The fruit of the new spirit: martyres

 

                                                                                                    Letter to Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church

 

Introduction:

Nowadays to become a true disciple of Christ the Christian must open him/herself fully to the Holy Spirit and become a true witness and a true martyr. Half-hearted Christianity which has opened itself to the spirit of the world leads to decay, death and eternal perdition. The true pattern of Christianity for us is the hundreds of thousands of martyrs, then the apostles, particularly St. Paul, and above all our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

His word refers even to us: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be My witnesses (martyres).” (Acts 1:8)

 

Baptism with the Holy Spirit

 

The greatest prophet called: “I baptize you with water, but He who is coming after me, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 3:11) What does baptism with the Holy Spirit mean? What does the Greek word “baptidzein” (to baptize) mean? That word was connected with the colouring of cloths. For example a piece of white cloth on a stick was dipped into a vessel with red dye and when taken out it was already red. The white cloth took on a new substance.

 

The religious meaning of the word “baptidzo” is to receive a new spiritual substance: “As baptized into Christ you have put on Christ.” (Gal 3:27) The Holy Scripture speaks about baptism of repentance, sacramental baptism, baptism with the Holy Spirit, baptism with fire and baptism with blood.

 

To the question who it is that baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire John the Baptist replies: Jesus. So only Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and that even nowadays. When did the apostles receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit? On the day of Pentecost, namely in Jerusalem.

 

For the expression of this spiritual experience the Scripture also uses the term: the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 10:45), fullness of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5; 7:55; 13:52). Today one also uses the term: renewal in the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit especially in the evening before His death: see Jn 14-16. He says: “The Holy Spirit dwells with you and will be in you.” (Jn 14:17) The condition that the Holy Spirit could be with us is the sacramental baptism with water. The condition that the Holy Spirit could be also in us is repentance (cf. Acts 2:38). These two conditions were valid in the times of the apostles and are valid even nowadays. Apostle Peter said to the Jewish believers who came to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost: “You killed Jesus (you are murderers of God).” (cf. Acts 2:36) These people could rightly feel affronted since on the Good Friday they had apparently not been in Jerusalem at all. Yet their response: “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter: ‘What shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37) To be cut to the heart and to seek the will of God in sincerity, that is repentance! Those who gladly received the word of God were baptized and received the promised gift of the Spirit, there were 3000 of them (cf. Acts 2:41). This is the beginning and the fundament of the Church: receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit through repentance.

 

Serving as a picture of repentance and baptism with the Holy Spirit is a bottle floating on the surface of a lake. Water is around it but not in it. We have to pull out the plug and then water will  not only be around it but even inside it. What is this plug – this obstacle? What to repent of? It may be that one got under the power of magic and divination or some kind of inordinate dependence, that one opened oneself to the spirit of some philosophy, lost a living faith and a living relation to Jesus, or opened oneself to the spirit of liberalism, atheism, it may be one’s fear of truth, fear of humiliation…, or practical unbelief. Repentance is a step of faith. Example: When instructors organize courses for parachutists, they theoretically explain to them what they have to do in order to have the parachute opened, and then one day they take off in a plane and are to jump with parachute for the first time. More often than not it look as follows – the beginner looks down and shrinks back with fright; however, the instructor sometimes helps by deftly nudging him and the beginner has no other choice than to try the theory and the parachute gets opened. This service of instructor can be provided by a community which has already gone through this experience. There is no more space to write here about gifts and services (Rom 12:6-8; 1Cor 12+14). Let us just take notice of Acts 1:8 - of the word ‘martyr’. For what purpose do we need the Holy Spirit? Jesus said: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be My witnesses (martyres).” (Acts 1:8) We are to witness to Jesus by word, life and even by suffering (death). And right this is not possible without the Holy Spirit! “Noone can say: ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit.” (1Cor 12:3) So that Jesus could be the Lord first in our life, we need the Holy Spirit. If we did not receive Him in fullness, then our Lord is not Jesus but our dependence (slavery) on people, things, false fear.

