becomes a cheap trinket, and only those who do not know Jesus would make that trade. The knife of the cancel culture will end up cutting its own arteries because it is wielded by a maniacs, not a skilled surgeon. Napolean and Diocletian and every other emperor has tried and failed, so the internet activists sitting in their houses who can’t leave their phones for five minutes certainly aren’t going to succeed where armies failed.

But as for us who know that the victory is already won, we are free from the honor and shame culture that is re-emerging. No matter what lies and tales are told, the truth stands. This is why merely saying that an unborn baby is a person, a human being, sets the maniacs ablaze with hate. A simple truth such as that exposes the fragility of the lies. In the same way, saying that “God created them male and female” is the new flashpoint, because it is true, for all ages and all people who ever lived.

The mob rule taking shape in America precedes a much larger battle ahead, as spiritual blindness releases the scapegoat mechanism from its pen. But we should fear nothing because God has already won. Our reputations are not our bodies, nor our souls. Reputation is like a third entity that Jesus clearly was willing to let die. In fact, he was even willing to let his body die. What was the one thing he taught us to worry about? Losing our eternal soul. Our bodies are good, but they will be resurrected in the last day. The loss of our reputation can lead to infinite gains. Losing the body, if done for Christ, can do the same. But losing the soul - that is what we must fear losing the most. That is the only one that separates us from God. So in our decision making, the question must become: will the choices I make today draw my soul closer to God, or push me away?

The idea of “cancelling” is just another term for scapegoating, blaming and shaming a perceived enemy for words or ideas. Even the use of word “cancel” speaks much of our age of indifference, as if people were just magazines. But the idea of cancelling does give us a major clue about what our online lives really are: they are not real. In fact, if we are giving an ordering, or primacy, to what matters in life, reputation should be at the bottom of the list, at least if we listen to the words of Jesus (and actually read it and not just the hippy Lebowski version of Jesus). Soul is first. The salvation of souls is why he came here. He did not come to save reputations, otherwise he might have come as Nero. Soul has primacy, then the body, then, time and weather permitting, we can have our reputation. But only if it is ordered to the two Commandments, which have the all-important order of loving God first, and loving others second.

The most notorious scapegoat of all time went by the name of Jesus Christ, and he showed us how to suffer, how to experience a reputation ruined, how to absorb the spread of lies, the false accusations, the mockery, and even whips, beatings, and crucifixion. Much of the time, the death of our reputation is the step we need to be re-born in the spirit, because reputation clouds what truly matters. Our ego, our self, is what gets in the way. You might even say that if we are not getting cancelled from Twitter or Facebook, we are not using those evangelization tools correctly, because the Christian message will not be praised if it’s told properly and with boldness. The only Good News that is from Jesus and the apostles is the one that will get you killed, which is why the Church continues to be so hated.

After all, how much more clear could Jesus be? He warned us. “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first…you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me…Whoever hates me also hates my Father.” (Jn 15:13-27) So whenever the question to go left or go right arises, the right answer is to go up, to lift your eyes to the cross. Jesus preached chastity, poverty, transformative suffering, and even in the face of all that, love for your enemies. That is the answer, the same as it was for Jesus, as it was for the first martyr in St. Stephen, for Peter, for Paul, for Blandina and Attalus, and for us today. When the mobs come from the left or the right, the answer is to carry the cross as Jesus did, and not cave in to the ways of this world, because the freedom that Christ brought is to not fear physical death. Rather, we must fear spiritual death, which is separation from God. “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the online mob is the beginning of eternal punishment. The Christians who came before our era suffered far more - economic exclusion, slander, alienation, and horrific torture - so that we can sit in our churches and complain about a ten minute homily being too long.

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