Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 17, 2025

Matthew 11, 28-30

Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

“All you who labor and are burdened.”  It is the fate of all humans to labor in some way.  In the beginning, Adam and Eve delighted in their work in the Garden of Eden, for all things responded to their touch.  After their sin, the earth was turned against them, as it were, and it was only with difficulty that people survived.  As the Lord God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread” (Genesis 3, 19).  And for much of human history, the majority of people lived from one day to the next in subsistence farming.  In addition to labor, we are burdened — or we burden ourselves — with worries and anxieties over financial, health, and family matters.  Religion provided little help in ancient times because the pagan gods could not render assistance.  As it is written of the time when the priests of Baal cried out to him in desperation, “There was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed” (1 Kings 18:29).

But with the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Father began to set all things right and put them in place anew: “In the dispensation of the fullness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth, in him” (Ephesians 1, 10).  This includes human work and the burdens which all of us carry.  In the verses that make up the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord Jesus calls to himself “all who labor and are burdened” in order that by belonging to him their work and weights might be set right.  Ultimately, this is fulfilled in heaven, when the work of the just will consist in the joy of praising God forever, but even now, the Lord gives us his “rest”.  That is, in this world, work once again becomes service to God.  The meaning of work is restored by Christ, who took up the tools of carpentry in order to join us.  When we see work in this way, it becomes easier and more worthwhile.  Even drudgery has meaning and is a way to be with Christ.

All the same, we must work, and the cares of living are unavoidable.  The Lord himself says, “Take my yoke upon you”, indicating that on earth there will always be a yoke, but if we toil, doing our best, offering our labor to God, our hearts become like his, meek and humble.  This is the “learning” he gives us to do.  “You will find rest for yourselves.”  This brings to mind Psalm 23, 2: “He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up to the water of refreshment.”  We will rest in the Lord’s arms on earth if we do his will, and if we surrender our cares to him: “Cast all your cares upon him, for he has care of you” (1 Peter 5, 7).  “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”  Love lifts all burdens.  As we read of Jacob, who worked seven hard years in order to marry his beloved Rachel, “Jacob served seven years for Rachel: and they seemed but a few days, because of the greatness of his love for her” (Genesis 29, 20).  If we are in love with Jesus, whatever he calls us to do will be sweet to us, though it cost us something physically.

Many of us burden ourselves unnecessarily, often working contrary to the will of God or desiring things which are not good for us to have.  St. Paul experienced this, and told how God revealed this to him at the time of his conversion: “It is hard for you to kick against the goad.”  That is, we cause our own suffering.  Through prayer we can see how we are doing this, and with the help of God, like St. Paul, we can work profitably for the Lord.

Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2025

Matthew 11, 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike.”  As St. Thomas Aquinas points out in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus did not choose Aristotle and Plato to be his disciples, but rather Peter and Andrew.  And the Lord chose fishermen rather than philosophers to be his instruments in spreading the Gospel in order to show his power.  If a painter is skilled and has the best brushes and paints, it is not surprising when he paints a nice landscape.  We expect that from him.  But if a painter is able to make an even more beautiful picture with gummy paint and old brushes, then it is remarkable.  In the case of the Apostles, the Lord chose to use not even paints and brushes but tar and rags, and with these he painted the most wonderful, colorful, skillful painting in all of history.  This shows that he is truly God.  He chooses to spread the Gospel today through you and me.  Regardless of our worthiness or skill, if we allow him to apply us to the canvas of this world, he can continue this picture, and so bring people to stand in awe of it, and worship him.

“You have revealed them to the childlike.”  The Greek word translated here as “childlike” means “child”, “infant”, or “unlearned”.  Now, “childlike” pertains to character but “child” or “unlearned” pertains to education.  A person can be both childlike and educated, as they are very different things.  Jesus often called his followers “little ones” or “children”: “He who shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me” (Matthew 18, 6); “As long as you did it to one of these, my littlest brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25, 40).  We can see from these examples that the Lord means those who have not learned the ways of sin and so believe with a pure faith.  But since we are all sinners, how can we unlearn the ways of sin so that we can become the little ones of Jesus Christ?  Through the grace we first receive in baptism and then in the other sacraments, which enable us to do the Father’s will.  For if doing his will makes us the “brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mark 3, 35) of Jesus, certainly doing so would make us his children too.

Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 15, 2025

Matthew 11, 20-24

Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

The Lord Jesus often reproached the people he met.  He rebuked the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the chief priests, who openly opposed him.  He silenced the demons who threatened to speak of him.  He also reproached his followers, as when he pointed out their lack of faith or when he reprimanded Peter for arguing with him concerning his coming Passion.  Here he upbraids towns in which he had spent some time, preaching and working miracles — particularly Capernaum, which had become known as “his own town”.  He reproached them not out of hurt pride, but out of his desire to convert them.  The charges and threats he makes against them are meant to bring the people of these towns to their senses so that they might still be saved.  

Of the three towns he names, we know nothing of what he did or said at Chorazin, a small town on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee.  According to St. John’s Gospel, Bethsaida, also in Galilee, was the hometown of the Apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip.  The Gospels mention that Jesus healed a blind man outside the town on a certain occasion, and that he miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand people at a site near the town. The Lord used the town of Capernaum as his headquarters after he left Nazareth, living at the house Peter and Andrew had there.  We know of many cures which he performed in the town, and of his regular preaching there.  If any town had reason to believe in his Gospel, it was Capernaum.  The Lord does not reproach these towns because they were slow to believe in complex theological propositions, but simply because their inhabitants would not repent from sin.  In the small, relatively quiet fishing towns of Galilee the sins the Lord was calling them from included quarreling, harboring jealousy, pride, selfishness, engaging in gossip, and perhaps fighting.  Only in the big cities would we find murder and adultery, which were more easily concealed there.  Despite the Lord’s preaching and abundant miracles, the people of the Galilean towns would not give up their mostly petty sins.  It was as if the Son of God had not lived among them, as if they did not even know the Law of Moses.  In this way, they reject the Lord and so he warns them of their fate if this continues: “It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”  Tyre and Sidon, the proud Phoenician towns with their idolatry and licentious living.  The Jews thought of the people who lived there as “dogs” (cf. Matthew 15, 26).  Thus, the Lord compares these Jews to those “dogs”, and not to their benefit.  Similarly, if not worse, he compares Capernaum with Sodom and Gomorrah.  We might wonder how he would speak of the centers of our civilization today, saturated in pornography, practicing abortion and infanticide, with adultery and fornication commonplace.

It is good for us to note the many times in which the Lord Jesus speaks sharply to people and rebukes them.  He does it throughout his Public Life.  He demands not mere compliance with his commandments from his disciples, but holiness.  His warnings to repent and his reproaches sound strong to us, and this is because of the greatness of his desire that all people be saved.  It even comes across as a desperation.  He preaches as though his life depends on it, yet it is our lives that do.  We ought to consider the magnitude of his love so that we can return it and repent from even our least sins.

Monday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 14, 2025

Matthew 10, 34 — 11, 1

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple– amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”  When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.”  The Greek actually says, “I came to set peace”.  The Greek says “I came” in the aorist tense, which indicates the simple past, rather than the perfect tense in the translation.  And it is “to set” or “to place”, not ‘to bring”.  The sense is that the Lord is looking back at his Incarnation and its purpose.  “I have come” implies a gradual emergence.  The Lord’s message at the end of his life is the same as when he began to preach.  He has not come to “set” peace, that is, to make it solid upon the earth.  If we had peace now, we would have less incentive to strive for heaven.  Instead, he has “come to bring not peace but the sword.”  Again, to “set” the sword, to establish enmity.  The Lord elaborates: “to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother.”  That is, to make a man hostile against his father, etc.  This is no mere difference of opinion but open warfare between even members of the same family: “One’s enemies will be those of his household.”  We do not see the Lord actually doing this during his Public Life, so we have to understand what he is saying in a different way.  That is, the revelation of his divinity and the Gospel he preached will sharply divide people.  There will be no neutrality regarding him and his teachings.  As the Lord himself says, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 20, 12).  

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”  This is both a warning and an exhortation.  It is a warning for those whose faith is weak, and an exhortation for those whose faith is strong.  As a warning, the one with the weak faith is admonished to pray for strength and to set his eyes on the Crucifix.  As an exhortation his words fortify the one who finds hostility from family or friends regarding the place of the Lord Jesus in his life.  Even more, a person must love Jesus more than loves his own life: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”  That is, the believer must accept the consequences of believing and spreading the Gospel.  We are servants who ought not to think of ourselves in our service to the Lord: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  He is speaking particularly to his Apostles, who will later found and govern churches in the fullness of the Priesthood as bishops.  Therefore, whoever receives the appointed representative of the Lord for the sake of the Lord, receives the Lord.  But this is also true for all the faithful, for inasmuch as we are baptized and made members of the Body of Christ and are nourished by his Sacraments, we all represent the Lord.  Those who receive us and our virtuous examples and prudential words also receive the Lord — he works through all of us.

The Lord’s words here are uncompromising.  If anyone but the Son of God had uttered them, we should think him a madman.  No mere human can make demands like this of another human.  But God not only can, but he does, for it is by his will that we were created and that we are preserved in existence.  He is our beginning and end, and without him we can do nothing (cf. John 15, 5).  He alone can save us. And teach us how to be saved.  Increasingly in our world we find that meaning melts away as soon as we look at it hard.  But the Son of God means what he says, and he will save the one who loves him more than father or mother and who preserves his faith through the hostility of those who oppose God.  Those who do not love him above all things will not be able to persevere in their faith in him, and they will fall away into darkness.  It is so necessary for us to pray regularly, continuously, to God so that our faith and love might increase, and our hope one day become certainty.

The 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 13, 2025

Luke 10, 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Samaritans claim to be the descendants of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Joseph, which had settled in the north of the Promised Land at the time of the conquest by Joshua.  At the time of the Assyrian conquest of the northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C., very many members of these and the other northern tribes were relocated to Assyria and elsewhere.  Few of these ever returned to their homeland.  The survivors of these depopulation efforts continued to practice their tribal customs and to maintain their traditional worship of God.  One hundred and twenty-four years later, the Kingdom of Judah in the south was conquered by the Kingdom of Babylon.  Very many citizens of Judah, especially among the governing and priestly classes, were exiled to Babylon.  During the approximately seventy years of exile, the Jewish religion — that is, the religion of the Judahites, properly speaking — formed.  The writings of the Torah and of the Prophets were copied and organized, and a sense strengthened that all who worshipped God must worship him in the Temple in Jerusalem.  The rebuilding of the Temple became the priority of the people once they returned from Babylon.  To the Samaritans who had remained behind and whose religion had not changed much over the years since the fall of Judah, the “new” Jewish religion seemed like a sect that had broken off from the true worship of God, which they had maintained.  But to the Jews, the refusal of the Samaritans to acknowledge the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem as central to the worship of God was a rejection of the Covenant.  At the risk of oversimplifying, we can perhaps see this break as between the orthodox and reformed believers, or between those who refuse to change and those who adapt to the times.  Contact between members of the two groups was limited.  The Jews allowed themselves to buy food from the Samaritans, but they would not have engaged in any social activities with them. 

The Lord Jesus speaks in this parable of “a Samaritan traveler who came upon [the wounded Jew] was moved with compassion at the sight.”  Now, probably the Samaritan knew this man was a Jew, since the road lay in land between Jericho and Jerusalem, that is, in Jewish territory, although not far from that of Samaria.  Yet Jesus expressly tells us that this Samaritan “was moved with compassion” at the sight of this wounded and perhaps dead Jewish man.  Luke uses Greek verb here to tell us how Jesus felt when he saw the widow whose son had died, and whom he would raise (Luke 7, 13).  The Lord then touched the bier on which the dead man was being carried out of the city to his grave, causing those who were carrying it to stop in their tracks.  With the words, “Young man, I say to you, Arise,” the man sat up and began to speak.  Luke concludes this account with the words, “And he gave him to his mother.”  Something similar happens in the parable.  The Samaritan is so moved to compassion that he does not fear to touch even death, but does so and finds the man still alive.  Hurrying, the Samaritan unburden his beast of whatever merchandise or goods it was carrying and put the man on it, which must have taken a good deal of work to do this by himself.  Then, cleaning his wounds and binding them up, he left his goods behind, possibly hiding them in nearby caves, and took him to an “inn”.  This inn would have been something like a bunkhouse, or a cabin with several beds or simply straw mattresses on the floor.  Privacy would have occurred only if there were no other occupants to the place.  The Samaritan left the (Jewish) innkeeper with instructions to care for the wounded man, with promises of further payment if that was necessary.  And just as Jesus gave the son back to his mother, the Samaritan gives the wounded Jew back to his compatriot, the innkeeper, who must have been as astounded in the story as the “scholar of the law” was to hear this.  Here, the outsider teaches mercy.  Jesus teaches it to the crowd, and the Samaritan teaches it to the innkeeper as well as to the wounded man, who seems unconscious throughout the story.  Of course, Jesus raising the dead man is a sign for how he will touch death and destroy it by entering into it, out of compassion for us travelers wounded nearly to death by sin.

The Samaritan in the parable did not need to save the Jew, but he did not let the Jewish man’s animosity for his people stop him from acting on the compassion he felt.  He loved the man anyway, at some risk and at some cost.  So we should “Go and do likewise”, showing the compassion of Jesus to those around us.

Saturday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 12, 2025

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.

Friday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 11, 2025

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.”

“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves.”  The Lord Jesus continues his instructions to the Apostles before sending them out on mission.  These words would also have applied to them as they went out to preach after the Lord’s Ascension, and they apply to his believers today.  In speaking of them as “sheep”, the Lord teaches them that they are to be innocent in their thoughts and deeds.  In teaching them that they are to be innocent “in the midst of wolves”, he is saying that those to whom he is sending them are not innocent; they are people consumed with sin who destroy the good out of their joy of destroying.  In other words, these are not other sheep, and the Apostles would be making a terrible mistake in thinking so, either through their own wishful thinking or the trickery of the “wolves”.  The Lord thus teaches them that they are to be realistic in their attitudes and behavior while maintaining their own innocence and holiness.  He is also telling them that their very innocence will draw the wolves to them, and that they, the Apostles, will be able to encounter them in this way, whereas if they came as hunters, the wolves would hide from them.  “Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.”  We recall how it was said in Genesis 3, 1: “The serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the earth.”  The serpent uses its craft in order to defeat its enemies and also to hunt its meals.  It is carnivorous, and one would think it at a great disadvantage before a potential meal, but it is quite capable of striking quickly and of eating and digesting things bulkier than itself.  Ancient peoples believed a serpent could practically hypnotize prey with its eyes.  The Christian is told to use similar craftiness.  Through the use of intelligence, willingness to listen, humor, knowledge, kindness, and the miracles the Lord works through his missionaries, we can disarm many “wolves”, and “swallow” them with the Gospel, not for our nutrition but in order to bring them into true life in Christ.

“But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues.”  While they will convert many, some will resist, and not only reject the Gospel, but persecute its heralds.  The Lord first warns them of the persecution by the Jewish leaders which they will experience in the years after Pentecost.  “You will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.”  In later years, when their mission has spread to the lands of the Gentiles, they will be persecuted there too.  He tells them this not to frighten them but to strengthen them in those times, for they will be able to recall that the Lord had said that this would happen.  “For my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.”  It is all for the glory of God.  They are to be sheep, luring in the wolves to hear the Gospel; they will be brought before the secular authorities so that they also might hear the Gospel.  Here, we see the Lord surpassing the serpent in his craftiness.  This verse might remind us of how St. Paul spoke of his own arrest and trial: “Now, brethren, I desire you should know that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel, so that my chains are made manifest in Christ, in all the court and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, growing confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear” (Philippians 1, 12-14). 

“For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”  The Lord looks to the days when those who believe in him and live and preach the Gospel will be hauled up in court — legal courts, or the court of public opinion — where they would be expected to make a defense of their faith and actions.  The Lord cautions them against flights of rhetoric that are not natural to them, but to speak simply, for, having gained this opportunity to make the Lord Jesus known, “the Spirit of your Father” would speak through them.  “You will be hated by all because of my name.”  These are not the words of the founder of a secular movement or of a philosophy, seeking to gain followers by laying out visions of success.  Jesus makes it clear that we are doing this for him, out of our passionate love for him.  There will be a reward, but it will be hard-won and not given to those who merely show up: “Whoever endures to the end will be saved.”  And this is the message of the Gospel that St. Matthew wrote for the persecuted Galilean Christians a few years after the Lord’s Resurrection.  It is also the message of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament to be written.  Over and over again, we hear: Do not faint.  Persevere.  Do not fall away in tribulation.  Persevere.  The wolves will make much fearsome noise and will kill some of you, but hold fast to the Gospel.  “When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.”  The Lord permits his followers to flee persecution, and indeed, they did at the time St. Stephen was stoned to death: “At that time, there was raised a great persecution against the Church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all dispersed through the countries of Judea, and Samaria, except the Apostles” (Acts of the Apostles 8, 1).  But in their dispersion, they preached in new towns, to which, perhaps, they would not have otherwise gone: “They therefore that were dispersed went about preaching the word of God” (Acts 8, 4).  When we allow ourselves to be God’s instruments, God achieves his greater purpose through us, even through apparent disasters. 

“Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”  The Lord here uses hyperbole to speak of the sureness of his coming, but he also speaks to us today, that even after two thousand years, there are lands that have never heard his name.  And as civilization falls in our own land, this becomes true even here.  The Faith spread quickly in the Roman world after it was legalized by Constantine, but within two hundred years the Huns, the Goths, and the Visigoths descended upon Europe and the world had once again to be evangelized.  The descendants of the barbarians became missionaries themselves.  And at various times through the centuries secularization and heresy necessitated the recovery of the Faith in formerly Christian lands.  May we work hard through our prayers and evangelizing efforts to bring the Gospel to the “wolves” of our own time.