 

In the historic-critical theology (HCT) and in the respect for other religions there practically is no belief in Jesus as the Son of God and as the only Saviour. Behind this philosophical or theological attitude there is not the Spirit of God but a different spirit, and in this field we have to repent! This unbelief which is behind these attitudes is a sin. “Sin is that they do not believe in Me.” (cf. Jn 16:9)

 

“The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin” (Jn 16:8). Without the Holy Spirit we are blind, unable to perceive sin, viz many theologians who opened themselves to the spirit of the world are no more leaders but misleaders. Only the Holy Spirit can guide us into all the truth. Even to apostles Jesus is saying before His death: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (Jn 16:12) One can paraphrase His words like this: “I have been with you for three years, but you are spiritually blind and not able to receive many truths. You have seen miracles, you have some faith; however, your minds are still earthly. If I said to you a sharp truth, you could not bear it.” Then Jesus shows a solution: “However, when He, the Holy Spirit, has come, He will guide you into all the truth.” (Jn 16:13) This is fully valid not only for the apostles of that time yet even for the apostles who are living now, in the 3rd millenium after Christ – for bishops, theologians and all who want to be Christ’s disciples but have not yet wholly opened themselves to the Holy Spirit.

 

Mission

 

Witnessing to Jesus as to the only Saviour and Lord leads to salvation of immortal souls which are thus delivered from the power of darkness (Col 1:13) and from the power of satan (Acts 26:18). This mission can be performed only in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are also false missions behind which there is a different spirit. A true mission is connected with bloodless or bloody martyrdom. Every Christian should witness to Jesus. “How are they to believe in Him (Jesus) of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14). Regrettably, instead of a spirit of evangelization and reevangelization, “thanks to” so-called theologians the Church is nowadays ruled by a spirit of antievangelization appealing to the so-called respect for other religions (Nostra aetate).

 

V. Messori points out the following problem: “In the years after the council the crisis of identity and the loss of motivation impacted most sensitively upon the very missionaries. Cardinal J. Ratzinger explains it: ‘The old traditional teaching of the Church includes an opinion that every man is called to salvation and de facto can be saved under the precondition that he/she duly obeys the orders of his/her conscience and that even if he/she is not a visible member of the Catholic Church. However, since the time of the last council this teaching began to be excessively highlighted, being connected with interpretations such as the theory of ‘an anonymous Christian’… Nowadays many theologians are already considering non-Christian religions (paganism) to be regular ways to salvation.’” No doubt the statement of these theologians is heretical, it contradicts the word of God and the tradition of the Church. With regard to this topic another cardinal pronounced: “The pagans can be saved, but they do not have certainty. The money for one’s own and the family’s subsistence one can earn either by proper employment or by lottery. The pagans can be saved, but, but, but and again but. Their salvation is similar to lottery, whereas we have salvation secured in Christ. Therefore we are obliged to preach Christ and the Gospel in season and out of season (cf. 2Tim 4:2f),” and woe to us if we are not going to do so (cf. 1Cor 9:16).

 

To be a witness – a disciple (martyres) – to witness to Jesus

 

In relation to the Holy Spirit Jesus points at the need to be His witness and to witness to Him: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

 

After being baptized with water and with the Holy Spirit St. Paul becomes a witness to Jesus: “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness to Me…, to open their eyes (of the Gentiles and the Jews), in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:16-18)

 

What was the testimony that the apostles and Paul bore? “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1Jn 5:11-12)

 

Apostle Paul admits: “Testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, I called them to turn to God and to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:21)

 

So not only Jews, but even Mohammedans, hinduists, buddhists, animists, and even apostatized Christians must receive Jesus Christ as their Lord, in order to be saved. And following the example of Paul the Apostle we are obliged to preach Christ to them, and not to invent theories of anonymous Christians. Jesus said: “Go to all nations” (Mt 28:19), He did not say: “Sit down and invent theories how to frustate God’s word”! On the contrary, Jesus is urging a testimony: “Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.” (Acts 23:11) This is topical especially nowadays: To testify about living Jesus in Rome at Catholic universities to all theologians, and at dicasteries to all office-holders!

 

For such testimony one must often pay with life: “Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.” (Rev 20:4)

 

To be a witness means to be a martyr – martyres. We are to witness to Christ by word, by life and even by our death. Physical death is only once. Here spirit and soul will be divided from body. Spiritual death is a division of spirit from soul and body! We are to go through this spiritual death time and again, namely as long as we are in the body, in time and in this world. “We are always being given up to Christ’s death (for the sake of Christ and His Gospel).” (2Cor 4:10f) “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (Mt 5:3) That means that spirit is divided from the riches of soul, from various fears and wishes as well as from body and its lusts. This is spiritual martyrdom. Many times it is even harder than physical one. We go through this martyrdom even when we have to stand up for the truth and justice against the system of the world which is governed by fraud and deceit, and when we are to keep righteous. One can likewise speak of such bloodless martyrdom in relation to the sphere of moral purity (6th and 9th Commandments).

