Thursday, December 12, 2024

The Faith (And Petulance) of a Child


 What follows is an account pieced together from various sources, regarding a 12 year old young girl, martyred for the Christian faith in 304 AD.  Now there is some confusion and question surrounding the accounts of both Saint Eulalia of Merida (pronounced "Yoo-lay-lee-uh") and Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, both of the same age and both martyred in the same fashion in the same year.  Likely they are indeed one and the same.  Given the external factors given below, this will focus on Eulalia of Merida.

The lives of the saints are often fascinating.  And while we do not venerate them, they do still serve as an example to us of faithful lives throughout the centuries.  As Lutherans, we have 1500 years of shared heritage and history, which includes an abundance of saints.  And her story is profound.  Eulalia was a child of noble birth, brought up as a Christian in the Roman Empire.  It was said that she was from Augusta Emerita, the capital of Lusitania, today known as Merida Spain.  If you thought that raising your children was tough, especially if you had one who was strong willed, stubborn, and fiercely independent, yet still loving, You've not seen what the extent of it truly could be.

In 304 AD, a persecution against Christians was ordered under the Roman Emperor Diocletian.  The edict demanded that everyone offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods, under threat of torture and death.  Eulalia, at just 12 years of age, took this edict to be a battle cry of faith.  Though her mother secretly whisked her to the countryside to spare the child, Eulalia snuck off at night, to travel back to town where the ruthless judge "Dacian" was overseeing the implementation of the emperor's edict.

Though tired from the long journey by night, Eulalia quickly regained her strength to approach the judge, accusing him of destroying human souls.  This of course was in direct opposition to the emperor's edict, so he had the child seized.  At first, he tempted her with wealth, with other worldly vices, to try to get her to fall in line.  He even tried caressing her young body in the hopes that some form of pleasure might persuade her to make sacrifice, all to no avail.  What came next was the threat of torture.  Instruments to be used in her torture were brought out, with graphic and gruesome details given to her of what would happen.  He concluded simply with saying "all this you shall escape if you will but touch a pinch of salt and frankincense with the tip of your finger."

At this, Eulalia (as only a 12 year old could) stomped on the incense, and knocked over the Roman gods saying "Isis, Apollo, Venus, they are naught.  Maximian himself too is naught, because they are the works of men's hands.  Both worthless.  Both naught."

It was at this point that Dacian ordered her torture to begin.  After first being stripped and then tied to an X shaped cross, she was first torn at by metal hooks, exposing her ribs and bone.  In this, she cried out that they were the trophies of Christ.  Next, he ordered that her wounds be touched by live fire and hot coals, thus dramatically increasing the pain of her wounds.  She responded by taunting her torturers.  At this she was then burned alive, thus attaining martyrdom for her Christian faith at the young age of 12.  There are additional legends surrounding her death, but suffice to say that this is a horrific act in a time of horrific persecution.  Would a spanking not have been better for a 12 year old?  

Honestly, it is hard to fathom.  But this is true whenever we attempt to apply our worldly values to any situation in history.  It is easy to sit back in judgement at the cruelty of the situation, and even at her own stubborn and fiery temperament.  And yet her stubbornness was there for all the right reasons.  Today, her remains (relics) are buried at Oviedo Spain, lending credence to this fairly early tale of martyrdom, made more horrific by the tender age of the martyr herself.

From antiquity, we know of her as someone real, because of numerous fathers who wrote of her, including St. Augustine and Jerome.  There was even an early hymn written about her martyrdom and her stand in faith by Prudentius, in 405 AD, 100 years after her death.  One stanza from the hymn goes like this:

Miserable men for the Christians you search!
Lo I am one of that odious race,
foe to your fiendish idolatrous rites!
Witness to Christ with my heart and lips,
Under my feet I will trample your gods.

There are a lot of relatively obscure saints throughout history.  This one, perhaps because of her age and the gruesome manner of her death, strikes a chord with me.  It both fascinates me at the faith of this young child, as well as horrifies me at what she suffered and was willing to suffer for the sake of the name of Christ.  I often wonder how many of us today would be willing to suffer as she.  She has been referred to on rare occasion as the patron saint of stubborn children.  Honestly, her stubbornness was at least applied to the right thing:  her unwavering faith in Christ.  Regardless of how some might judge her according to today's standards, for me, what instantly comes to mind is something from the Gospel of Mark:  "People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."  (Mark 10:13-16).

I can imagine the comfort of knowing the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through her Lord Jesus as death fell upon her.  I pray that the example of THIS child's faith - a faith that was unto death - will embolden our own faith in this age of decadence, false manmade gods, and rebellion against the triune God.  May we receive the crown of life with a childlike faith, knowing the comfort of our savior, who will gather us in his arms, put his hands upon us with an everlasting blessing.

