Jesus’ Witnesses

 

                                                                                                    Letter to Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church

 

As the motto for the World Youth Day in Australia (2008) the Holy Father has chosen the following Jesus’ promise: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to Me (martyres) in Jerusalem… and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

 

The condition to become Jesus’ witness (martyr) was and is to receive the Holy Spirit. This receipt cannot be replaced by anything, neither by piety, nor by ascetism, nor by education. The Apostles as the disciples of Christ forsook all they had for Christ’s sake (see Lk 14:33). Represented by John under the cross they received Jesus’ Mother as their own (see Jn 19:25-27). The risen Christ appeared to them and spoke with them several times (cf. Lk 24:13ff; Jn 20; Jn 21). On the fourtieth day after His resurrection, when He was visibly leaving this earth, He promised to give them His Spirit. Only then they would have become His witnesses. This was fulfilled in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost. That was where the Apostles witnessed first. In response to their testimony 3.000 people were converted within one day. A testimony by word, connected with the receipt of the Holy Spirit, was later connected with the second stage of testimony, namely with a testimony of life, of those who had believed. “The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.” (Acts 4:32) The mutual human relationships were founded on evangelical purity: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8) People outside their community could see that God was in the midst of them, and the external sign of it was pure and unselfish love among them. It used to be said: Look as they love each other. God confirmed this testimony of word and life by great wonders and signs (cf. Acts 5:12.15; 9:36ff; 14:3 etc.).

 

These Jesus’ witnesses were forced to form a closed community, in order not to merge with the world (see Acts 2:40). On the other hand, however, they were opened, so that in the power of God they could witness before the whole world of salvation which is in Jesus. The substance of the Gospel’s testimony was and is – to point to the reality of sin and to Jesus who, dying and rising from the dead, conquered sin and death and obtained for us eternal life.

 

Fr. Tom Forest wrote: “If an angel appeared to me to grant one wish of mine for the sake of the Church, I would wish the following: THAT THE FIRST PLACE IN THE Catholic Church should again be given to the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because of this knowledge the martyrs were dying and the missionaries were making greatest sacrifices!”

 

Jesus died for my personal sins which condemned me to eternal death. He is my Saviour. “There is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4:12), Jesus is “God from God ... true God from true God” (the Creed). He is the Resurrection and the Life (see Jn 11:25). He who believes in Jesus will be saved, he who does not believe will be condemned (cf. Mk 16:16). That is the substance of the good news – my salvation and life in Christ. In Him is also my deliverance from the slavery of sin (cf. Jn 8:36). Yoga and zenbuddhist meditations, psychotechniques or Freud’s psychoanalysis will not rid anyone either of the guilt or of the slavery of sin. The only One who will rid me of my sins is Jesus. The Apostle Peter witnessed in the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, that Jesus had died for our sins and that He had risen from the dead. God’s Spirit, who was in Peter, descended through that testimony not just on the Gentile Cornelius but also on all his friends.

 

The Apostle Paul likewise witnessed of the experience he had gained when he had been converted and had received Jesus and His Spirit and had thus become Jesus’ witness. In response to this he was exposed to persecution by the Jewish hierarchy who intended to kill him.

 

Everyone who wants to become a true witness to Jesus must do what was done by the Apostles: be converted, receive Jesus Christ, commit all his life to Him, and then receive in fullness the Holy Spirit! Nothing more and nothing less. Today Christ’s witness must break with the spirit of this world, with the spirit of the New Age, with historic-critical theology (HCT), with false interreligious dialogue and with the gesture in Assisi (1986 and 2002) which is practically abused to liquidate whatever mission. A true witness was the Apostle Paul (see his epistles), a true witness was the Apostle John (see his gospel, his epistles and the Apocalypse), and true witnesses were the other Apostles, too.

 

Death for Christ’s sake

 

The first two stages of testimony – by word and by life – are often bloodless martyrdom. The third stage is bloody martyrdom – death for Christ’s sake! St. Stephen, the first martyr, became the first such witness for Christ’s sake in the community in Jerusalem. He was stoned to death (see Acts 6-7) by those who regarded themselves as religious elite and as representatives of God on earth. Afterwards, they joined with the political power and removed the next witness, the Apostle James, whom Herod let be killed with the sword. Finally, all the Apostles, disciples of Jesus, became not only witnesses by their word and life, but they also sealed their testimony with a martyr’s death. They were followed by the next generation of witnesses. These no longer faced resistance from the Jews only but even from pagans by whom Christians were being tortured and killed. In the year 65, when Nero had set Rome on fire, a cruel persecution of Christians started throughout the Roman Empire, which continued until the 4th century. The paganism was mercilessly killing women, children as well as old people because they believed in Jesus.

