By Dr. Dencio Acop (Ret. Col.)
While hearing Mass at St Francis in Boston, Joy and I were pleasantly surprised when the presider said he was a visiting priest from the Diocese of Antipolo in the Philippines. Fr. Namdi Meneme is actually Nigerian. He carried with him that uncanny gait of a practicing holy man who is familiar with all the suffering in the world. Such that when I heard his homily I was not totally surprised. I love great homilies from our priests. Especially courageous ones that reassure us faithful that sometimes there are shepherds out there who really are shepherds because they are ever-willing to die for their flock. Reflecting on the Gospel from Matthew 13:24-43, the good father cited the recent film ‘The Sound of Freedom’. Starred in by Jim Caviezel, the principled actor who played Jesus in ‘The Passion of the Christ’, the movie is about the evils of child-trafficking and current attempts to do something about this evil in our midst. The presider went on to explain that the situation portrayed in the film somewhat illustrated how the love of God works in the world. Ironically enough (but then again the Christian narrative is all about paradox), he discussed how God allows both the bad (weeds) and the good (wheat) to co-exist in the world alongside each other. In order not to condemn the good along with the bad while there is still life but to wait until death when the lines are drawn much more clearly and most definitively. But more so that the good and love in people get to mature because of the evil that makes them find God in the midst of their suffering and loss.
Evil and good in the world are really not as clear as night and day. Much of what happens in the world is in the gray oftentimes appearing as neither good nor bad or neutral. This is the ugly reality of it all. But while this seems so on the surface of things, the ugly truth is that there really is no such gray area when everything comes right down to it in the end. The gray ultimately dissipates and reveals either the light or darkness that we chose while we lived our lives on earth. The gray was used merely to mitigate the lightness or heaviness of the choices we made relative to our conscience (our divine nature). For instance, the constant battle between the good and bad in us manifests in the ‘good’ we try to do in order to make amends after realizing we took a bad turn. It also manifests in the little bit of selflessness we try to exhibit later in life learning from all that selfishness we dished out in our younger days when all seemed well and we had felt invincible. It manifests further in the change of heart we experience after realizing all that worldliness and ego-tripping were nothing but empty promises that led us to darkness. When all we ever really wanted out of life was the fulfillment of the good we felt deep in our heart and soul. That gave us peace.
At the end of ‘The Sound of Freedom’, Jim Caviezel delivered a global appeal to support humanity’s fight against the evil of child-trafficking and the dark forces that allow it to fester. He revealed a fact that really baffles me. That it had taken all of five years before the movie could be finally shown in public. The movie is based on a true story which makes it even more baffling because: (1) The need to address the problem is urgent; (2) No action to fight (at least expose it) child-trafficking emboldens the perpetrators; and (3) Child-trafficking continues to destroy the lives of innocent children and the people who love them as well as the moral fabric of societies everywhere. Most disturbingly, the efforts made to prevent the film from showing reveals the very ugly reality in our midst today. This gray area made to stick out like a sore thumb by ‘ugly’ people merely out to make money and feel safe in their places of comfort, is not gray at all. It is dark. Initiated and sustained by people who live in the dark. Devouring the flesh of the good. Not as animals devour other animals out of the instinct for survival. But as demons devour the innocent flesh of God’s little angels. As the bad try to kill the body and soul of the good. Through the ways and means of the ugly.
Not one to run away from a fight, Fr Namdi, who has seen the ugliness of suffering in his home country, exhorts the faithful to: (1) Pray; (2) Live according to the will of God; and (3) Fight the good battle no matter what. Nothing beats a prayerful life. No evil can put a good man down. Because that man relies upon God to fight his battles. We are up against not just flesh and blood but against satan and his evil cohorts, demons, and principalities. Living for God strengthens the grace flowing into our lives that protects us from the preternatural powers of the enemy. Have the courage to do and say what is right even if no one does. For fighting the good fight as spiritual warriors in God’s army is like fighting a war that’s already been won. But not yet while we still remain on this earth. Take heart for even if the enemy kills the body of the good, it cannot obliterate his soul which belongs to God (Luke 12:4-5). So, brothers and sisters, keep fighting the good fight and never lose heart. Then one day like God’s apostle to the Gentiles: St Paul, we shall also say: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.’ (2 Timothy 4:7-8).