 

Lives of martyrs

 

The apostles witnessed to Jesus and for this testimony all of them paid with their life, they were true martyres – martyrs. Peter crucified with his head downwards, Paul beheaded with sword, Bartholomew skinned alive, Andrew dying three days on the cross, Thomas stabbed with lance. Until the 4th century rivers of martyrs’ blood were shed, this becoming the seed of next Christians.

 

In the novel Quo Vadis there is a scene: During the night a small group of Christians gathers along with the apostle Peter. There is a voice heard: “I had one daughter, the praetorians dishonoured and killed her, and God was silent on it.” Another voice: “They imprisoned and killed my husband and son, and God was silent on it.” And there are several more voices heard and all of them end in the same way: “And God was silent on it.” At last the apostle Peter stands up and says: “I was on Golgotha when they were killing God’s Son, I could hear the blows of hammers, I could hear His painful groans and see as He was dying in powerlessness, abandonment and shame, and God was silent on it. But on the third day He was raised from the dead and appeared to us! Dying, He conquerred death. You, father, will meet your daughter in the kingdom of heaven and there she is purer than a lily of Hermon. And you, woman, will meet your husband and your son. There will still be rivers of your blood running, but I say to you that you have overcome!”

 

More than 50 years ago an 8-year-old boy was reading lives of saints. The lives of martyrs were written in such a way that he also longed to die for Jesus. What a spirit there was behind these lives of martyrs! These authors themselves had the Spirit of God, and the testimony of faith of the martyrs was at the same time their personal testimony. Today after a so-called scientific revision of the lives of saints the spirit of the world by help of so-called specialists has driven out the Spirit of God and brought in spiritual death, similarly as it has been done with the Bible by help of “specialists” in historic-critical theology (HCT).

 

Ukrainian martyrs

 

Martyrdom is not seen only in the time of the first three centuries but through the whole history of the Church.

Our Ukrainian Church was liquidated for 44 years (1946-1990), and there were hundreds of martyrs. In 2001 23 martyrs were beatified, these being mostly bishops, religious brothers and sisters, not taking into account a number of faithful priests and believers who in the prisons in Siberia had laid down their lives for Christ. There could be numbers of books written as a testimony but the fact is that there has not been a single book written that would fill the young generation with enthusiasm for Christ and for our identity. Why? Because throughout the 16 years of freedom there has been a policy of liquidation of our martyrish Church promoted (see Balamand). This is a crime upon our Church! One needs to put a question: Who is responsible for this? And one also needs to put another question: What to do in particular that a change of the spirit could come and an awakening could arise? Who concentrates the spirit of betrayal to UGCC? It is Cardinal L. Husar, Fr. Dr. I. Datsko, Fr. B. Gudzyak, s. Dia Stasiuk! All four came here from USA and all have the spirit of the New Age which they came to transplant here in place of living Christ! And what is more, they are disguising themselves by the authority of martyrs and of the Holy Father! What rudeness! What artfulness! Who in UGCC in Ukraine is nowadays able to bring in the Spirit of God? Only the one who has Him! Not the one who has Him not! The spirit of liberalism concentrated behind the term “vsich  vas pravoslavnych chrystyjan” (“all of you Orthodox Christians” – i.e. members of the Orthodox Church) even by means of seminaries and novitiates is already bringing up a new generation of priests and religious who have nothing in common not only with our identity but with Christ either!

 

“The Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth”: The point is not just theoretical consent to the truth without any personal engagement. The Divine truths are not indifferent like the ones in mathematics. These truths touch our innermost human essence and accepting them is the condition of our salvation. Yet supposing that we reject them, they become the cause of our condemnation, so what is here at stake is eternity! Cardinal question: What is the sense of life? Why suffering? Without the view of eternity there is no answer!

 

Apologetics

 

Who nowadays defends Christ and His mystical body and how? How are bishops defending Him? How is Christ defended by professors of theology? How is He defended by religious and priests?