 

We live in times when within the Church there is such theology being officially taught which casts doubt upon the fundamental truth that Christ is God and the only Saviour and that the Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Therefore the greatest problem today is to witness before the apostate Christians, priests, religious and hierarchy to the living Jesus, to the fact that every one of them must be converted. To their own detriment they make themselves believe that having been baptized and having finished theological studies they are automatically saved. It is even falsely supposed that having received clerical or episcopal consecration they automatically became saints. It is a big mistake. This existential lie leads to hell. In the Marian apparition in Ukraine (Dzhublik 2002) the children saw heaven and hell. To the question whether they had also seen bishops there, they replied: “There were many of them in hell. In heaven there were only those who had died as witnesses of faith (martyres).” The believers in Medugorje were invited through the Mother of God to sacrifice half their prayers and fasts for their bishop and Church superiors. Unless bishops turn away from the spirit of the world and from the worldly lifestyle, and unless in humility, as the penitent criminal, they surrender their hypocrisy, their blindness and their sins to Jesus, they will be condemned (cf. Lk 13:3). The worst of it is that many of them do not want to be Jesus’ witnesses, do not want to be converted and do not allow conversion and salvation to others, either. To them applies the God’s Word: “Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.” (Mt 13:15)

 

Testimony as viewed by the Holy Scripture

 

The Apostles first witnessed to Jesus in Jerusalem. Therefore even we must first begin to witness in the Church. Jesus clearly foretold that they would not accept us and many would stand against: “In one house two will be divided against three, father against son, mother against daughter...” (Lk 12:52-53), and further Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues (and out of the schools, too); yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.” (Jn 16:1-3) The Apostle John writes: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain... for the testimony which they held... Then a white robe was given to each of them... and to their brethren, who would be killed as they were.” (Rev 6:9-11) The dragon made war with those who had received Jesus’ Mother and “who have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev 12:17). The Apostle John writes: “Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ...” (Rev 20:4) Paul witnesses to Jesus who appeared to him and said to him: “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a witness... I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, 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) Jesus Himself says of the necessity to witness to Him: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 10:33) “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” (Mt 10:18) “Do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Lk 12:11-12) Jesus does not speak here about any interreligious dialogue, He clearly says that we are to witness to Him even at the price of persecution or death. And this attitude remains unchanged even for these days.

 

Today, just like in the past, beside the Holy Scripture every family needs a book of the lives of saints and martyrs – these are the true witnesses of faith. These lives of saints, however, must be written in the Spirit of God, as a testimony of faith. So they can be written only by someone who himself is a Jesus’ witness and has the Holy Spirit in fullness, and in no way by the historians of HCT. On the other hand, Jesus’ witnesses must nowadays fight against the system which has contaminated with spiritual poison not only Christian literature but also theology. This concerns above all religious-psychological books (e.g. Anselm Grün). Unfortunately, even many books with imprimatur contain this poison (J. Sobrino etc.).

 

Examples of testimonies

 

God’s Word gives us a pattern how we are to learn in humility to fight against the enemies of the Church. An example is the prophet Elijah. After three and a half years of hiding, prayers and fasting for the spiritual awakening of the nation, he comes back to his native country. He meets the king Ahab who on the advice of his wife Jezebel allowed the Lord’s prophets to be slain. Ahab arrogantly said to the prophet: “Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel?” Elijah did not fall into false humility, nor did he open himself to fear or to the spirit that was behind Ahab, but replied to him promptly: “I have not troubled Israel; but you have and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals!” (1Kings 18:17-18). Even we should be able to reply with the same promptness and thus to beat off all arrogant attacks of enemies.

 

Today in the world the spirit of lie and death liquidates all that is connected with Jesus and with moral values. He acts with professional suggestiveness and arrogance. In the Church this spirit has got incarnate in the clergy and hierarchy and with the same professional and suggestive arrogance he is promoting the lie of HCT and the spirituality of the New Age. To kill the defenceless sheep he abuses obedience and sincerity! That is why the Church needs true Jesus’ witnesses who will stand against this spirit of lie and death in the light and power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Ex.: A liberal priest is liquidating the parish, destroying the living communities and psychologically killing the strongest spiritual individuals, who are not in agreement with him, with the words: “You are ruining the parish, it’s time you finished this false religiousness.” The faithful out of false humility becomes silent, ceases fighting, gets embittered against the Church and against God, or leaves the Church. If he is defending spiritual life and faith, he should not be afraid and he should say: “Reverend father, I am not ruining the parish, but you are, you should finish at last that false religiousness of yours. Either be converted, or leave! You are not a shepherd but a wolf.”

