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"Give me My Weapon!" - St. Pio
Today's Gospel : Matthew 10:17-22
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Beware of men: they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the pagans. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes; because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.
‘Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.
St. Chrysostom : This was matter of consolation to them, not that they sought the punishment of others, but that they were confident that in all things they had One present with them, and all-knowing.
Beware of men...men and their ideas about God or no God have always sought to change yours. Sometimes by dialog but often by force of law or violence. We see this on the world stage with radical Islam kidnapping and killing Christian children on thier way to school. With girls they marry them off by force to Muslim husbands. We see it on a national stage as our government tries more and more to remove any vestige of Christianity from the public square. We see it in our President who had to be pressured into NOT removing a traditional nativity scene from the White House and who hung christmas balls with communist leaders and transvestites on them. Pretty appalling in my opinion from a man who claims to be Christian. We see it when schools and stores change their language about the "holidays" to avoid lawsuits.
This sense that we have to avoid offending others with Christianity is exactly what today's scripture is about. And as archaic as it may seem to a hip new world Jesus' name is still praise by true believers everywhere and will always be.
As we move into the new year lets us consider on this the Feast Day of St Stephen the first martyr, how deep our love, how true our testimony, and how firm our stand will be for Christ,
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