Why You Should Not Be Afraid

Silence in the face of evil allows evil to grow. Evil is a lie— the antidote is truth. Be not afraid to speak the truth.

“Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power, Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” -Ephesians 6:10-11

Pope John Paul II stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s, he said, “Be not afraid,” and in closing prayed, “Let the Spirit descend. Let the Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.” While this prayer and exhortation were said to the world, the Polish people, especially, knew he was addressing them. Lech Walesa said that these words energized the Solidarity movement in Poland. At the same time, Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB, commenced a study of the implications of a Polish pope, concluding that this papacy would destabilize Poland and undermine Soviet authority in the communist block.

That is precisely what happened. Despite attempts by the Soviets to squelch the Pope and false media reports, the Pope drew massive crowds where ever he went. “You are not who they say you are, so let me remind you who you are.” He emphasized the need for spiritual and cultural renewal, preserving Poland’s strong faith, and the transforming power of Christ’s love. In response, the people chanted,

“We want God, we want God, we want God in the family, we want God in the schools, we want God in books.” In 1980, the government recognized Solidarity as the first independent trade union in the communist bloc.

President Reagan said to a friend, “I have had a feeling, particularly in the Pope’s visit to Poland, that religion may turn out to be the Soviets’ Achilles’ heel.” Faith in Christ is, in fact, the Achilles heel of all evil. Satan shutters even at hearing the word Jesus. A proclamation of the faith, however, is not enough. Real faith is needed that engages the believer to stand up to the devil and to proclaim the truth, proclaim the Gospel. It is a difficult battle, but as Christians, we already know who wins the war, it is not Satan. We must reclaim the virtue of courage and develop the fortitude to fight and “Be Not Afraid.”

“Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe,” the Pope said in his homily, at Mass, this touched off applause and chants from the worshipers shouting —”We Want God.”

Hundreds of thousands crowd into Warsaw’s Victory Square for the Pope’s open-air Mass.

There is little doubt that today we are living in a world where many have become afraid, afraid to be a witness to Christ. Inch by inch, Western civilization’s values are being torn down by a minority who have beaten the majority into submission too afraid to speak the truth. Even many of our Catholic schools have become Catholic in name only and surrendered to the minority. Regretfully, many people have become afraid. We fear to lose a friend or a job, or not being liked. Speaking the truth will undoubtedly cost you some friendships, but it will gain new ones, closer ones, because they are based on truth and respect. There is a price to pay for speaking out, and there is also a price for lying or remaining silent.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Oxford in 1941. At the time, Britain badly needed the inspiration to fight on in a war for freedom. Borrowing from Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, Franklin said in his speech at Oxford:

“We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

As George Weigel observed in his second biography of the pontiff, “The End and the Beginning,” Pope John Paul “did not live without fear; still, less did he deny fear. Rather, he lived beyond fear, and his courage was an expression … of his faith.” In his book titled “Men of a Brave Heart: The Virtue of Courage in the Priestly Life, Archbishop Gomez describes the influence Pope John Paul II had on his life. He reminds us that the central underlying theme of Pope John Paul II’s entire pontificate was one of fearlessness and courage.

Nine Days That Changed The World is a powerful documentary that chronicles the courageous Popes visit to Poland as he stood up to the evil communist regime.