Coming Persecutions

Today's Reflections 

      

 

Coming Persecutions

Mt 10:16-23

[Jesus said to the Twelve,] ¹⁶“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. ¹⁷But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, ¹⁸and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. ¹⁹When 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. ²⁰For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. ²²You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. ²³When 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.”

LIKE SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES. As Jesus sends the Twelve on mission to Israel, he warns them of the trials and dangers ahead. The dangers will come not only from hostile Jews but also from pagans. This means that Jesus is preparing the apostles not only for their Jewish mission but also for their preaching of the gospel in foreign lands which will take place only when Jesus will have died, risen from the dead, and returned to the Father.

The Acts of the Apostles describes the fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The missionaries of the good news are brought to Jewish synagogues and tried in the courts of pagan governors and kings. But because the Spirit of the Father speaks through them, they bear witness to their faith in Jesus with the courage and confidence that their accusers are unable to match. Stephen, Peter, and Paul are examples of these inspired preachers. Still, they cannot escape suffering for their Master and Lord Jesus, who suffered the same fate. The apostles are flogged at the order of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, but they leave “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name [of Jesus]” (Acts 5:41).

“Today as in the past,

Christ sends us through the highways of the world

to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 7).