I knew very little about Charlie Kirk. His face popped up in my YouTube feed from time-to-time. On those occasions, I saw that he engaged with young people on a wide variety of issues. I was sitting by a creek in the shadow of the Beartooth Mountains near Red Lodge, Montana when I saw he had been murdered on a college campus. I was in Montana because my mother had survived a massive heart attack a few days prior. My family and I were taking a moment of rest in God’s creation after a very difficult year. The news stunned me and filled me with great sorrow.
In light of his assassination and the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, it’s become clear that things are changing. The dark forces many of us have known are at work in the culture are spilling over into the lives of everyday Catholics and people of goodwill. It is starting to cost more to be Catholic in this country with each passing day. The martyrdom of two young school children at prayer is a small glimpse of what our brothers and sisters in Christ live each day around the world in places like Nigeria and Congo.
Even though I knew very little about Charlie Kirk until a week ago, I was shocked like so many to see a father of two young children and a husband to his loving wife executed in front of them. To know that this rather ordinary, traditional family is a target. I think many people get the sense that we too are the target of demonic forces and their allies at work within the culture.
This isn’t popular to say because we have spent too much time forgetting that we are in a spiritual war against powers and principalities. The decades of being told the devil is a myth or a psychological phenomenon are coming up against the reality that demons exist and that they are dragging souls towards hell. What little I have seen of the Annunciation shooter’s manifesto points to someone who knew the devil. Evil is real. We must choose between good and evil every single day. We can no longer live as materialists who are addicted to comfort and a false desire to not rock the boat. Either we are with Christ, or we are against Him.
There are many questions we can ask ourselves in light of recent events, but I think the most important one is whether or not Christ is truly first in our lives. I know the sudden death of my father and the near sudden death of my mother were occasions where the Lord revealed to me areas of my life that I have not surrendered to Him. The still deep wounds I carry from being a 9/11 relief worker were reopened after my mom’s heart attack in a way that astonished me. I was so anxious I didn’t want to fly home on September 12th due to its proximity to the 9/11 anniversary. I did it, but the Lord showed me where I still need major healing by surrendering to Him. Can I honestly say that I would give everything up for Christ? The answer came back as a resounding no. I still cling to too much of this life and the world. I’m not a saint yet.
I wondered along with Catholic friends: Will the Church find its prophetic voice in these dark days, or will we continue to hide while the Charlie Kirks stand up? I think every one of us has to ask the very honest question of whether or not we have given everything to Christ, and if we have not, to beg the Lord for the grace to boldly and courageously live the Good News despite the hatred we will encounter both within and outside the Church for doing so. I know that we are starving for bold, holy leadership to lead us on the way.
I don’t know if Charlie Kirk was a martyr in the traditional sense. Based on witnesses who knew Him personally, He loved the Lord. What he was doing strikes me as more Socratic than Christian martyr, but I will leave that to those more learned than I to decide. What I do know is that a man 13 years younger than I made me stop and ask myself how much I would give up for the Lord. He made me confront my cowardice and desire to be liked by others because those two things are keeping me from fully following Christ. If we fear men and not God, then we have things completely out of order. This is a moment of deeper conversion and spiritual awakening. We cannot let it pass us by.
It is time for us to start taking our Catholic Faith seriously. The lukewarm, comfort-based approach that we have been spoon-fed for decades is a lie. It will not help us weather the nasty storms ahead. A hurricane is already upon us. It’s time to read the signs of the times and act in a manner that is fitting for disciples of Christ.
I step onto a progressive college campus multiple days a week. A place where some students cheered the deaths of the innocent while my students sat in sorrow in their dorm rooms. What happened to Charlie Kirk is not some far-distant event, nor is the murder of Catholic school children. I serve in a similar arena where there are people who would cheer my death because of my Catholic Faith. My students carry the same reality and burden. We are now coming to see in an even deeper way that to be a follower of Christ must cost us everything. Dr. Robert George put it well 11 years ago when he said:
The days of acceptable Christianity are over. The days of comfortable Catholicism are past. It’s no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, a faithful witness to the truths of the Gospel . . . They threaten us with consequences if we refuse to call what is good, evil, and what is evil, good. They demand us to conform our thinking to their orthodoxy, or else say nothing at all.
We have entered a time in the last 1.5 years during which many people support violence in order to bring about political ends. They even support the killing of Christians who oppose their erroneous ideologies. The Church must lift high the Cross and proclaim Christ’s victory over sin and death to a lost culture. We can no longer hide in our parishes.
The answer for a disciple of the Lord is to live boldly the Good News and to abandon the comforts that are enslaving us to such an extent that we prefer the things of this world to the hard, cold Cross. We all have areas of our lives where we need freedom. I am no exception. Now is the time to turn to Him with our whole hearts. We must embrace the Cross in all its horror and glory. Let us raise the standard of the Cross and pray that Our Merciful Lord will bring peace to the countless souls lost in the enemy’s grip and that the fire of His Word and Love may burn in our hearts no matter the cost.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
