July 8, 2022 – Matthew 10:16-23
Today’s gospel clearly reflects the later experiences of the Church as described, for example, in many parts of the Acts of the Apostles and, of course, in the later history of Christianity The gospel of Matthew, written about 50 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, naturally reflects some of the experiences of that period. It is both a warning and a description of what happened and continues to happen to the messengers of the gospel.
Matthew’s Judeo-Christian community had suffered much persecution. Jesus’ prophetic words, “You will be dragged before governors and kings,” and “Brother will deliver up his brother to death, and father his son, and sons will rise up to accuse their parents and put them to death,” were beginning to be fulfilled. The apostle James had been martyred by King Herod, and the lives of other apostles were also in danger. Therefore,
by repeating Jesus’ warning to the apostles, Matthew encouraged the Judeo-Christians to rely on Jesus’ promise of the protective power of a God who provides as they persevered in practicing the faith.
Persecutions, past and present: Jesus gave his frank warning to the apostles that their lives and those of their future followers would not be roses and flowers. Jesus predicted three types of persecution awaiting Christians: from the Roman government, from local Jewish synagogues, and from their Jewish or pagan family members. The main accusations against first-century Christians were that they were cannibals, atheists and incendiaries, practiced immorality during worship services, caused the division of their families, and considered slaves as equals in an empire with 60 million enslaved inhabitants!
Today the secular media, run by atheists and agnostics, ridicule all religious beliefs and practices, inflicting a kind of “white martyrdom” on believers and “brainwashing” the unwary and children. It becomes, therefore, more important every day for parents to see to it that their children receive religious and moral instruction from their families and parishes.
Messages of life
– Those who do not accept the Gospel remain closed in the logic of the world, and can only judge and condemn, not because they are bad, but because they have not known that forgiveness, and, not having experienced it, they do not have the possibility of looking with eyes of Love.
– The great task of Christians, then, is not to change or save the world — Jesus has already saved it — but to bear witness to that Truth: we are forgiven sinners.
– This is precisely that Truth to be accepted: to recognize ourselves as sinners, limited, fragile, unable to save ourselves on our own but saved by a great Love. It is only up to us to welcome this love and forgiveness, and this makes us Christians, nothing more.
- Fr. Joby Kavungal RCJ
- BASILICA Santuario San Antonio, Messina