I’ll admit that the Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent from Matthew 24 was disquieting.

We were again reminded that the “Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect” and that there are no guarantees of tomorrow.

The Lord wants us to step out of our comfort zone today so He can mold us into fearless, joyful evangelizers. To manifest a New Evangelization in our nation that desperately needs to turn back towards God, now is the time for all of us to be as bold as lions.

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We cannot afford to be passive and timid about expressing our faith, especially when there are obvious threats to religious freedom manifesting in Canada.

An example unfolding before our very eyes on Parliament Hill is the incendiary Combatting Hate Act, Bill C-9.

To secure the support of the Bloc Québécois MPs, the minority Liberal government has agreed to an amendment that would strip away the protection of religious texts contained in the Criminal Code’s hate law statutes.  

Hearteningly, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo, lay Christians, and followers of other religions responded by signing petitions or writing to their MP.

It is too soon to say if the pushback will ultimately compel the Liberals to abandon this deal with the Bloc. However, the cancellation of a justice and human rights committee meeting on Dec. 4, and committee chairman James Maloney declaring MPs need to “regroup,” suggests momentum to quash this woefully misguided bill.

We must keep making our voices heard as CCCB President Pierre Goudreault articulately outlined in his open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney that passing Bill C-9 with the proposed amendment will shroud Canada’s religious populations in fear.

“The removal of this provision risks creating uncertainty for faith communities, clergy, educators, and others who may fear that the expression of traditional moral or doctrinal teachings could be misinterpreted as hate speech and could subject the speaker to proceedings that threaten imprisonment of up to two years,” Goudreault wrote.

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I’ve wondered aloud in conversations I’ve had with family lately why it seems that the Canadian Catholic community, to a large extent, can only seem to spur into action to defend our faith when we are on the razor’s edge of our rights being eroded or outright stripped away. 

One reason I want to explore is how Catholics have seemingly been societally conditioned into a state of quietness.

I recently interviewed Molly Banerjei, the passionate champion of the Christian Heritage Month initiative. Banerjei and her husband Jay, who lived as religious minorities in India, anticipated they would get to profess and celebrate their faith boldly in Canada, given that the majority of citizens identify as Christians.

Quite the contrary.

“We came here, and now we’re told constantly, ‘you belong to the majority community, and therefore you (must) make people feel comfortable, and therefore be quiet,’” Banerjei said. “That makes no sense, right?”

It is extremely nonsensical.

Immigrants and refugees who come to this land are openly encouraged to enrich our multicultural mosaic with their cultural customs, but the religion that has made, by far, the most indelible contributions in building Canada must walk on eggshells and speak about the Lord only at home or Church, not in public. Apparently, as we saw in Toronto this year, approving the annual Christian Music Festival was a no-go because of “public safety concerns.”

The consequence of being silent and lukewarm about our faith in the face of injustices and encroachments is that it compels the person, group, or institution to go further, as they interpret the lack of pushback as tacit approval for their agenda.

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Imagine if even the majority of the 53 per cent of self-identified Christians in the 2021 census heeded God’s call to speak the Word boldly and radiate the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I believe His presence would reverberate so powerfully that we would still be embracing a culture of life rather than trying to become the euthanasia capital of the world, and no politician would even think of trying to criminalize religious speech.

God always offers a pathway back to restoration if we desire it in our hearts and exhibit our yearning for Him through our actions. If we burst through our comfort zones and embrace the frontier of bold faith, our Lord offers spiritual blessings in our fleeting time on Earth and eternal life with Him.