Fr. Robert J Carr is the editor of this blog

Today’s second reading comes from St. Peter where he gives an instruction on how to live as Christians. If he were here today and we asked him about getting involved in a movement that would bring down the Roman Empire so that Christians could live in freedom, I think he would vehemently reject the idea.

Remember the times, from the time they encountered Jesus, the Apostles began to suffer greatly for following him. After Pentecost the suffering would have increased. Indeed, we know that the first three hundred years of Christianity was filled with severe persecution. If any group could claim a violation of their rights, it would have been the Christians. That was not too foreign an idea for the time. St. Paul after all ended up in Rome by demanding his rights to be heard as a Roman Citizen. But suffering as Christians was always part of the faith; holiness in the face of suffering spoke more about the power of the kingdom of God than protests in the face of injustice. Therefore, if we were to say to Peter what do you think of these regime change movements we see in the news, he would have said “Nothing much”.

For him, regime change was what we experienced encountering Jesus in the Kingdom of God. Our whole focus had to be on serving Christ as He wanted to be served.

I have told you that the most powerful thing I ever heard Martin Luther King, Jr. do had nothing to do with speeches and marches, but that after being beaten by an Alabama police officer and then thrown in jail. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was an ordained baptist preacher got down on his knees and prayed for that police officer.

If you think about it, you and I are already involved in a revolution of sorts, but the tactics of our warfare are simply to be faithful to the gospel. We are not in the regime change business, we are in the holiness business.  Our role is to change hearts one at a time. St. Peter explains how. Indeed, he even adds that when we suffer for our faith, rejoice because this means that “the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” That is powerful. This is especially during these days when there are people who hate Catholics because of our public stand on morality. This is worldwide.

One of the most powerful videos I have seen is one in which youth are guarding the Cathedral of Buenos Aires enduring verbal attacks spitting and other vicious assaults by the pro-abortion and pro-gay groups that hate Catholics. Yet, their silence in suffering these assaults are inspirations to other Catholics worldwide and speaks volumes of their resolve to stand up for the gospel.

This is what St. Peter is talking about.

Why don’t we engage in regime change using Skype. It is not our mission and doing so would not accomplish our mission which is to bring people to holiness. How many people learned holiness from Osama Bin Laden. I don’t think there is one. Yet, the fellow prisoners in Auschwich were inspired by the holiness of St. Maximillian Kolbe who gave his life to save a Jewish man condemned to die. Our church recently beatified a Cardinal who suffered terribly and was martyred at the hands of the Soviet Union in Hungary. His death speaks volumes to us of our true goal.

Our weapon  is holiness. Indeed, St. Peter makes is clear that any form of criminal activity even to bring about some form of justice is completely outside our scope of existence. This is key, because many who will celebrate their accomplishments will do so rooted in a narcissism that has nothing to do with holiness.

When we pray the Our Father, we not only that God’s kingdom comes, but also that His will be done no matter what. What if that means that you and I have to suffer for the Kingdom. St. Peter actually calls us to be prepared for that. And indeed, Catholics are doing this worldwide.

But there is another part of this passage and that is the line that follows the passage we have this weekend. It is a reminder that God’s judgement is coming. The people of God, St. Peter tells us will be judged first and then the rest. Our role is to prepare ourselves and others for that moment. There is an interesting image we can think of that illustrates this.

Imagine you are one of a group of passengers on the most forward car of a train. The conductor has said something terribly wrong has happened and that train will crash. He calls everyone in the car to prepare themselves for the crash. Everyone in that car does. He continues through the train to all the other cars and very few listen to him. Some laugh at him and mock him. A few do what he says, but most do not.

The train crashes, everyone who was prepared survives, all the rest die.

This is what St. Peter is talking about in a sense. We are all headed to a crash, and we have been called to prepare ourselves for that crash which will result in us encountering Jesus. Those who are prepared will be saved, those not prepared will not. Yet, all will encounter that moment. How we prepare is that we seek holiness. No other form of preparation will work. Just seek to be holy and we are holy when we seek to grow closer to God and when we grow in love. Everything else falls short.

Our universities are filled with people who are right now engaging in projects to bring regime change throughout the world. Yet, they are preparing no body for holiness. You and I have a call to prepare people for the greatest of regime changes, the coming of Jesus. Are we engaging in this, or not. Are we taking that call seriously or not. Are we noting the signs of the times and addressing the matter or not.

What are we doing?

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog. You may also find his videos in English at Gloria.tv. He also has a regular radio program on  WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on the Canção Nova podcast website and here on Catholicismanew.