He Is Dying

Guillermo Fariñas is dying. He is dying slowly. He is dying with pain. He is dying not by natural causes or disease. He is dying by an uncanny, forceful, courageous sense of will set against evil, oppressive injustice. He is matching his own will to die against the will of the castro government to control. It is a fitting match not many are willing to pursue.

What is your life worth to you? Are you willing to stake it against a seemingly overwhelming opponent? Are you willing to give up your life for any cause?

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 16:24-26 KJV

Perhaps Guillermo Fariñas has an advantage not many of us are WILLing to take: abandon. We normally associate the word with the phrase, "reckless abandon," such as when we describe a teenager flying down hill in a snowboard and doing flips off a home-made jump (something my youngest son is wont to do). In Mr. Fariñas' case, it is different. Mr. Fariñas is not reckless, he is courageous to the point of not caring what is done to his body. He has "lost" his concern for the material and shifted it to the intangible or spiritual. In my mind, this is an apt description of a martyr.

Mr. Fariñas is the most dangerous man there is to those who attempt to control him and others. He has simply declared to his oppressors through his actions: "You cannot control me. There is nothing you can do to me that will make me do what you want." His willingness to die is the ultimate act of defiance, and the ultimate victory over oppression as well.