On Monday evening (March 7) I attended my first Requiem Mass. Hosted by Minister Jason Kenney and the Saint Thomas More Society of parliamentarians, the service began one month to the hour from my initial meeting of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s federal Minister for Minorities who was assassinated – martyred for his faith – in a hail of gunfire on March 2.
Honoured to be seated with Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament and Senators (from at least the three federal parties, as best I could tell), I felt equally honoured to be sharing in this celebration for Christ’s fallen disciple. There was no doubt in my mind that Shahbaz Bhatti was not merely a religious man but a man walking in personal relationship with his Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.
In the Father Sean O’Sullivan Meditation Room in the East Block on Parliament Hill, Father Raymond de Souza – the Roman Catholic chaplain at my alma mater, Queen’s University – officiated the mass, noting that the requiem mass was one of the most beautiful and moving of masses … and it was.
It seems odd to meet someone, who shares openly the danger that lies ahead of him and his awareness that life would be short, and then be so heavily impacted by his death a few short weeks later. But Shahbaz Bhatti was a man of faith who died a martyr to more than a cause.
If Minister Bhatti’s life had been simply about the rights and freedoms of minorities in Pakistan then he would have died martyr to a cause. But his life was about living out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in an open and public way. This has resulted in a martyrdom that has touched the lives of those who met him and shared his faith being challenged to live their own lives in closer communion with Christ; a martyrdom that has touched the lives of those who met him and did not share his faith being challenged to consider his Saviour, or at least his cause as legitimately to be pursued with passion; a martyrdom that has touched the lives of those who never met him and shared his faith to courageously stand in public acknowledgement of their worship for God; and, a martyrdom that has touched the lives of those who never met him and did not share his faith to assess meaning in their own lives. Few regard Shahbaz Bhatti’s death as simply a footnote in yesterday’s news.
It has been interesting to me to read the letters, blogs, editorials and news items published by those who were present at the reception on February 7 and more so to engage in conversation with several at the reception – in the same room one month later – following the mass on March 7. Lives were touched and, if the course holds true, permanently changed by brief or lengthier encounters with this humble Christian man from Pakistan.
Asked on facebook for my own personal take-a-way from our 60 minutes or so of conversation, I replied:
I feel I have rubbed shoulders with a man both prepared to be and now a martyr for Christ. If Shahbaz Bhatti’s legacy is fully grasped by the body of Christ, we will be more concerned that the minorities in our midst experience the Jesus in us and we will be prepared to stand in our lives in a way that examples His presence through humility and faithfulness. By God’s grace, Minister Bhatti’s death will draw the attention of the world to the plight of those suffering persecution for their religious beliefs, Christians (the most persecuted group on the planet based on sheer numbers) and others.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” a seed challenging those within the Church to grow, and those without the Church to be drawn to Christ’s love and concern for all. Rest in peace, Shahbaz Bhatti, martyr to Christ, not simply to a cause. (Revelation 6:9-11)