Magnificat Vol. LIX, No. 1 5 We complain: “Things are going badly. There is no more faith.” It is true, there is no more faith; it is unfortunate. Even so, what is the point of pointing fingers at one another? Should we not rather say to ourselves: “My God, my God, what a coward I am!” Why are we so afraid of these renouncements, of doing violence to ourselves, of going against our nature? In our soul we are afraid. The devil is a specialist in frightening souls, conjuring up dreadful phantoms. Inside ourselves we are afraid, afraid of everything. We are afraid of suffering. We are afraid of being held in contempt. We are afraid of how people evaluate us. We are afraid of what others will think, of what people will say, or just of hurting in our body, in our soul. What suffering might the future bring? When you have such fears, ask yourself, “Do I have faith?” When you are afraid of doing violence to yourself in order to remain faithful and follow Jesus, do you have faith? Do you believe in Jesus’ words: My yoke is sweet and My burden light4? Our Lord speaks of a yoke and a burden, of a load, of things that are hard to bear. Doing violence to oneself is hard, yet Jesus tells us that it is sweet and light. The freedom of the children of God Most people, even good ones, believe that God imposes Himself a little too much in their life. He imposes His commandments, the precepts of the Gospel, His law, our conscience: there is no way out. Some say it directly, others do not dare to admit it, but it annoys them. “My God, give us a little space. Cut us a little slack, give us a little breathing room.” Most humans think they will have more freedom by throwing off the yoke of the Gospel. They think they will have more latitude by following the 4. St. Matthew 11:30. From his childhood, SAINT THEOPHANE VENARD had sensed his mis‐ sionary vocation: to spread the Kingdom of God everywhere, even at the risk of martyrdom. As a young seminarian, he wrote: “The Tonkin mission is the one most envied, since it offers the shortest road to Heaven... If one day I too were called to bear witness to the faith with my blood!” When he obtained his appointment, his heart was overflowing: “I am happy and free beyond expression; my heart is free and light as a bird... The mission to which I am being sent is the land of martyrs... Each year produces some, like spring its flowers and autumn its fruits.” Theophane died in Tonkin, beheaded for his faith, on February 2, 1861, at the age of 31. On February 11, 1840, SAINT JOHN GABRIEL PERBOYRE, a Lazarist missionary in China, was executed by strangulation after a year of harsh captivity interspersed with interrogations and torture. He was thirty‐eight years old.
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