Monday, December 27, 2010

Unutterable - The Assyrian feast of the Holy Innocents - December 27

Today is the feast day of the massacre of the Holy Innocents, according to the calendar of the Assyrian Church. In two days' time the rest of the Eastern Orthodox will observe it (if they are following the Gregorian calendar; those on the Julian 13 days later). This event is larger than history. It made history, and it continues to make history to this day. Along with my sister in Christ, from whose blog I am borrowing what follows, I agree that saints are made by Christ and the faith of the martyrs, hence by the suffering Church and her Lord, irrespective of canons and decrees. Adam and Rania, confessors and martyrs of today, are standing with the martyrs under the altar of God waiting for us to join them. Here is the Good News in its most invincible form, here it is happening now, today, for us. Here is Christ's gathering of His lambs…


This is a repost from 8/14/08 in response to comments made by Dan Montana and John Jay regarding the mass killings of Christians in their church in Baghdad on All Saints Day and especially the murder of the heroic little boy, Adam, who followed the murderous sons of Allah as they slaughtered his friends and his family, pleading all the while, "Enough!"

John suggested canonizing Adam by the Catholic church, and my response is that he is already a saint. The church can no more make him a saint than they can unmake him a saint. What priests and bishops do in the comfort of palaces has no bearing on his sainthood. Christ made him a saint, and this child's blood is on his murderers hands. Perhaps the only prayer worth praying is that God, in His unfathomable love and mercy, may cause their consciences to accuse them night and day, and never give them rest. Adam is at rest, may his killers never find rest or peace until they seek Him.

In Jewel's original post, she has the music of Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil…

The fifth vesper [from Sergei Rachmaninov's Vespers] is titled Now Lettest Thy Servant Depart. And it is a fitting requiem for "Rania" a young teenaged Saudi girl who converted to Christianity, and was killed by her father, who worked for the Commission on Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

I am trying to wrap my mind around the girl's hellish last moments on earth. The fact that we in the west even know about this is astounding enough, that the reaction to her violent murder has also been published in the Kingdom of Everlasting Hate is astonishment with compounded interest. Let Islam boast of its gains in the west. Mohammed is fast losing the hearts and minds of his offspring in Dar el Islam.

An appropriate tribute from the commenter, dumbledoresarmy at
Jihad Watch:

Since no-one in Saudi Arabia will do this for her; since her murdering father will have shoved her into the ground hugger-mugger; let those of us who are Christian say for her now the prayer of commendation.

"Go forth, O Christian soul, on your journey from this world.
In the name of God the Father, who created you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, who suffered for you.
IN the name of the Holy Spirit, who strengthens you.

In communion with the blessed saints
and aided by angels and archangels and all the heavenly host
May your portion, "Rania", this day be in peace
and your dwelling in the heavenly Jerusalem."

"Receive her, Lord, as a lamb of your own flock
as a child of your own creating
as a soul of your own redeeming;
and grant that whatever sins she may have committed
through the weakness of her earthly nature
may be forgiven
and that she may enjoy forever
the clear shining light of paradise."

The comments at Jihad Watch about this gruesome crime express, of course, outrage and horror, with the usual troll comment thrown in just to make things so much more angering. But what is missing is the silver lining of hope within the tale itself. Again, we know about this in the west, why? Because of the internet. Certainly, the mainstream press will ignore it or whitewash it as they do everything else. No surprise there.

Saudi Arabia bans Bibles, crucifixes, Stars of David...and yet, this girl became a Christian. She even blogged about her faith, and had the courage to confront her father and brothers about it. Again, why? Because a ban is foolish and futile. The truth came in over the transom of the internet. Ban a Bible. Faw! You can download a Bible in nearly every language on the planet as an MP3 file, or a pdf. One single person can put 50 Bibles on 50 discs or on secret little thumb drives. It is completely futile to ban the Bible.

Saudi Arabia deported 15 Christians over the last month or so. [This was written in 2008]. Perhaps they were a little too effective in their quiet witness.

Saudi Arabia exports its Wahhabist poison into all the ports in the West. Our craven leaders are too afraid to even name that religion which sponsors terrorism world wide! They scratch their chins in willful ignorance. Yet, from within the Evil Kingdom itself, "Rania" was a brief and brightly shining light in the darkest places of the human heart. As light which travels far and is seen long after it has been extinguished, we get to see for but a moment her ember.

Rest in Peace, sweet Rania. Your work is finished.
We must toil in your place.
And your brother,
Adam
, greet him with a sister's kiss.

1 comment:

Mother Effingby said...

This essay, more than two years out, still is powerful to me. I wrote it in the dead of night, and it took about six hours. It was complete agony to write, and I still want to weep when I read it. Especially in light of all that is happening. Just this last week, on Christmas, the Orthodox church in Cyprus is under heavy persecution, the parishioners having been removed from their own churches and a priest defrocked. This is unconscionable. And the West is silent. We will pay a heavy punishment for our indifference. Some of the most vocal people speaking out against the genocide of Christians has been a number of Jews: Pamela Geller, Martin Solomon, Bernie Planck and the man calling himself The Elder of Zion. Some of these Jews are even atheists, and yet, they speak out against the slaughter of Christians. What is wrong with the church in the west that we can't even see?