 

Ex.: How to respond when a liberal theologian, who denies the Divinity of Christ as well as His resurrection, attacks a student who is defending the apostolic faith? He tells him for example: “You are an infestant within the Church, you are not obeying the Church, you are against the Holy Father!” The student should say boldly: “I am not, but you, professor, are an infestant within the Church, you are not obeying the Church, you are against the Holy Father!” What would follow? The student would most probably be expelled, it might even be from his last year. However, it should be the liberal professor who ought to be expelled. Supposing that this blameless student is expelled and punished in that he is defending the sound Catholic faith and the Church, the blame falls on the coward bishop since he has not stood up for a true witness of faith. The student was not arrogant, but he was a hero defending Jesus and witnessing to Him. Saint Klement Hoffbauer as a student in a similar situation acted as follows: He stood up and said loudly: “Professor, this no longer is the Catholic doctrine!”, he slammed the door and left the classroom. This is a testimony of faith!

 

Similarly, they demagogically repeat against the Jesus’ witnesses that they are disobedient! Suffice it to ask: In what concretely, when, where? And then to add the conclusion: Not we are, but you are disobedient to God, to the Gospel and to the Pope!

 

A witness to Christ, that is a God’s fighter. He defends the defenceless and also defends the fundamental truths of faith which are the way to eternal life. This is the supreme and the noblest ideal. This spiritual fight involves whole man, many times it takes place only secretly in the human heart, and that against spirits of lie, heresy, fear and unbelief.

 

An older priest recalls the time in the seminary: “There was one seminarist there who gathered round him the weak and indecisive and artfully quenched in them the last feeble flames of faith. All knew that but had fear of him. I knew then that I had to stand up for the defenceless. Almost all the night I spent praying and seeking God’s will. The next morning after the liturgy I explicitly told him a short sentence: ‘X., you are a murderer of souls!’ and I went back to the chapel. Soon afterwards, I was called up by the rector. Both the rector and the spiritual director reprimanded me and thereafter they sent him behind the door. The spiritual director was absorbed in thought and then said: ‘You told him well, you can go!’ A year after his ordination this student left priesthood! I know that what I did then was a testimony for the sake of Jesus, even though it was counter to the bon ton of the then seminary.”

 

We are obliged to witness not only to Jesus but also to the law of God, the Decalogue. The theologians of HCT consider the Decalogue a period code of nomadic tribes, which, they say, is no longer the Word of God and is no longer binding for us, either. A true Jesus’ witness, on the other hand, accepts the Decalogue as the law of God.

 

God’s laws of the Decalogue witness against abortions and euthanasia, which are a murder of human being. They witness against murder and self-murder, against moral impurity which ruins the individual and the families. They witness against homosexuality, pre-marital intimate life, against drugs, alcoholism, corruption, bribery, hedonism, various addictions. The First Commandment of the Decalogue is against occultism and false spirituality which hides behind apparently innocent philosophies, psychologies, alternative medicine, various meditations, relaxations, spiritual energies, so-called cosmic channels, divination, magic, spiritism etc. Unless a Christian breaks with these practices, he has actually not been converted and further remains in the slavery of the prince of darkness (cf. Eph 2:2). If a Christian has the spirit of this world, he is no witness to Jesus, quite the contrary, by his life, his attitude and word he holds an opposite testimony.

 

On true testimony depends the salvation of many (cf. Rom 10:13-14). For this testimony for the sake of Christ and of the Gospel the Apostle Paul suffered persecution and finally was killed, similarly as the other Apostles and similarly as hundreds of thousands of martyrs – witnesses (martyres) up to the present days.

 

So we are to witness to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit first in Jerusalem (in the Catholic Church) and finally before all nations. This is the command of the Saviour which obliges everyone. This testimony cannot and must not be replaced by any interreligious dialogue!

 

Conclusion

 

On the threshold of the third millennium we are obliged to witness before the whole world to the living Jesus, in Him only is salvation and eternal life. Every one of us will render accounts of this duty before the Judgement of God. If you had living faith and obeyed Jesus and His Gospel, many of those who will be in hell would not have to be there! Realize before God and before all people this responsibility of yours!

 

The testimony in Jerusalem (in the Church) is the most difficult one. Even Paul the Apostle experienced this from the part of his own nation and from the false brothers (see 2Cor 11:24-28), and mainly from the part of the Church hierarchy which usurped God’s authority. Even nowadays this authority is often used for killing Jesus’ witnesses!

 

As the motto for the World Youth Day in Australia (2008) the Holy Father has chosen Jesus’ promise: “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to Me (martyres) in Jerusalem… and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The condition to become Jesus’ witness (martyr) was and is to receive the Holy Spirit.

 

My Lord Jesus Christ, You shed Your blood and sacrificed Your life for my sake. My Lord and my God, grant to me that I may also be willing to do the same for Your sake and thus to become Your witness (martyr). Amen.

 

In Christ,

                Fr. Eliáš A. Dohnal ThD. OSBM

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

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

                Fr. Markian V. Hitiuk ThLic. OSBM

 

Pidhirtsi 21st September 2007

 

Copy to: His Holiness Benedict XVI