(A sermon given for the commemoration of Eulalia of Merida, Central Plains Chapter, Society of the Holy Trinity, December 10, 2024)

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Skewed Stewardship


 

The banner photo is that of a Grizzly bear simply known as bear "399" taken from the internet. She is often referred to as the "matriarch" or the "queen" of Yellowstone National Park and the greater Yellowstone region, because she was an old sow who had birthed a great many cubs over a span of 28+ years, outliving and outbirthing every other known bear in the region.  

A few years back, as I was using up some vacation time, I decided to do a couple of days of camping in Yellowstone in late October.  As I was leaving the park's east entrance, I came around a bend to find a literal horde of vehicles parked on the shoulder of the mountainous road in an otherwise nearly empty park (which is the case that time of year, shortly before all the roads close for the winter).  There on the shoulder of the road was a Grizzly with a cub, that I later learned was the Grizzly known as "Raspberry."  Now it was certainly a cool thing to see (from the safety of my own truck), but what shocked me were the numbers of people with cameras and tripods, all standing within 5 feet of this wild animal, who was contentedly grazing on the shoulder with her cub.   Park rules (appropriately so) say to maintain a healthy distance of at least 25 feet or more from any and all wild animals including elk, bison, and especially Grizzly bears.  They are still wild, are still fast, and can still inflict serious damage on a person, including death, quickly and before you even suspect something is happening.  My bear encounters in the back country have usually been peaceful, but with showing extreme deference and respect for them, and NEVER coming between a mother and her cubs.  While my encounter with "Raspberry" was peaceful as I drove slowly by the crowd without stopping, such encounters often look like these photos taken from the internet of encounters with Grizzly 399:



Ok, enough about encounters and rule violations.  There are far more serious matters at stake here.  So why a post about Grizzlies?  Because on the evening of October 22, Grizzly 399 (the queen of Yellowstone) was struck and killed in the Snake River Canyon south of Yellowstone Park.  Now certainly it is a tragedy that in our misguided stewardship of the planet, we encroach into the territory of wild animals and routinely there are car versus animal collisions, often resulting in the death of the animal and sometimes the driver as well.  Being an amateur photographer myself (stressing the word "amateur"), I follow a lot of photography pages on social media.  One such page is called "Yellowstone Through the Lens" on Facebook.  As you can imagine, there are many photographs of wildlife there.  It is even safe to say that the wildlife photos dominate the page.  While not my preferred cup of tea (I am more into landscape photography), I appreciate all of the great photos, despite that I know they at least sometimes come from such mad scenes as above.

So when news of the death of Grizzly 399 came out, you can imagine that photos taken over the years began to emerge, with hundreds and thousands of people grief stricken over the loss.  What was truly sickening were the numerous comments (we are talking in the hundreds and thousands here) wishing harm and legal action against the driver of the vehicle, who escaped injury in the collision.  Having been involved in wildlife conservation efforts in the past, I can say with certainty also that many of these same people, who are in despair over the death of this Grizzly, think nothing at all of their stewardship of their own kind.  They are distraught and in despair over the death of a wild animal, and yet not only think nothing of the death or harm to another human, but actually celebrate the wholesale slaughter of human beings.  Yes, I'm referring to the thousands of unborn lives that are sacrificed daily here in America on the altar of convenience, thinly justified and veiled under the guise of "reproductive health care" and "the right to choose."  Many of the very people who are so distraught over the death of this Grizzly, think nothing of wanting harm to come to a fellow human being or the harm done daily in the wholesale slaughter of our own unborn.  Quite frankly, this is a travesty of galactic proportions.  Given that this is but one instance of such skewed stewardship, I have to daily remind myself that I'm not in charge:  God is.  I observe the galactic stupidity of the human race on a daily basis.  I'm often the target of such stupid and sinful behavior, and without reminding myself constantly who is truly in charge, I would be in complete despair.

I thought numerous times about posting a comment to this effect under the plethora of posts there now.  But as social media encounters usually go, it would end up with a huge backlash of people arguing the point, and quite frankly, I rarely post my opinions and points of view any longer, because inevitably, someone will get upset and will lash out.  At that point, it becomes the proverbial grade school "monkey pile" as people wait in line to dump on you, as apparently they are wanting to do to the anonymous driver of the vehicle that struck and killed Grizzly 399.

It seemed better instead to state my opinions on the matter in this forum, and I challenge any and all readers to truly think of what matters in this world.  While it is indeed tragic regarding the death of 399, it pales in comparison to the tragedy of what we are doing to ourselves.  

         When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 
         your eyes saw my unformed body. 
         All the days ordained for me 
         were written in your book 
         before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:15-16)