Bishop Peña: Christianity in a Pagan World

Lessons to be learned from what happened in the Roman Empire when a pagan elite sought in vain to eliminate Christian faith and morality.

BROWNSVILLE, TX (Diocese of Brownsville) - Some have proposed that the Christian religion is a spent fountain, that we have entered a post-Christian era in which the yoke of Christian moral commands and required religious observances is cast off, and people are free to return, unencumbered, to a more natural approach to life, each following his or her own internal impulses and spiritual path, open once again to the ancient religious beliefs and practices wedded to the earth and to the natural elements. They argue that, like a great wave, Christianity rose up, crested, and is now sunk back into the sea, absorbed into the deeper and more primordial impulses of the human spirit.

In the past, Christianity had been a great unifying force in our land, but in recent times, a new paganism has asserted itself under the guise of secularism and neutrality regarding religious beliefs. Actually, in our times there is an anti-Christian spirit that is palpable. Public displays of Christian symbols have been banned and forcibly removed by court edict. Outright persecution of Christians is not possible under the law, but Christians have become the victims of subtle forms of discrimination and abuse, and what they hold most sacred is routinely subjected to ridicule. Simultaneously, an assortment of religious elements from the East, totally foreign to our history and culture, have been artificially imported and given wide circulation, thus contributing to the atmosphere of religious ambiguity, and of unexplored possibilities of mystical transformation, cosmic consciousness, and self-divination

Christians were once immigrants here and occupied the lowest rungs on the economic and social ladder, but over time they have enjoyed great social and economic advancement, and now are numbered among the nation's wealthiest, most prominent and most influential figures, postured to exert a great influence on the shape and direction of culture and public moral standards. Tragically, though, many of these have lost their religious identity to pagan influence, and now often find themselves opposed to their own Church's teachings and moral precepts. Instead of upholding public morality, they have greatly contributed to its demise by caving in to every activist group demanding license to pursue its own disordered ambitions. The institutions of marriage and family have come under assault. Civic virtue and commitment seem largely to have vanished. Institutions that were once bulwarks of social order and cohesion are no more.

The government, sharers no small responsibility for the present state of social fragmentation and disarray. It has found itself unable to command the respect necessary to lead, and unable to foster or sustain an economy capable of providing for the needs of all the citizens.

Social programs have not adequately responded to the needs of the poor and infirm. They have been more and more forced to fend for themselves. The Church has met the challenge of caring for these poor in such an impressive and distinguished way that even many of her enemies have been forced to express admiration. They have, thus, hesitated to take more overt steps to try to destroy her, for fear of the social chaos that would ensue in the absence of the Church's stabilizing presence and her members' charitable works. .

Social elites consider themselves too sophisticated to follow the teachings of an illiterate carpenter's son, and even those who are attracted to him dare not acknowledge the inner stirrings of religious faith, lest they be professionally ostracized, and suffer the denial of opportunities for further career advancement, and other forms of social and economic disenfranchisement. Given the choice between serving God or mammon, they have chosen mammon.

What makes the situation more cruel is that the media have often allowed themselves to become complicit in this pagan project. They have controlled the social narrative in a way that gives legitimacy to this decadence, and conveys the false impression that Christians, who are the vast majority, are in fact the vanishing minority.

These were the conditions of our times, if, that is, we were living in the late fourth century Roman Empire under the Emperor Julian. Earlier in that century, Constantine had ended the age of persecution of Christians by declaring all religions legal. Given a "level playing field", Christianity quickly won the conversion of the masses because of its sublime superiority over paganism, but when Julian ascended to power in 360, he shocked the Roman world by declaring himself a pagan. Making it evident that he despised Christianity, he claimed that only the old pagan gods and traditions were compatible with Romanitas. In his efforts to suppress the Church and force his own pagan ways on the people, he brought about the unintended social conditions of decline, disarray, and oppression I have described above.

Julian's project to suppress Christianity, however, was a short lived failure. As soon as he died, his own followers elected Jovian to replace him, a military general outstanding for his Christian faith. The clouds were removed and the sun shone once again on the Church. Christian faith and culture returned with a thunder. The empire continued to suffer a host of social problems, but the people once again found a haven from their troubled world in the Church, which offered them a freedom, a truth, and an awareness of their dignity and worth which they found nowhere else.

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History has a way of repeating itself, but it is always available as a great teacher, able to save us from the errors of the past. There are many lessons to be learned from what happened in the Roman Empire when a pagan elite sought in vain to eliminate Christian faith and morality, and replace them with religious relativism and moral license. I hope the lessons are obvious.

In this Easter Season, it is good to remember Jesus' promise that the gates of hell would never prevail against his Church. It is time to cast off any fears we may harbor for the future of the Church, and let ourselves go all over again in celebration of his resurrection, and in the joy of knowing we possess him as our Lord and Savior.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, Texas currently operates 107 parishes and missions for the 799,225 Catholics who live in the Rio Grande Valley.The Most Reverend Raymundo J. Peña serves as the Fifth Bishop of Brownsville.