1 Corinthians 2
During this time of the pandemic, we are encouraged to do only essential things for life. These essential things include minimum activities for human survival and socioeconomic maintenance. But no countries count religious activities among the essential things. And many religious communities raise their voices against government policies and guidelines because they think their fundamental religious freedom is infringed and violated. How do you feel about this?
Simply speaking, this is a crash of religious freedom and right against the right to life. As civil rights, I think, the right to life has a priority to religious freedom.
However, for a faithful, particularly for a Christian, faith comes first before life. Throughout history, we saw many examples of this principle among martyrs. When faith had to be demonstrated through the shedding of blood, many faithful chose to sacrifice their lives without reserve.
But, here is one thing we need to remember: these martyrs did not fight for civil rights. The martyrs of the Church were not civil rights activists. Christians are not a social class; they don’t belong to this world. The kingdom of heaven is not of this world as Jesus says. Christians live here in the world but do not live for this world.
St Paul teaches today in his first letter to the Corinthians that Christians “have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.” The world does not understand the gifts of faith. Only with the gifts of God’s Spirit, we can understand them. But if we attempt to insist on these gifts of faith with the principles of the world, in other words, with the logic of rights and freedom, we will miserably fail everyone.
Not only in this time but also all the time, what we Christians strive for is to be faithful to God, not to triumph on religious freedom and rights.
