...buried with Christ into death...

The community is also aware that the life of those who let themselves be immersed in the waters of baptism is truly already “buried with (Christ) through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4) and “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). We were reminded of this recently by the news of an experience of martyrdom – a possibility in Christian life that we thought was lost somewhere in the recesses of memory, but that has in fact reappeared on the horizon of Christianity. The life of the baptized Christian has already been given to God and to those with whom we live in the world, as Fr. Christian de Chergé, prior of the Trappist community of Atlas in Algeria, wrote in his spiritual testament several months before he and the brothers of his community were killed.

“If we have grown into union with Christ through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection” (Rom. 6:5), continues Paul. We also believe and want to proclaim with our lives, to everyone we meet, that it is only by searching for and finding a reason for which it is worth dying that we are also given a reason to live.