Nearly two thousand years ago, Truth was put on trial, condemned, and killed. Yet the Truth was not vanquished. Eleven of twelve apostles were martyred for their faith. Countless martyrs followed in their footsteps. To admire their heroic martyrdom from a distance would be a waste. Instead, it is a call to us to be willing to die for the truth ourselves.
Many people have never heard of Hong Kong businessman, publisher, and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai. Lai has been unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hong Kong for over five years. His crime? Calling out Beijing’s authoritarian oppression against the people of Hong Kong, or in Beijing’s eyes, “sedition against the state.” Lai’s newspaper, Apple Daily, was shut down because it became a voice for pro-democracy protesters—a voice for those who refused to bow before lies.
For over five years, Lai has been imprisoned in solitary confinement. His health has deteriorated. He has been denied fresh air, proper medical treatment for his diabetes and heart problems, and, more importantly still, denied the sacraments and the free practice of his Catholic faith. It is not expected Lai will live much longer. At 78 years old, his remaining 20-year sentence will probably last for life. Yet, what matters most is not what has been unjustly done to him, but how he has responded.
According to his daughter, while in prison, Lai “has found joy in offering up his sufferings and prayer for friends, acquaintances, strangers, and even those who have wronged him.” This is the action of a saint. This is the witness of a martyr. Martyrs die because truth is worth more than comfort, more than safety, more than life itself.
Before Pilate, Christ proclaimed that He had come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Therefore, we as Christians cannot be ashamed of testifying to our Lord and to the truth that has been placed into our hearts from the beginning. We cannot be ashamed to proclaim that what is wrong is wrong, that what is right is right, and that no power on earth, especially not the CCP or any government, can make falsehood into truth simply by decree. Governments can imprison men. They can silence newspapers. They can punish dissent. But they cannot change the moral order of this world. They cannot make evil good, and they certainly cannot make lies true.
As Christians, and indeed as people of goodwill, we have a solemn duty to act as witnesses to the Gospel and to the obligations that flow from it. We are called, if need be, to give up our lives for the truth God has revealed. The Church gives us the example of the martyrs of ancient times, and yet we often forget that there are martyrs in modern times as well. Martyrdom does not belong to the Roman Empire alone—it belongs to China, Russia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and even the United States, because courageous witness does not have a time stamp. Christ calls men and women to stand in the truth and calls them to proclaim it when they see it violated, and calls them to pay the price for fidelity.
That means we have a duty not to live in the lie. We cannot accept the lie that power makes right. We cannot accept the lie that comfort excuses silence and that the state is sovereign over the human soul. Men like the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, John Lee, a self-proclaimed Catholic and one of Lai’s chief persecutors, believe that truth can be managed, imprisoned, and erased. Yet we know otherwise. Truth comes from God. Human dignity comes from God. Rights are not a gift from the state, but are given to us by our Creator.
Because of this, we must call out violations of truth not only abroad, but in our own lives and in our own societies. We must proclaim the truth that life begins at conception and that abortion is evil. We must proclaim, like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that the indiscriminate mass deportation of individuals is wrong. We must proclaim that every assault upon the dignity of our brothers and sisters is wrong.
Too often, in the Western world and in our own nation in particular, we live behind a veil of complacency, believing that nothing around us matters. We live as though we exist in self-contained bubbles, insulated from suffering, responsibility, and any demand of truth that may find us. But that veil must be torn away, lifted from our eyes and our hearts, and when we see clearly ourselves, we must help lift the veil from the eyes of others.
We must proclaim these truths, even if it should cost us our lives. We cannot be afraid to die for the truth, because the Truth has already died for us. Christ did not remain silent in the face of sin or see error and leave it untouched. He said, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” He called men out of darkness and into light. He bore witness to the truth, and He calls us to do the same.
Pope Saint John Paul II declared that “we must defend the truth at all costs, even if we are reduced to just twelve again.” That is the measure of Christian witness. Not success. Not popularity. Not safety. Fidelity. We will be known by our works. At the end of time, when we stand before the Creator of the world, judgment will not rest on what excuses we made for ourselves. It will rest on the way we lived, the choices we made, and the things we loved. And then we will see clearly whether we chose to stand on the side of truth, to proclaim it, and to defend it like Jimmy Lai—or whether we remained silent, and let truth die in that silence.
Jeremy Siegl is a freshman from Southern California studying history and constitutional studies. He can be reached at jsiegl@nd.edu.