by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace
This week we begin that most Catholic practice of remembering and honoring the myriad of faithful human beings who have died and now belong to the Communion of Saints. November is the month of that tradition, beginning with All Saints and All Souls days. Increasingly, Catholics are referring in St. Paul’s words to these sisters and brothers who have died “as that cloud of witnesses.” (Hebrews 12:1)
The Catholic vocabulary in this regard is real. We acknowledge without euphemisms that people actually decline and die, and in the words of a prayer at funeral Masses “that those saddened by the certainty of dying might be consoled…” The Catholic understanding of death hinges on our belief in resurrection: that of Jesus and consequently, ours. St. Paul sets this out in stark terms: “If Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is futile!” (1 Corinthians 15:12)
In the light of these reflections a word is in order about one particular death in 2024: that of Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader who was murdered last February 16. Let us put that tragic event in an unusual context: Time magazine’s annual Person of the Year designation.
Since 1927 this famous journal has selected individuals and groups who in its opinion “have for better or worse done the most to influence the events of the year.” Many of their choices were seen as accurate at the time; some have proven questionable. But among the best (admittedly from a biased point of view) have been Pope John XXIII in 1962, Pope St. John Paul II in 1994 and Pope Francis in 2013 (the year his election electrified the world).
It may seem a stretch to suggest that Alexei Navalny should be named as the Person of the Year 2024. Yet he left a legacy that continues to make a tremendous impact on history which will stand the test of time and even surpass it.
The October 21 issue of The New Yorker magazine has published lengthy excerpts from Navalny’s prison diaries – the account of his last three years of life in an Arctic prison. Most are detailed stories of the day to day indignities, isolation and personal reflections on that experience which he presciently fully expected to go on until his death.
They are worth reading and reflecting on during this unique month in the Catholic liturgical year. Above all, because of Navalny’s firm resolve to continue his campaign in opposition to “a tin-pot tsar [Vladimir Putin] who wants to arrogate to himself the right to personal, unaccountable power needs to intimidate the honest people who are not afraid of him.” And this in addition to his decision “not to torment [myself] with anger, fantasies of revenge…”
Alexei Navalny went from being a dedicated atheist to a fervent Christian because, it is said, of one Beatitude of Jesus: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5 :6) He spoke infrequently about his conversion but in his prison journals he writes: “Faith makes life simpler… are you a disciple… of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others…? If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left to worry about?”
On January 17 of this year Alexei Navalny wrote what he must have realized was a final entry: “[I]n Russia to defend the right to have and not to hide your beliefs, you have to pay by sitting in a solitary cell. Of course I don’t like being there. But I will not give up my ideas or my homeland… The Putinist state is not sustainable… One day we will look at it, and it won’t be there. Victory is inevitable. But for now, we must not give up, and we must stand by our beliefs.”
Cover photo creator: Markus Schreiber | Credit: AP, posted on Free Malaysia Today
Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.
Amen to another witness/prophet to be celebrated on All Saints. (Yes.Man of the year).
Last year on this feast day I came to Our Lady Queen of Peace for the solace of holding my dying 36 year old grandson, Nathan, in prayer. It turned out he had died moments before this Mass began. My memory of that day is first the great richness in the company of the Great Love that surrounds us . The next memory is how this Great Love is with AND holds such sufferring,
leaving unexplained gratitude. Thanks witnesses.
Alexel Navalny with all of us living and deceased await Justice as elections near. Everyone wants deliverance from war and/or authoritarianism . Some like Alexel have expired waiting. When the votes are counted we will have one or the other or both. We are together spiritually and materially in prisons of hate, mistrust and deception. The hope of resurrection from the depths of these prisons exists in the body of human Love. Our hope is founded on the gift of the Grace of Love alive to a greater or lesser degree in all humankind. Grace must be nourished, some have allowed it to suffocate. My prayer is to be faithful to the Grace given me and be grateful to the sources who have nourished it.