Jesus said to his Apostles, "Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. Beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes."
The Word in other words
The discourse of Jesus in today's gospel is prophetic. He tells us what the Christians in some places are experiencing: incomprehension, contradictions, and persecution.
When this happens we know that "it was in the program." But Jesus also asks something from us: "the wisdom of simple courage which leads to fidelity up to its final consequences, and the prudence that does not look gratuitously for conflict and resolution" (Segundo Galilea)
A few years back I had the chance of joining the "footsteps of St. Paul's pilgrimage" (Greece, Turkey, and Italy). In that pilgrimage not only did I see the actual missionary route of St. Paul, but I was able to imagine and feel profoundly the difficulties, persecutions and sufferings he endured, as well as the loneliness, frustrations, and disappointments he overcame. Amidst those ruined structures which were then magnificent and imposing amidst those beautiful places that we've seen, were also landmarks where St. Paul was challenged, insulted, derided, maligned and put into prison because of Christ. We know very well from the letters of St. Paul and from Church history how the Christian communities that he had established in those regions suffered the same fate.
But what stood out from all these was the strong faith of the early Christians, their wisdom that led to fidelity till the end. St. Paul said: "Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. We are left without answer, but we do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not crushed (2 Cor 4:8-9)
In the same way, as Christians, let us be aware of the fearful scenario that awaits us as followers of Christ. Yet. let us develop a strong faith in Jesus, so that no matter what happens we hang on to Him. Like the woman after the super typhoon Yolanda who was seen praying inside the Palo cathedral, we can say: "My faith is stronger than Yolanda."
-Fr. Eliseo Yyance, SVD(DWC, San Jose, Occ. Mindoro)
