By Rev. Glenn Jones

Did you see the news story about a nativity statue being returned to a church 90 years after it was stolen? Stealing from a church, and thus from God; THAT can’t end well! This reminded of the scriptural story of 1 Samuel 4-6 and the Philistines’ plagues resulting from taking the Ark of the Covenant, ending only after they had returned it to the Israelites. Maybe something similar happened to the one who took the statue in the first place; who knows? And so … maybe someone will have pangs of conscience and return the small orange-colored statue of St. Francis that was taken the other night from the fountain in front of our church. Sigh.

Conscience: that inner arbiter of good and evil, virtue and vice. We turn the deaf ear to conscience so often when there is some gain for ourselves, regardless of damage or injustice for others. Most of the suppressing of conscience is done in smaller things: going a tad over the speed limit, the “little white lie”, etc. But suppression of conscience can become increasingly habitual, serious and even criminal: that “harmless” flirting becoming adultery, that little cheating becoming full-blown larceny, “soft porn” eventually leading to child porn.

Similarly with bullying, a topic receiving much attention nowadays because of some tragic suicides of young victims. In middle and high school, anyone diverging from popular conceptions of “cool” are often targets of such ill-treatment. As a heavy kid, I got some of that; fortunately, being bigger than most, teasing was pretty good natured. But some kids were tormented constantly, called “too fat/ugly/stupid/weak!” or some other callous insult. Even reluctant bystanders could be tempted to suppress conscience and join such unjust treatment to gain acceptance (or, at least, to avoid being themselves targeted) by the “cool” crowd. Most of us remember such things.

I was thinking about that in a scripture (apocrypha for you non-Catholic/Orthodox Christians) reading at daily Mass the other day, which had an apt description of the attitude of the vicious (as in, “doers of vice”) toward those who try to be virtuous—jaw-grinding, barely-disguised contempt: “Let us beset the just one, because he is inconvenient to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training…To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others…he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure…Let us see whether his words be true…With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.” (from Wisdom, chapter 2)

Remember the grade school bullying of the “goody two-shoes” or the “teacher’s pet”, for no other reason than they were approved, while the troublesome were censured? And yet … such disdain, resentment, and even hatred, continue throughout life. The less-productive/amenable employee will often be jealous of one more greatly valued by the employer, resulting in the gossip, detraction and even sabotage of the latter’s work, and the former’s seeking allies in their mission of damaging, or even destroying, the reputation of the other.

We may have ourselves tried to recruit someone to do a wrong, and if refused, becoming angry … refusal being tantamount to accusation. That’s because we love comradery and acceptance, and those who commit crimes or do evil find in such comradery approval otherwise lacking.  Refusal to join is tacit condemnation … and we don’t like that. Disapproval of the bad by the good stings deeply, because the evildoer/evil-planner knows he is doing wrong, but surrenders to the call of passions despite the constant rebuke of conscience.

And so, as the reading above describes, a virtuous person’s mere existence often chafes and annoys those who fall into vice, because the good is a constant and visible goad to the evildoer’s conscience—a reminder to of his own weakness in failing to uphold what is right and good. The good man may even simply mind his own business, but the evil man may be unable to endure it, and plot ways to hurt, ridicule, slander or prey upon him.

Yes … this is simply part of the cross of following the good; for Christians, of following Jesus Christ. As He says: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…If they persecuted me, they will persecute you…” (John 15:18-20)

So, there will be times when those who try to follow Christ faithfully are sneered at and despised.

Thus, it takes courage to stay faithful to God and to the Good. The saints and martyrs knew that, and yet remained faithful. The question becomes: Will WE remember that, and remain faithful?  To aid us, we remember Jesus’ exhortation to love our enemies, and to pray for our persecutors … and, when challenged, to find strength in His promise: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven…” (Matthew 5:11-12)