We can only honor the confessors by an unequivocal attitude. There were years when I read and spoke a lot about them. Now it is the time that their deeds become ours. They said:
`We will come back one day/we will come back for sure (Rady Gyr) They discreetly sneak among us. It is the time. They are present and they watch our deeds, our words. Therefore let us have words and deeds full of dignity! We owe it to their sacrifice. They are the example of love for Christ and the inconsolable longing for His Flesh and Blood.
In the wider jail of the last three decades I discovered a profound secret– the sight of our own sins. With him I learnt, with him I reached this far on the way – with Valeriu Gafencu.
If we cry in repentance he taught us that sometimes it is necessary to be persecuted in small or worldwide jails in order to see our sinful life, today more than ever, in the actual conditions, among so many threats and frights. Valeriu is a part of us. We feel him coming back in the holy expression of the heart`s prayer, of tears and love.
In the same way we were taught that in times of persecutions you keep in your arms your friend who is about to die, you are not afraid of his sickness, regardless of how severe it would be, you wash him, you take care of him, you offer him from your blood and life, because he is your life.
Father Gheorghe Calciu taught us and is still teaching us that there is no greater love than to sacrifice our life for our friends. He, the confessor, put in his heart Christ`s word so that we could see the Gospel is alive and working.
Today he comes back too as a light in our life urging us to say NO to the cheating discourses which destroy the union between us – the foundation of the ecclesiastic world – even if this NO becomes more than uncomfortable and politically incorrect in these times of destruction.
We listen with passion the words of father Radu Stanciu, who had the courage to say publicly in 1948 : `Today they took from us the Epiphany and tomorrow they will take us the Easter!` And we`re living prophetically so many confiscations. They come like a roller but we have the duty to be present in this History and speak; even when we are subject to pressures of all kinds, to intimidations and threatenings.
The Confessors come back among us in an unexpected way. They mix within our thoughts, feelings and reactions. In our cry is more and more present the pious father Justin Pârvu, who sighs with the persecuted Romanian people. He, the confessor urges us to have courage, to advance bravely on the path Christ lays before our generations. He teaches us that every concession, every compromise has tragic consequences. He advices us to stand against those who `don`t have the Church as a mother and God as a Father.`
The Confessors open our way; a difficult, marginal way, lacking ephemeral joys. On this way the advance is made firmly; and always forgiving.
Mircea Vulcănescu assures us that we may even die but the love of Christ for our neighbor should not go out of our hearts. He, the Confessor whispers to our conscience: `Do not revenge us!`
The Lord considered that the time has come for them to return. They don`t enter the city acclaimed, they come to us as examples of persecutions, of patience and silent hope in the Lord. Only at the periphery of the city we meet Ioan Ianolide, the prophet prisoner: `The future of this people is crushed in Romania with all means. We don`t have any other point of support but Christ . Thus `Everything in Christ!.`
Sergiu Ciocârlan
