Each day during Refugee Week, we offer Mass with prayer and reflection. Today, as we prepare for our ‘Justice Cafe’ and welcome Jim Stewart from ‘Open Doors’ which supports persecuted Christians, we offer Mass for Christians who experience persecution throughout the world, and for religious freedom everywhere.
The Thought
(Matthew 5:38-42)
‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,” said the Chinese philosopher Confucious. Closer to our own time, Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”
Retaliation is a natural and common part of humanity’s story. It’s one way in which aggressors are kept in check, countries strengthen their security, and liberty is protected. But it can also, of course, lead to more death and destruction, create further instability, and continue the endless spiral of hatred and violence.
In the gospel reading today, Jesus guides us to a different kind of freedom, leads us to a life liberated from retaliation and resentment. He asks us to offer those who would cause us harm a model of how to live by not allowing them to drive us to despair or fill our hearts with hate. It’s a difficult path to tread, almost impossible for many of us, but is achieved by some. In November 2015, Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his baby son whilst his wife Helene was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. Three days later he wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers. “I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you. That is what you want, but to respond to your hate with anger would be to yield to the same ignorance that made you what you are. For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom.”
Throughout the world, 365 million Christians face persecution and discrimination – that’s one in seven believers worldwide. In North Korea, for example, it’s estimated that 400,000 Christians are persecuted for their faith. Many of these Christians are held in Labour camps and prisons where they face a life of hard labour which few survive. In prayer, we stand alongside them, and pray too for religious freedom everywhere, and for the faith to respond to hatred with the weapons of love, and to model the kind of life we expect from others so that they can see a new way, discover a new world which is filled not with revenge and retaliation but, hopefully, like the young child of Antoine Leiris, with happiness and freedom.
The Prayer
Invitation to Prayer: The Lord pays heed to our groaning, God attends to the sound of our cries, and so we pray for the needs which are most on our mind and weigh heavy on our hearts during this Refugee Week.
Intentions of Prayer
We pray for the Church to be strong and compassionate and with the faith to make bold decisions in the face of challenge and change.
We pray for all who seek to harm those who are different from them, and all who disrupt the way of peace and try to dissolve love with force.
We pray Christians who are persecuted throughout the world, and for their persecutors, for religious freedom everywhere, and for the rights of every human being.
We pray for nations and leaders who put cruelty before compassion, and for those who work to bring reconciliation and justice to a broken world and divided peoples.
We pray for those who work to create communities that are strong and loving, and for all who seek to build bridges between people of different faiths and cultures.
We pray for Christians who have been killed for their faith in Christ, for all victims of violence and oppression, and for our own departed loved ones.
The Bible Readings
The Bible readings for today’s celebration can be found here:
The Programme
For our full programme for Refugee Week, visit https://southcardiffministryarea.co.uk/refugee-week-2024/
Mass is celebrated today (Monday 17th June) at St Mary’s Church at 6pm and St Dyfrig and St Samson at 7pm. The Justice Cafe takes place at St Mary’s at 630pm
South Cardiff Ministry Area 