 

No apologetics either in seminary or in practice?! Sects and the spirit of heresy may liquidate souls with impunity, and the shepherds are sleeping! They cannot discern a wolf from a sheep! That is why it is inevitable to renew the authority of prophets who will be responsible for mission and apologia of the faith! We have to adopt the spirit of martyrs, to be witnesses – martyres, and if the Lord will not grant us that we might shed our blood for Jesus’ sake then we must at least be bloodless martyrs. Every Christian should be such bloodless martyr in such a way that he/she should stand up against the spirit of the world which is putting pressure on us by ridicule, restraint, persecution etc. What nowadays means for a young man to a be a bloodless martyr is e.g. only the very fact that he/she keeps the crown of purity amidst this perverse and demoralized world. This cannot be attained passively, the young must have a clear ideal anchored in Christ, with a view to the final aim – to eternity and for its sake they have to fight with the sin, with the lusts within themselves. Not just to identify and normalize the sin as it was done by Freud and his adherents with their “libido”.

 

The people of God must be people bold to walk against the stream, people with the courage to suffer humiliation, scorn and ridicule for Christ’s sake. Jesus has not brought (false) peace, but a sword. “In one house there will be three against two and two against three.” (Lk 12:51f) A man of courage was Paul the Apostle, he was persecuted, stoned and beaten with rods by the Church hierarchy as well as by pagans, and finally he was killed for Christ similarly as all true prophets and martyrs.

 

“When the Counsellor comes, the Spirit of truth, He will bear witness to Me. And you also will bear witness… They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering service to God. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me!” (Jn 15:26f)

 

One needs to reckon this especially nowadays when the Church is ruled by the spirit of this world. Liberal theologians are inventing their own theories by which they frustrate the Divine laws and the Divine truths, and, regrettably to say, some bishops are tacitly giving their consent to it! We ask: How long? How long will HCT be taught at theological faculties? How long will students be deceived and misled by so-called respect for other religions and how long will the Church be ruled by the spirit of the world, whereas the Holy Spirit and the true teaching of the Church will be boycotted? The spirit of the world is indeed very rude! As soon as in the Church there is something living in the bud, the supporters of this spirit, many times even shielded by the Church hierarchy, start spreading slanders and lies among people in order to isolate them from the source of true faith and true way. If that concerns a team they call them a sect, if it concerns an individual they call him mentally ill – a fool. Yet here one can say: “Whoever says to his brother ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Mt 5:22) The term fool was addressed to Jesus several times. “People were saying: ‘He is out of His mind.’” (Mk 3:21) “Many (of the Jews) said: ‘He has a demon and is mad.’” (Jn 10:19-20; 7:20; 8:48) This they said about our Lord and Saviour. Are we also willing to accept these titles for the sake of Jesus? St. Paul said: “I fought with beasts.” (1Cor 15:32) The greatest enemy is the old self! Whoever has not been converted and become a witness – a martyr of Christ, is in the camp of the world and is an enemy of Christ and His cross (Phil 3:18). These enemies inside the Church declare that mission is unnecessary – God is love, He cannot condemn anyone, therefore we have to tolerate other ways to salvation. This is a lie. “There is salvation in noone else”, only in Christ (Acts 4:12). The Apostle calls: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1Cor 9:16) St. Paul is to us a model of bishop, priest, disciple, and he writes to us: “You are engaged in the same conflict which you saw and now hear to be mine.” (Phil 1:21f) “I am conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead… Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind… Brethren, join in following my example. Note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern…” (Phil 3:10f)

 

Conclusion:

Nowadays to become a true disciple of Christ the Christian must open him/herself fully to the Holy Spirit.

The true pattern of Christianity for us is the hundreds of thousands of martyrs, then the apostles, particularly St. Paul, and above all our Lord Jesus Christ Himself!

His word refers even to us today: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be My witnesses (martyres).” (Acts 1:8)

 

Elaborated by:

                        Fr. Cyril J. Špi?ík ThD. Ing. OSBM

                        Fr. Metod?j R. Špi?ík ThD. OSBM

                        Fr. Eliáš A. Dohnal ThD. OSBM

                        Fr. Markian V Hitiuk ThLic. OSBM

 

Pidhirtsi 29th June 2006

 

Copy to:

His Holiness Benedict XVI.