Gospel: Matthew
10:16-23
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. But beware of men, 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.”
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Reflection:
There was
a very corrupt high ranking government official who had a stirring turnabout in
his life. From being corrupt he became saintly and from thereon he never
engaged in any form of corruption. His saintly lifestyle eventually became his
cross because he was maliciously persecuted by his former cohorts in his
corruption activities.
Does it
pay to leave our sinfulness for the sake of Jesus? Does it pay to leave behind
friends who bring us nothing but sinfulness? Of course it pays! It may not be
easy, we may be persecuted, scorned and even be harmed. However all of these
dangers and earthly imbalances in our lives are nothing compared to what Jesus
will bring into our lives.
We must
always expect persecution the moment we decide to faithfully follow Jesus. We
should expect to be looked down, expect insulting comments. Nonetheless; let
these persecutions strengthen us further in the name of Christ Jesus.
Almost
all of the apostles were severely persecuted for faithfully following Jesus.
They were persecuted by this world yet God exalted them for their faithfulness
to Jesus.
How about
you which would you prefer the immoral and corrupt enticements of this world or
the initially difficult path towards Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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