#help of christians

HOMILY for 4th Tuesday of Easter

Acts 11:19-26; Ps 86; John 10:22-30

preached at a Novena at Our Lady of the Holy Souls, Kensal New Town

“It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’” (Act 11:26) Before that, followers of Jesus were sometimes called “Nazarenes”, a term that, you might recall, terrorist groups in Syria had revived in recent times to brand us. But the origin of the word Christian was no less of a stigma. It seems that the people of Antioch had also first used ‘Christians’ as a derisive term, and this use of the word recurs time and again. The word ‘cretin’ for example, which means a stupid or insensitive person, comes from the time of the French Revolution when being called a crétin, a Christian, was used as an insult. But although people called us Christians (and still do) in order to dismiss us, or exclude us from the public sphere, the early Church took on the name ‘Christian’ as a badge of pride. For it means that we follow Christ, that we are anointed as he is with the spirit of Sonship, and so we are called to be little Christs in the world so that those who see us will see Him, our Crucified and Risen Lord. 

Hence the Lord says plainly in the Gospel to those who ask him if he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One of God: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27) To be called a Christian, therefore, and to be worthy of the title means that our behaviour has in some way marked us out as belonging to Jesus Christ, and it is a behaviour that should set us apart from others, making us distinctive and different and odd in an increasingly non-Christian world. Many will think us to be cretins because we are truly Christian. 

To be truly Christian is not to be nice – not necessarily. It is, however, to love. For this is what it means to follow Christ our Good Shepherd. It means we follow him to the Cross where he showed a sinful world what love looks like. Thus we follow him also to the grave and beyond, into the evergreen pastures of eternal life, as he promises us in the Gospel. Loving and following Christ, however, does not mean just believing in private beliefs. No, it is clear from the context of today’s Gospel, and the example of the early Church, and the Martyrs and Saints, that from the very beginning, our belief in Christ, our listening to his voice, sets us up for public visible actions and choices that will bring us into conflict with the world, and that challenge a world that has grown cold and distant from God, from truth, from the good, and even from beauty. To love and follow Christ, therefore, means to love and defend the good and the true. So the Lord also said: “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.” (Jn 15:20) 

Consider, for example, the furore in the USA and on social media over the issue of so-called abortion rights – as if one could ever have a right to kill another human being, let alone the most vulnerable of all human beings, the baby in its mother’s womb. And so, for those who stand up for genuine human rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life, they have been called all manner of hateful and insulting names, and even been subjected to physical violence – for violence is the way of a people, blinded by sin and ignorance, who cannot actually cope with thinking and debating rationally about emotive topics. Thus the people of the world clamoured for blood and killed the King of Love. Thus, as we hear in the first reading today, the first Christians had come to Antioch because they had to escape fierce persecution in Jerusalem. And so we are opposed on many fronts in our time, but most especially against the sanctity of the family and authentic marriage.

Many, like sheep, will follow the strident voice of the world: one hears it in the opinions of politicians, celebrities, social media influencers; in popular books, on television, in universities, and all our favourite brands. All the more must we listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd who leads us to eternal life, who leads us into a deep love for God and his commandments, and so into a deep love for our neighbour, especially those who do not yet know God and who do not keep his word. St John of Avila, doctor of the Church whose feast falls today, would say: “The proof of perfect love of our Lord is seen in the perfect love of our neighbour”. It is this unified love that motivates us to be Christians, not only in name, but in deed, witnessing to the truth of the Faith in our very behaviour, even at the risk of being regarded as cretins. For to be a Christian is to love. 

So, the response of Christians all over the world, whenever they have been confronted by hatred and violence and persecution has been to turn to Our Lady and to pray the Holy Rosary, a great prayer centred on God’s saving love. Back in 1571 when Christianity in Europe was imperilled, my holy confrere the Dominican pope St Pius V, called together the Christian people in Rome, gathered into the Rosary Confraternity, to pray the Holy Rosary. After the Muslim forces were successfully repelled because of these prayers, St Pius V added the title Auxilium Christianorum, Help of Christians, to the Litany of Loreto. 

So in these days as you observe this Novena, as Dominican Promoter General of the Rosary, I say, thank you for praying the Rosary. And I pray that Our Lady will help us Christians today in our time, in our current struggles and challenges. May Our Lady help us to be Christians, to live up to our baptismal promises with courage, humility, and love. And so, by Our Lady’s prayers, may she amplify in our hearts and minds the voice of Christ, whom St John of Avila calls, “a great Friend”. May all come to hear God’s voice calling all peoples to friendship with him. For this, divine friendship, is what it means to be called a Christian – and we are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord!