Saturday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 13, 2024

Matthew 10, 24-33

Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is a collection of various sayings of the Lord which he may have delivered at different times.

“No disciple is above his teacher.”  This phrase might be better translated, “No disciple is of greater benefit than his teacher.”  It has the look of a Hebrew proverb since it is coupled with, “No slave is above [or, of greater benefit than] his master.”  This reflects the ancient Hebrew understanding that the predecessor, whether a father or an ancient king, is superior to whoever follows him.  The Lord Jesus reminds his Apostles of this lest they begin to think that they are in any way his successors.  This saying benefits us as well, for if we consider the great teachers, such as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Mother Teresa, we know that however capable their followers were who taught their teaching, they could not succeed them.  They could, at best, elucidate whatever seemed obscure.  Our great Teacher, the Lord Jesus, passed his doctrine to us through his Apostles, through the Church which he established.  In addition, he provides us with the graces we need in order to understand what he teaches.  No great teacher of the past could do that.  “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master.”  In learning his doctrine, we become like him, and in teaching it to others, even more so.

“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!”  This seems to be a separate saying from the rest, perhaps uttered on the occasion on which the Pharisees charged that the Lord cast out demons by the Prince of demons.  The Lord foretells this to us so that when we are called “devils” and are said to be in league with the devil, or that we are evil, we will not be grieved.  We are to expect to be maligned in this way.  And we are comforted in knowing that this amounts to a confirmation that we are of the Lord’s “household”: “Therefore do not be afraid of them.”

“Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”  We can see this saying as either independent of the previous saying, or as an addition to it.  If as an addition, then this means that at the end of the world, when the sea gives up its dead and all things are revealed (cf. Revelation 20, 13), all who are just will be shown to be the children of God, and the wicked, who clothed themselves in pretended charity and their alleged desire for justice, will be shown as pawns and agents of Beelzebul.

“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”  The Lord speaks to us in the darkness of the present life, steeped in so much confusion and falsehood.  We are to proclaim his teachings on “the rooftops” of the Church, which rises above the threatening clouds, and in this way we summon those who live below to rise up into the bright Daylight of Christ.

“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”  The power of the darkness is limited, and its time is limited.  It can touch the body, but our life goes on, body or not, when we live in the Lord.  When Jesus is our everything, we will be able to say, with St. Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).  “Even all the hairs of your head are counted.”  Jesus uses hyperbole here, for God does not need to count anything to know that it is all there, since he is present in it, and so he makes the point that God knows our every thought and movement.  

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”  We acknowledge the Father by our public recitation of the Creed at Mass, by our attendance at Mass, and by our virtuous behavior in daily life.  When everyone around us is shrieking with anger, pushing lies and slander, and is engaged in affairs contrary to the laws of marriage, and we quietly keep our calm, speak honestly, and remain true to our spouses, it is such a novelty that our behavior gains attention and directs it to the reason for our virtue, the Father.  “But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”  And if we join those who sin without fear, then we effectively deny the Father, and become one with the darkness of unending night.