Seeking Truth in Today's Troubled World

The sorrow that comes upon us when the innocent are murdered while they pray should drive every soul to its knees.

What words can suffice in the face of such terror? Men and women, little children, saints of Christ, gathered in the hush of midnight prayer, were visited not by the comfort of heaven but by the cruel steel of devils masquerading as men. And not in some distant myth, but in the aching reality of Komanda, where blood mingled with ash and the prayers of the faithful were silenced by machete and flame. Nine children. Nine. How can a human tongue bear to speak of it without trembling?

These are not merely acts of barbarity; they are the latest notes in a dirge that has grown deafening to heaven. The world seems to grow drunk on the blood of the righteous. And yet, the silence of the Church in comfortable lands has become a second tragedy—a kind of spiritual sleep that leaves us blinking at news headlines while our brothers and sisters are buried in unmarked earth.

And what shall we say of these martyrs? Not that their deaths are meaningless. God forbid. The faithful in Komanda were not caught unaware in sin or selfishness. They died as they lived—in prayer, under the shadow of the Almighty, their voices lifted for peace. And what is more sacred, more powerful, more potent to the gates of hell than the earnest supplication of the saints?

These precious ones stood unarmed yet armored with faith, and now their blood speaks from the ground, not crying out for vengeance, but for justice—the justice of the kingdom of Christ. As the Pope rightly declared, may their blood become seed. For in God’s economy, martyrdom is never the end. It is the planting of something eternal.

But you, O Church in America, are you awake? Are you stirred by the sound of your siblings’ suffering, or lulled by comfort and busyness and petty theological squabbles? Will you fast and weep, or will you scroll past? Will you contend in prayer, or complain in pews?

You, who still meet in peace, who gather with lights on and doors unlocked—will you now bear the burden of intercession for those who cannot defend themselves? Will you not stand in the gap, as Moses stood for Israel, as Esther stood for her people, as Christ stands now for us all? The blood of the martyrs cries not merely for remembrance, but for participation.

Let us pray not only for the protection of the innocent but for the awakening of the indifferent. For the true evil is not only the sword that kills the body, but the apathy that allows it. Let the American Church not be found guilty of the sin of silence. The time is not tomorrow. The time is now.

Pray. Kneel. Act. Let every sanctuary become a fortress of intercession. Let every Christian home become a war room of supplication. And let every believer become a voice for the voiceless and a shield for the defenseless.

For if the Church will not stand for the Body, who shall? If we do not cry out for justice, who will hear the cry of the widow, the orphan, the believer hunted in the night?

May God have mercy on us, and may the fire of His Spirit rekindle in us the courage of those we now mourn. For their blood is not forgotten. Their testimony endures. And their King is coming.

In Christ’s service, ~JFH

https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-leo-xiv-condemns-brutal-machete-attack-killed-49-christians-during-prayer-congo