What happened these last days should make us think. I am referring to what happened in Paris and in Brooklyn.

In Paris, two groups of people felt offended by what they considered a blasphemy against their respective religious symbols. A leading French magazine published some cartoon depicting Mohammad, something that outraged Muslims that much that they put on fire the publishing house of the said magazine. Some days after, a play written by an Italian director, including a scene in which a big image of Christ was literally battered by filth, was interrupted by a group of Christian youths who went up on the stage in protest.

While Muslims all over the world justified the burning of the building, the French Cardinal and some Bishops disapproved the actions of the youths for failing to understand the message behind the play and seek to dialogue with those who have not yet found God.

In Brooklyn, an art museum was running what is considered to be a short artistic film which included a scene where the crucified Christ is seen being invaded by ants. Again a the Christians felt offended and some argued that if the object put to ridicule was Mohammad, the authorities would have immediately forced a ban on such a film. The comparison is not a rare one. In such occasions, Muslims consider the Christians very weak in their faith, lacking the courage and determination to defend what they believe in. On the other hand, there are many Christians in the Church who feel that the Church authorities should be less tolerant, more militant, and take the example of the Muslims.

It is in this background that we can understand a fine distinction we heard this week from Fr Sergio Mattaliano, an Italian parish priest, who was our guest speaker at the VII National Workshop on the Parish Cell System of Evangelization. The distinction is between being a believer and being a disciple.

Many people are believers. Believers of different faiths can have many common believes. All of them believe in the existence of God and that God is a supreme being with absolute authority etc. Christians believe; but so do Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus etc. Even Satan believes! Yes, because believing does not necessarily imply that one lives according to what one’s own believes. Satan believes that Jesus is the Son of God; very often we find him affirming this in the Gospels. However, he does not submit to him in any way.

It is only if you are a disciple that you can go further than believing; that you follow God, in our case Christ, and try to assimilate His way of life, to do His Will and conform your life to His.

Relativism has led us to look at all religions as equals, and to see in them no more than the common denominators. The argument of the Christians of Brooklyn and of all Christians who feel that they should react to persecutions or offensive behavior in the same way as other believers do are not going any deeper than just being believers. Christians who do not content themselves only by being believers, but seek to be real disciples of Christ cannot but follow His example in everything, especially in the way one react to personal offense and persecutions.

It takes the real followers of Christ, His true disciples, to understand and endorse the affirmation of Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed some weeks ago at Assisi: peace is brought about not by the sword of the conqueror, but by the sword of the sufferer.

Contact Fr Paul Fenech.