The Fellowship of the Unashamed

The fellowship of the unashamed, shown below, is a manifesto written by a Rwandan Catholic right before he was martyred for the faith of the saints.

“I’m part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Christ, and I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I’m finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, lavish wealth, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, live by prayer, and labor by the Holy Spirit’s power.

My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is Heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my Guide is reliable and my mission is clear.

I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me. I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.”

–Written by a Rwandan martyr in 1980, the night before he was murdered for not denying Christ

Are We As Brave?

This man gave up his life for Jesus Christ during the bloody wars in Rwanda last century. The example that he set for us should not be in vain. While the time hasn’t come (yet) in the USA for physical martyrdom for Jesus as is occurring in Africa, the time HAS come for us to die to ourselves for Jesus.  This daily dying – or taking up your cross daily (Luke 9:23) – means that we have to stop living solely to make money and to start acting differently than the worldly folks we share the planet with.

Making money, of course, is necessary to live. But so many people make money the ultimate goal in their life rather than following Jesus Christ, who once said to “seek first the Kingdom of God, and the rest will be given you besides” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, if you live for Christ first and foremost, you will be given all that you need to get through in this world by Jesus Himself, AND then you will also get heaven later on. But if you neglect Christ, then you may have a comfortable life now but then no heaven after death.

We must remember that “good people” don’t go to heaven [(“… and Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18)], but, rather, only saints do. [“But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27)].

As the world gets darker and darker, with the horror of sin becoming the norm and abominations being seen as “so what?” by so many people, you and I must be like this Rwandan follower of Jesus and light up the world with love for each other and self-sacrifice for Jesus, 24/7/365. For starters, we will actually have to mention the name “Jesus” out loud to others [(“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge to the Father, who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32 )]. Doing this may be hard at first but will become easier the more often you pronounce the name of Jesus to others. So what if others think that you’re nuts, or a Jesus freak? Let them think whatever they like. A hundred years from now, what will their looks or words matter to you if you’re in heaven because you told others about Jesus and they laughed at you or ignored you?

“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account (Matthew 5:11).”

IF they do that to you, then you will be blessed, per Jesus Himself!

Dying to Self

So how do we die to self, putting God first in our lives, others second, and ourselves last?  For starters we should always seek answers in the Bible. Jesus said that after he is gone, His followers WILL fast (Matthew 9:15). Skipping a meal every now and then helps us, including me, to realize how much we love food. For a lot of us, the great mystery of eating is that the more we eat, the more we want to eat more. Our stomach expands and says frequently, “feed me.”

The sin of gluttony soon ensues, which usually leads to the sin of lust. Why? Because the stomach and the sex organs are located very near each other in the body. St. Thomas Aquinas actually wrote about this setup. The demon of gluttony and the demon of lust are only too happy to team up to make your life miserable with this close arrangement. The best way to overcome lust physically is to fast often. Overcoming two separate vices with fasting is your basic two-for-one special! After all, if you can’t say no to a doughnut, how will you be able to say no to porn or to a “come-hither” look from a beautiful woman? I’ve tried fasting, and I can guarantee you that  fasting works.

Another way to die to self is to forgive anyone who has ever offended or hurt you. Doing so is one of the toughest parts of being a Catholic. But we do tell God with every “Our Father” to “forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12).  So forgiving others can be a blessing for us (our sins are forgiven IF we forgive others), and not forgiving others can be a self-imposed curse on us (our sins are not forgiven if we do NOT forgive others).

To aid in being able to forgive, I always think of my sins against God (porn, gluttony, foul language, and so on) as each being worth $1 million each, and the sins against me by others as each being worth a penny. Why? Because God is infinite and I am finite, so naturally, my sins against an infinite God are worth infinitely more than finite human sins are against me. So if I want my debt to God of billions of dollars (from my thousands of sins against Him) forgiven, forgiving the pennies-on-the-dollar trespasses of others against me seems rather easy. It’s one of the greatest investments that anyone can ever make! Imagine getting a return of a billion dollars  by only investing a few pennies! One could even say that this kind of investment is out of this world!

Abstinence from things that one really likes is also a way to die to self. Giving up favorite things like chocolate, sodas, snack foods, or watching sports constantly on TV is a fantastic way to kill worldliness. We must desire the things of heaven a LOT more than the things of this world, if we are to escape hell and purgatory.

Voluntarily giving up temporary earthly pleasures is not only one good way to die to self but is usually very good for our waistlines and for our family life. Imagine being able to have a great discussion over a meaningful issue with your family, instead of chomping down on potato chips and drinking a beer while watching your favorite team get a first down on TV! Why, a closer relationship with your family and then to Jesus as well might even result!

Overcoming Human Respect

One of the hardest things to do in becoming one of the “unashamed” like our hero, the Rwandan martyr, is to overcome the need for human respect. In America, most of us respect each other’s personal belief system, and, as a result, we never mention Jesus, Mary, the Sacraments, sin, or giving alms. But that isn’t what Jesus and His apostles did. No, they preached the Gospel in season and out of season. Normally, we just expect the priest to do this at Mass, but this is also our job as well. You and I are also beloved disciples of Jesus, and a disciple is supposed to preach the gospel. He said to us ALL in scripture (not just to priests):

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19)].

So how do we overcome the embarrassment of speaking Jesus’ name to friends and family and then to suffer the weird looks we will get when we act like real Christians instead of lovers of the world? Start slowly; maybe wearing a T-shirt that has a scripture verse or a picture of Jesus on the front can serve as a conversation starter. Once the door is open, then we can begin talking about eternal life and where we’re going to be 100 years from now (which isn’t earth!).

So many people NEVER think about this, blindly thinking that the way things are now is the way that things will always be. But the present time isn’t even as it was 10 or 20 years ago, now is it? Dropping these little hints (planting spiritual seeds) and living a good loving life toward everyone is usually all we need to do to lay the groundwork for bringing Jesus into other peoples’ lives. We should just give 100% of our efforts to Jesus in prayer and let Him do the rest. Always be available, of course, to assist with answers to questions from our relatives, even if we get funny looks from them. Thinking of all of the strange looks that Jesus got on the cross while dying naked will make evangelization and overcoming human respect much easier!

Jesus Loves YOU!

One of the things that I started doing at the checkout while shopping is to tell the clerk behind the cash register when I leave, “Jesus Loves You.” This message is simple and is one that I have adopted while talking to Protestant friends of mine. They have “summarized” the Bible with their Five Solas and their Calvinist “TULIP,” none of which are even in the Bible. I decided that the main message of the Bible, IF I were going to summarize it, is “Jesus Loves You.”  After all, Jesus left us two new commandments, love God and love Your neighbor (John 13:34); and St. Paul said that love is greater than faith (1 Corinthians 13:13).  

So I would ask all of you who took the time to read my article to help me in this endeavor to spread the word when you are at the store, at the restaurant, at the fast food restaurant drive-through lane, and so on that “Jesus Loves YOU!” The person you are talking to may NEVER have even considered this truth, and it is a great way to acknowledge Jesus before men (and women!).

Summary

Jesus Loves YOU!