Address given at a Service to celebrate Christian Witness in Advent

All over the world ploughshares are being beaten into swords. Violence is escalating, from knife crime to war. Traditionally we remember today all those suffering persecutions for their faith. There is the massive persecution of Christians, but believers of all faiths are being killed, often by members of other faiths. We see again the ugly rise of anti-Semitism. Many of our Jewish brothers and sisters no longer feel safe.

On the façade of this Abbey Church, there are ten twentieth century Christian martyrs. ‘Martyr’ means literally ‘a witness.’ They witness to our belief that love is stronger than hatred, and life than death. With God’s grace no one is just a victim. We can all face suffering and even death with hope. When the Gestapo came for one of martyrs, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he said, ‘The victory [of love] is certain’

God’s grace is unimaginably fertile. Today’s gospel tells of a young virgin and a barren old woman who bear children.  Christians of East and West talk of how on Easter Day, the dead wood of the cross flowered. God is the source of unquenchable newness even when everything looks hopeless. Gabriel said to Mary, ‘With God, nothing is impossible.’

My brother and friend Pierre Claverie was bishop of Oran in Algeria. He was caught up in the terribly violence that over swept through Algeria in the 1990s, killing innumerable Muslims and Christians. Pierre was hated by extremists because he reached out to Muslims in friendship. He was urged to leave Algeria to save his life, but he refused to abandon his Muslim friends in their suffering. He said that one cannot leave the bedside of a friend.

On August 1st 1996, he flew backu to his diocese from Algiers. He was met by a young Muslim friend, Mohamed Boukichi who drove him home. When they arrived, bombs were detonated and both were pulverised.

Hundreds of Muslims came to his funeral. A young woman stood up at the end said that although she was a Muslim, Pierre was her bishop. Then a murmur filled the cathedral. I asked ‘What are they saying?’ Hundreds of Muslims were saying  ‘He was the bishop of the Muslims too.’  Today, Pierre’s tomb is covered with flowers left by Christian and Muslim pilgrims.  The pointless violence of his death flowered into friendship.

We all sometimes feel that we are victims, whether of violence, or injustice, betrayal or illness. The martyrs invite us to transcend the passivity of victimhood. By God’s grace, no life hits a dead end. St Gregory Nazianzen said, ‘Christ is the beginning of the beginning.’[1]