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| Photo credit: Liu Jin / AFP |
For Frederic Saint Clair, the danger that has come about to Christians in the East should move Christians of the West to face its conscience on its path of dechristianisation.
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The terror that has befallen the Christians in the East, or rather the many Christians living in the East, on this small part of the Christian community living in a nation incapable of recognising their right to live in peace, hurts the entire Christian community. In these we have come to ask, "what can I really, concretely do, I who live very far from there, who do not really have any influence on these events." This question, if at all valid, exist today in a form equally urgent, "what has become of Christianity?" or better, "what will it be in the future?", or "what is it to be a Christian?", "what of it on a practical level?"
It has been half a century since Simone Weil bewailed that the religious question has been reduced to "what does one do with an hour or two on a Sunday morning?" None of that has changed today. Although, nowadays, a greater part of the Sunday morning has become pleasurably superior with walks in the outdoors, sports competitions, Sunday brunch, doing house chores, family excursions, the beach, jogging at the woods, strolls in the crowd...
If by chance a Christian in Iraq, who risks his life to be able to pray in Church on a Sunday morning, turns his eyes on us, what will he see? Perhaps, the image of a rotting community, preaching with sweet words but is incapable of turning them into action? The image of a community willingly exchanging faith for leisure? Were we to be in East, threatened but nevertheless able to beg for help and aid, would we want to turn our gaze to the West?
A practical Christianity made impotent with age and a Christianity that is theoretically uprooted; this finds echo in the point of view of Simone Weil, noting bitterly that Christians have rendered irreligious all the secular part of their lives, when the proper function of religion is "to impregnate with light the secular part of ones life, private or public, without having to dominate it." Christians who retire from the public sphere, leaves its administration entirely to politics, content merely to judge and condemn, while at the same time demanding to be inspired, to be initiated, to be included and to participate. It is important to note that while Simone Weil deplored the reduction of Christianity into that little sphere of private affairs, she never abandoned the principle of laïcité. A reader of the Gospels, she knew that the principle of laïcité has been given by Christ as found in the scripture passage, "Render unto Caesar, what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." Clearly, Christianity is fully satisfied with a laïcité that does not form an obstacle neither to its faith, nor to its works; Christ, his disciples, and Paul has demonstrated that one can be in the world without becoming of the world.
The "light" evoked here by Simone Weil is the light in the Sermon on the mount associated with the Christian: "You are the light of this world" and accordingly, Christ said, your role is to shine before men. It is this light that illumines the thought paving way for practical solutions. But if these works are abandoned, if the faith is extinguished, if our words become mere suggestions to a political power weakened and confused having followed atheism and extreme laïcité, the overwhelming end result: the Christians of the West closing their eyes, falling asleep. In the words of François Mauriac who wrote here in Figaro in 1934, "he [the Christian] has deliberately gone to sleep by a renunciation of the collective spirit." This renunciation of the collective spirit is a renunciation of being, which explains the impotence of his actions. The question therefore that has become ever more urgent is, when will the Christian wake up? Because, while the international Christian community sleeps, the Christians in Iraq die. When will the Christian return to a lively faith, or in the words of the prayer of the just in the Bible, to a faith of great potency. It is not about wearing large crosses on ones chest, or multiplying proselytism on the streets or chanting aggressive slogans arm-in-arm, but in the simple revival of the words and works of which Christ speaks of in scripture as witnesses of ones unity with God. To be Christian is not to be proclaimed, but to be seen in simplicity, because there, the invisible conviction is made visible. To put back the Church at the heart of Christian life is that which will allow the "light" to illumine "all of secular life, public or private." (Church, it is important to call it such, because Christians in the East are risking their lives for it, that is to say, participation in the christian community, to the "ecclesia" which unifies moreover the denominations, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc. under the same term, Christianity.) This will incite the Christian to let his faith escape from the exclusive context of the Sunday morning, without it having to dominate public life, rather embracing it and nourishing it. In these repeated acts, giving force to words, the Christians of the East may find hope knowing that they are not alone. In these repeated acts, witness to a living faith, the force of government which has been cruelly left wanting, the courage, the determination may be found once more.
This is a text translated from the original French by Joseph Simon Madrinan. The article was originally printed in the 10 August 2014 edition of Le Figaro, entitled "Chretiens, Reveillez Vous!" with an online copy accessed last 13 August 2014.
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