Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:24b-25
Xaaji Maxamed Xuseen (1996)
The Last Christian?
Xaaji was kidnapped from his home in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 3 April 1996, and his body was discovered the next day in an abandoned building. Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for his death. They said that they believed he was the last Christian in the Somali capital and so they would then turn their attention to Christians in Nairobi, Kenya.
Xaaji had become a Christian in the 1980s while he was studying in Canada. He was a university professor who worked for UNESCO. As an active Christian in the community he had received death threats and had seen his friend Liibaan Ibraahim Xasan killed two years earlier (see March 21), but still continued to witness. He left a wife and six children.
O God, whose loving kindness is infinite, mercifully hear our prayers; and grant that as in this life we are united in the mystical body of thy Church, and in death are laid in holy ground with the sure hope of resurrection; so at the last day we may rise to the life immortal, and be numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Parish Prayers (no. 288)