{"id":75,"date":"2015-02-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/02\/woe-to-me-if-i-do-not-preach-the-gospel.html"},"modified":"2015-02-09T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T09:00:00","slug":"woe-to-me-if-i-do-not-preach-the-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/02\/woe-to-me-if-i-do-not-preach-the-gospel.html","title":{"rendered":"Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Before starting the Vigil Mass for Palm Sunday two years I decided to check the headlines on a Catholic news website. \u00a0My heart stood still as I read towards the bottom of the page, \u201cSyrian priest kidnapped as war rages on.\u201d \u00a0During my time in seminary I became a very close friend of two Syrian seminarians from Aleppo. \u00a0Throughout the three years that we studied together in Rome I oftentimes compared the conditions that awaited me in the United States and those that awaited them in Syria. \u00a0Any personal challenge I foresaw was quickly crushed by considering the challenges they would face by returning to Aleppo. \u00a0I admired their courage and bravery. \u00a0It could have been easier for them to go minister elsewhere, but they put into practice the sentiments of Saint Paul, \u201cwoe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!\u201d \u00a0They returned home fearless to preach the Gospel to their own people.<\/p>\n

I hesitantly clicked on the headline and to my horror saw a picture of Father Michel Kayal wearing red vestments. \u00a0I will never forget that picture. \u00a0My heart sank and I shed a few tears. \u00a0I immediately emailed my other friend, Antoine, and he responded confirming the sad news. \u00a0On February 9th, 2013, (two years from tomorrow) Father Kayal and a Greek Orthodox priest were taken off a bus by rebels near Damascus and they were never seen again.<\/p>\n

At first the kidnappers demanded $250,000 and the release of fifteen imprisoned rebels. \u00a0After a few weeks they only asked for money. \u00a0As more weeks went by, contact ceased and attempts to make a deal ended. \u00a0For almost two years now there has been no news about my friend a part from a brief phone call he was allowed to make to his mother one week after his kidnapping. <\/p>\n

This kind and gentle man, who for so many years prepared to be a priest in order to serve God and his Church, was suddenly snatched away. <\/p>\n

The words from our gloomy first reading from Job resound in my heart as I remember Michel, \u201cis not man\u2019s life on earth a drudgery? \u00a0He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages. \u00a0I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me.\u201d \u00a0Life is difficult, oftentimes unfair. \u00a0Troubled nights have been allotted for many as they struggle to practice their faith under the fear of death. <\/p>\n

Last week the Vatican recognized four men of the twentieth century as martyrs: Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador killed in 1980, two Polish Conventual Franciscans, Father Tomaszek and Father Strzalkowski, who were killed in 1991 in my own country of Peru by members of the terrorist group the Shining Path, and an Italian priest, Alessandro Dordi, also executed as a martyr in Peru in 1991, the same year my family fled from Peru. \u00a0They will all be beatified soon.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
In the months before his death, Archbishop Romero did not allow altar servers to assist him at Mass. \u00a0He knew he would be killed and did not want a bullet meant for him to kill someone else. \u00a0Romero feared a violent death, yet he persevered preaching the Gospel in a country at war. \u00a0He stood up against a government that oppressed its people and killed over 70,000 innocent civilians. \u00a0Monsignor Urioste, his vicar general, stated that Romero often said it was difficult to be a \u2018man of the magisterium\u2019 because it was not easy to be always consistent in the proclamation of the Gospel. \u00a0Romero firmly believed he had to accept and live out the wholeness of the teachings of the Church, including standing up against oppression and injustice.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

All these men, like Saint Paul, lived out these words with conviction and urgency, \u201cwoe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!\u201d even though doing this led them to death. <\/p>\n

Fidelity to the Gospel, as Job found out, as my friend found out, as the recently proclaimed martyrs found out, does not come easy.<\/p>\n

In the midst of our struggles and fears, we lift up a psalm of praise to the Lord, \u201cPraise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. \u00a0The Lord sustains the lowly; the wicked he casts to the ground.\u201d \u00a0The words of today\u2019s psalm strengthen us and fill us with conviction to live and to preach the Gospel in good times and in bad.<\/p>\n

In our own struggles and fears, we are called to live and to preach the Gospel filled with hope just as the martyrs throughout history have done. \u00a0We must put into practice, filled with hope, the words of Saint Paul, \u201cwoe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!\u201d \u00a0May God grant us the grace to be his witnesses and bring others closer to the Christ and his Gospel.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before starting the Vigil Mass for Palm Sunday two years I decided to check the headlines on a Catholic news website. \u00a0My heart stood still as I read towards the bottom of the page, \u201cSyrian priest kidnapped as war rages on.\u201d \u00a0During my time in seminary I became a very close friend of two Syrian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWoe to me if I do not preach the Gospel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before starting the Vigil Mass for Palm Sunday two years I decided to check the headlines on a Catholic news website.  My heart stood still as I read\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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