True Witness

A Clear, Pure Sound

Daily we are confronted with man's inhumanity to man--whether it be the image of a baby flushed alive down the toilet in China, or killing late term aborted babies who survived the horror of the "doctor's" ministrations, or the sectarian violence amongst Muslims in the Middle East, or a thousand other manifestations large and small.  It was the same in the Roman Empire. 

Against this tide of ethical degradation stood the Christian Church.  In the middle of the third century yet another plague struck, decimating cities.  The way Roman society treated the sufferers was deplorable, but expected.  Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, writing around 250AD, described how the populace responded to the plague in that city:

At the first onset of the disease, they (pagans) pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape. [Cited in Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion (New York: Harper One, 2011), p. 115.]

No mercy.  No compassion. No charity.  That's what happens where fear combines with widespread narcissism.  But why?  A significant contributor was the general understanding that the gods cared not at all about the human condition; that if they were to be any help at all they had to be bribed, and even then their response was often mercurial or dilatory. 

How did Christians respond?  Dionysius wrote a pastoral letter praising those who had nursed the sick, especially those who had sacrificially laid down their lives in doing so:

Most of our brothers showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another.  Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. 

Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead. . . . The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons and laymen winning high commendation so that in death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom. (Ibid. p. 117)

Many Christians and churches over the years have wondered how the early Church grew from a handful of believers to where persecution ceased and Christianity became officially recognised by the first Christian emperor in 314. The question becomes more perplexing when we recall that there is very little evidence of evangelistic campaigns or systematic missionary efforts in the post-apostolic period.

One powerful influence must have been the testimony of Christians and believers living for Christ and extending love and mercy to their neighbours when disasters hit.  You don't know how the bell will sound until it is struck. We can learn a great deal from our ancient fathers.