STUMBLING BLOCKS AND FOOLISHNESS

A reflection on the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Scarboro missioner Fr. Arthur MacKinnon

By Fr. Joseph Curcio, S.F.M.
September 2005

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Some people say they can read the thoughts of another, or that they often finish another person's sentences. In these cases, we discover that there is a deep bond between the two people. An obvious example of such a bond is between parent and child, or between husband and wife, or between close friends. What we are considering here is a level of nature beyond all telling.

This natural dimension of the human spirit can be described as the cradle of love. It is where love resides. The ancient and poetic term for it is simply the "heart", where there is feeling as well as knowing. It is love, which can grasp hidden and unspoken truth, when the intellect—reason—is left groping and uncertain.

The martyrdom of Fr. Arthur MacKinnon in the Dominican Republic, June 22, 1965, illustrates this great law of life.

Consider the rationality of Fr. Art when two strange men led him to his death by urging him to go to the home of a non-existent sick person in need of anointing. In Fr. Art's situation and ambient, he was taking a risk. He was in danger every moment of every day. The parishioners warned him in word and behaviour to avoid publicly denouncing the military and police. Fr. Art could see the people's faces filled with tension and fear; their tears shed at mass as he celebrated the Eucharist and spoke of Jesus who stood up for the persecuted. He noticed when some parishioners stopped attending mass in fear of the police and military presence inside the church.

But Fr. Art continued his public rejection of the injustice suffered by the imprisoned youth of the little town of Monte Plata. What happened to his reasoning? What were his thoughts in the midst of such danger?

It is here where a wisdom beyond the rationality of the intellect filled his heart. His power of reasoning, his convictions, served as platforms, as it were, for the presence and power of the Spirit. With his young parishioners imprisoned, their mothers overwhelmed with fright and sorrow, the weight of injustice crushing his own spirit, love overcame his fears. Like all martyrs, including Jesus, the blindness of true love overwhelms and breaks the heart. The need to give help to those suffering such grave injustices, to bring them safely home, was clearly what his heart called him to do. Truly, a martyr's love is blind.

Well, that is the way of martyrs. Facing mystery—the mystery of faith—their feeling is full, not of worldly love, but of Kingdom love. They are able to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who continued on into the violence of His passion only to endure the insanity of the crucifixion. To those without faith, this is foolishness.

So it is that Fr. Art MacKinnon preached Christ crucified with the sacrifice of his own life for the sake of justice and peace. "Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it" (Mark 8:35).

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