Personal Ministry to a Christian Faith

Personal Ministry of Steve Kellar

Of Gods and men

July 24, 2011

(Des hommes et des Dieux), movie, 2011

Excerpts

I recently read this pensee of Pascal’s:

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Here is mayhem and violence. We are in a high-risk situation, but we persist in our faith and our confidence in God. It is through poverty, failure and death that we advance towards him. Heavy devastating downpours have put no damper on the spread of violence. Two opponents, one clutching onto power, the other out to seize it. They’ll fight to the bitter end. I don’t know when or how it will end. In the meantime, I do my duty… Caring for the poor and the sick, awaiting the day I close my eyes. Dear friend, pray for me, that my leaving this world will in the peace and joy of Jesus.

***

…all we had left to do was live. And the first thing we did was… two hours later, We celebrated the Christmas Vigil and Mass. It’s what we had to do. It’s what we did. And we sang the Mass. We welcomed that child who was born for us absolutely helpless and… and already so threatened. Afterwards, we found salvation in undertaking our daily tasks. The kitchen, the garden, the prayers, the bells. Day after day. We had to resist the violence. And day after day, I… I think each of us discovered that to which Jesus Christ beckons us. It’s… to be born. Our identities as men go from one birth to another. And from birth to birth, we’ll each end up bringing to the world the child of God that we are. The Incarnation, for us, is to allow the filial reality of Jesus to embody itself in our humanity. The mystery of Incarnation remains what we are going to live. In this was what we’ve already lived here takes root as well as… what we’re going to live in the future.

Whoever tries to save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose it, preserves it. (Luke 17:33)

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

***

Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to be a victim of the terrorism swallowing up all foreigners here, I would like my community, my church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and this country. That the Unique Master of all life was no stranger to this brutal departure. And that my death is same as so many other violent ones, consigned to the apathy of oblivion. I’ve lived enough to know I am complicit in the evil that, alas, prevails over the world and the evil that will smite me blindly. I could never desire such a death. I could never feel gladdened that these people I love be accused randomly of my murder. I know the contempt felt for the people here, indiscriminately. And I know how Islam is distorted by a certain Islamism. This country, and Islam, for me are something different. They’re a body and a soul. My death, of course, will quickly vindicate those who called ne naive or idealistic but they must know that I will be freed of a burning curiousity and, God willing, will immerse my gaze in the Father’s and contemplate with him his children of Islam as he sees them. This thank-you which encompasses my entire life includes you, of course, friends of yesterday and today, and you too, friend of the last minute, who knew not what you were doing. Yes, to you as well I address this thank-you and this farewell which you envisaged. May we meet again, happy thieves in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen. Inchallah.