It’s very simple: Do become martyrs. I said it was simple. I didn’t say it was easy. Be ready to pay a price. During the Great Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II very shrewdly chose St. Thomas More, a martyr, as the patron saint of lawyers and politicians. Thomas More and his friend Bishop John Fisher, both of them executed by the same king for their fidelity to the Catholic faith, are models of how far we should be willing to go for our beliefs. In the America of our lifetimes, we may never be asked to shed our blood in witnessing for our faith. But we do see character assassinations, mud-slinging and lies used against good people every day in the public media. And we should be ready to pay the same price. Nothing, not even our good name, should stop us from doing what we know to be right. Here’s the second do. Keep hope alive. Cultivating a spirit of Christian joy is not an act of self-deception. It’s a way to acknowledge that God is on our side, and that human nature, created by God and despite the damage done by original sin, is also on our side. Nothing is more inspiring than happy warriors. I hope some of you will check out the many photos on the web from last month’s March for Life in Washington D.C. Every year it’s an event full of prayer, charity and confidence. Many of the marchers are young, joyful people who radiate a strong hope in the future – and not the shallow hope of political sloganeering, but the real Christian virtue of hope that emerges from self-sacrifice, suffering for justice and the struggle to do God’s will. I’ve never in my life seen a joy-filled pro-abortion event. And I’ve always found that instructive.