A Journey into my Faith
I've been following "Epic: A Journey through Church history," as part of a Bible study course at my parish. Quite an eye-opener I must say. I'm learning about the difficult and painful path our Church fathers had to follow in order to keep the Church alive; how much it was asked of them for the sake of the Church and their faith; the unspeakable torments they had to endure in those early days.
I can't help but wonder what drives a human being to inflict such torture on another--what deviant minds can fashion such horrific modes of punishment (is it the Devil at work there perhaps?)?
Would I be that brave and strong to endure all that our martyrs and saints endured for their faith? I try to put myself in that situation and cannot help but come up short of those expectations. No; I know for a fact that I would not have been strong enough to withstand such tortures; I probably would've given in; renounced my faith, done whatever it took to save my hide (or that or my loved ones). An eye-opener indeed! What a weakling I'd be. And how humbling the realization.
I marvel at the privilege of living at a time (and place) where my faith won't get me killed--at least not here (at least not now).
I can't help but wonder what drives a human being to inflict such torture on another--what deviant minds can fashion such horrific modes of punishment (is it the Devil at work there perhaps?)?
Would I be that brave and strong to endure all that our martyrs and saints endured for their faith? I try to put myself in that situation and cannot help but come up short of those expectations. No; I know for a fact that I would not have been strong enough to withstand such tortures; I probably would've given in; renounced my faith, done whatever it took to save my hide (or that or my loved ones). An eye-opener indeed! What a weakling I'd be. And how humbling the realization.
I marvel at the privilege of living at a time (and place) where my faith won't get me killed--at least not here (at least not now).
seems like lately I read a lot about atrocities, imposed by governments towards enemies, towards its own citizens, etc. Its' simple to know what to do, but hard to implement. To be alive is to be complicit in horror.
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