(Jeremiah
20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus was speaking from His own experience when, in our
Gospel reading, He told His disciples not to be afraid. He Himself had come into this world to speak
peace to God’s people and to free them from the darkness and servitude of sin
by proclaiming His Gospel of salvation.
He had not been well-received by the ‘religious establishment’, and He
knew that worse, including Roman involvement and popular disenchantment, was to
follow. Therefore, He was sending these Apostles
out on a preparatory mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel with this
commission (Matthew 10:7):
As you go, preach,
saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand'.
He warned them (10:16-18):
I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore,
be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you
in their synagogues. You will be brought
before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the
Gentiles.
Jesus' warning cannot have failed to impress them,
perhaps prompting them to remember what happened to Jeremiah when God had been
sent him to preach forthcoming disaster to the people of Jerusalem, long become
‘stiff-necked’ in their disobedience to their God; for, as you heard in the
first reading, despite his divine commission, it had not made Jeremiah acceptable
to the religious and political leaders; on the contrary, he found it a most
dangerous message for him to deliver to them:
I have heard the whispering of many, "Terror on
every side! Denounce him; yes,
let us denounce him!" All those who
were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine saying: "Perhaps
he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on
him."
A message acceptable to those in power was wanted, not
authentic divine guidance for the good of the whole people.
And yet, well aware of the ‘Jeremaic’ opposition to
divine truth still prevalent among the Temple authorities and the
self-appointed spiritual leaders of the people -- the Scribes and Pharisees of
His time -- Jesus insisted that His Apostles should proclaim His message not
only without fear, but to the very utmost of their powers:
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Jesus had already spoken -- and would still continue to
speak -- many things to them in the calm solitude of their evenings together,
and what He had, in that way, told them privately ‘in the dark’, they were to
speak publicly in full light of day. And
perhaps those words ‘what you hear
whispered’ is a reference to the Holy Spirit Who – according to Jesus’
promise -- would recall to their minds and hearts whatever aspects of His
teaching they might otherwise have forgotten. Whatever, whether it was words Jesus' own
voice had spoken in their hearing, or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
whispering to their minds and in their hearts, all had to be proclaimed
without fear.
How can we today learn from Jesus’ sending His Apostles
then?
The Twelve were being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to a people that is who had
been prepared over thousands of years to hopefully hear, understand, and
embrace their message:
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy
person in it, and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your
peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not
receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the
dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you,
it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of
judgment than for that town. (Matthew 10: 11-15)
Jesus’ words and intentions still offer wise guidance for
us who want to be His true disciples in our modern world where rejection of God
is rampant and the exaltation of human ‘virtues’, values, and expectations is
blatant and verging on the devilish at times.
I think that St. Paul – suffering for his love of Jesus’ truth in the
proudly pagan times of the Roman Empire at its lustiest under Augustus -- has
better advice for men and women of today than government representatives and popular
social demagogues:
The
one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who
sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. (Galatians 6:8)
People of God, there are many pseudo-disciples of Jesus
today -- in our own society and in our Western world -- who are afraid of the
consequences that might result for them if they were to publicly support/proclaim
the teaching of Jesus, for such teaching is not popular today, just as Jesus
Himself is not popular. Of course,
almost everyone today will say that Jesus was a good man, indeed, a great man;
but what they do not like about Him, is His claim to have a Personal calling and
authority; and indeed, above all, to have a Divine dignity, which obliges all
who acknowledge Him and His appreciate His Gospel to decide either for Him or
against Him in this proudly sinful world. Deciding for Him could oblige them to keep His
word at the risk of public derision or opprobrium; while, on the other hand, deciding
against Him might threaten their eternal destiny:
Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this
faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when He
comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)
Therefore, despite His great goodness, beautiful truth,
and sublime promises, this Jesus of authority is unacceptable to modern society,
as is the authoritative teaching of His Church.
We have to recognize, People of God, that in this -- our devilishly proud
and irreligious world -- proclamation of the name of Jesus and of His Gospel does not necessarily involve,
and most certainly does not mean, arguing with enemies; nor does it involve
constantly trying to persuade incorrigible people. What proclamation does mean, however, is clear and confident, and if necessary, courageous, witness to what is true and beautiful in the Catholic Christian Gospel;
something that can only be done by patient and persevering testimony.
For priests and leaders of the people, there can be, at
times, an almost overwhelming temptation to seek success by flirting with
popularity. Jesus, however, wanted love
leading to self-commitment, not popularity that feeds on enthusiasm and cries
out to be surrounded by others, similarly excited. Jesus’ message was neither intended nor phrased
to provoke or promote His own popularity, rather He deliberately sought to
challenge, inspire, and then convert, individual consciences before and for His
Father.
Jesus therefore sought to comfort and strengthen the Twelve
by explaining:
Fear no one. Nothing
is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.
There will be a final denouement, a day of judgment when
all false colours will be lowered in shame, all injustices corrected, and when
all who have suffered for God will be both acknowledged and rewarded.
St. Paul followed the mind and took up the purpose of
Jesus when he told his converts in Corinth who were seeking to overcome the
notorious corruption and depravity of that great sea-port:
The natural person does not accept what pertains to the
Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it,
because it is judged spiritually.
And, because the Christian message is ultimately about
redemption through the Cross of Jesus, St. Paul said quite clearly (1 Corinthians
1:18, 25):
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human
wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Therefore, for the Church and for all God's good people,
there will inevitably be much obloquy, suffering, and disadvantage to be
experienced and indeed embraced in our time on earth, in the course of which we
are neither to fear nor rebel; for both fear and rebellion come from looking at
ourselves, our situation and our possibilities, whereas our hopes and
expectations as Christians should all be centred on God.
Jesus Himself offered His disciples three motives for
rejecting fear. First of all, if you are
going to fear, He said, at least fear Him Who is supremely powerful:
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul. But rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
That is basic reality, and all true spirituality has to
be built on reality. However, Jesus did
not limit Himself to correcting earthly fears with the greater threat of
supernatural loss. Such a corrective
measure can indeed hold a man back from sin, but it will hardly ever lead one
to virtue, let alone love. Therefore, He
gave the apostles, and us, further advice:
Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one
of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value
than many sparrows.
We must remember and realize that our natural fear is
meant to relate us above all to the God Who made us, for fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, and at times only a healthy fear of the Lord can save
us from the solicitations of sin and the morally corrosive fear of men. On that basis, however, since love is the truest
motive power of any human being’s life, we must then learn to love God aright,
and that we begin to do by recognizing and embracing the fact of having been long-loved
ourselves. That is why Jesus make beautifully
clear to His apostles the heavenly Father’ love for them:
Why, the
very hairs of your head are all numbered by the heavenly Father;
Therefore, let us confidently commit ourselves to the
Spirit of the Lord constantly working in Mother Church and in our personal, targeted,
lives; and thus allow Him to lead us along the way of the Lord and Saviour we
know and love, into the presence of Him Who is above all, in all, and through
all, the One eternal Father, waiting to embrace us, in Jesus, as His own truly adopted,
and beloved children for eternity.
