Of Gods and Men

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time. Fr Dominic White reminds us that all Christians are called to martyrdom.

One of my favourite films is Of Gods and Men (2010) by Xavier Beauvois. In fact, as Lent is fast approaching, I’d recommend it as a spiritual resource (that’s also another way of saying that it’s not one to kick back to on a Friday night!). It tells the true story of a community of Cistercian monks in the little Muslim village of Tibhirine in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria. It’s 1995, and Algeria is in the throes of a vicious civil war between a corrupt government and the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahidin. The monks are the only Christians in the village community. The people love them: one of the monks is a doctor and provides free medical care, the medicines being supplied by the monks’ mother house in France. The monks are deeply respected for the simplicity of their lives, eating what they grow with the assistance of trusted friends from the village. Relations between the monks and the imam are excellent, and Fr Christian, the superior, has an impressive knowledge of the Qu’ran. After migrant building workers from Croatia are killed by the Mujahidin, Fr Christian summarily refuses an offer of armed protection from the government. The monks defuse an attack by the Mujahidin and later Fr Luc, the doctor monk, treats their leader for a bullet wound. The monks struggle, individually and as a community, with the question of whether to stay (as the villagers desperately want them to) or to leave. And Fr Christian grows in his understanding of authority. Martyrdom will come eventually – but who martyred them has never been established.

The film (a French production) initially provoked anger in Algeria. The French had been the colonial masters in Algeria, which only gained its independence after a particularly nasty war with France in the 1960s. In fact the film had to be made in Morocco. But on 8 December 2018, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, Pope Francis beatified the monks and several other martyrs, including Bishop Pierre Clavérie OP, in the Algerian port city of Oran. The Algerian government had restored the chapel of Our Lady, overlooking the sea, and 150 imams were present. The most touching part of the story for me, related to me by our brother Timothy Radcliffe who participated in the ceremony, is the words of one of the imams: “What means most to us Muslims is that you Christians never blamed us for the deaths.”

This is the power of “turn the other cheek”. It’s not a denial of the need to defend the innocent, indeed the right to self-defence. But it is Jesus’ radical call to an end to the tit-for-tat of violence, violence which only breeds violence. Especially where we are attacked for being believers in the Gospel of Peace. While the Algerian martyrs are outstanding cases, I think of many lay people who face daily slurs, misrepresentation and discrimination for their faith – a long, dry martyrdom by pin pricks and disappointment. And their fidelity, constant love of those who cannot or will not understand, are afraid – they see all this in their persecutors – and yes, their joy, their rejoicing in the simple gifts of God.

This has a long history. King David killed a lot of people. He was a warrior, and his story can stand proudly alongside the Iliad, Beowulf and many other epics of battle and conquest. But he will not kill King Saul, his persecutor, because Saul is the Lord’s anointed king. Baffling though this may be, David has the wisdom to recognise what he does not know. He will not even accept that one of his men “deal with” Saul’s supporter Shimei who curses David and throws stones at him.

And this wisdom grows: fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the risen “lifegiving spirit”, we understand that everyone is made in God’s image and likeness, and everyone is called to faith in Christ, to being anointed priest, prophet – and king. However long it takes, and in whatever way God wills. Even the most hardened anti-Christians. There is an extraordinary strength and courage, a strength and courage only the grace of God’s Holy Spirit can give, in the martyr who believes so much in the Resurrection that he or she is willing to suffer anything from slurs (not know when this will stop) to actual death. Who will not compromise with untruth, with unlove. Love lasts, love wins out, love converts.

When you watch Of Gods and Men it’s easy to forget you’re not watching real monks, real priests, but only actors. Only one or two of them were practising Catholics. They had to learn how to sing the Liturgy of the Hours, how to “say” Mass – taught in fact by Tibhirine’s mother house of Tamié. But at the end of the filming Lambert Wilson, who played Blessed Christian, asked to be baptised.

Readings: 1 Samuel 26:2,7-9,11-13,22-23 | 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 | Luke 6:27-38

Picture: a still from the film ‘Of God’s and Men’, © Curzon Artificial Eye