In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Friday 10 July 2020

Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Matthew 10:16-23

Clarifications

Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. First clarification.
It is clear, evident. The mental model upon which our living system is founded is violent, predatory, and fiercely competitive. Those who want to experience the Gospel in our world, in our system then, will live as in the midst of sharp toothed wolves, ready to tear apart their prey. God's children need to be cautious while feeling no fear; they need to be simple and gentle, without being submissive or resigned.
But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues. Second clarification.
Throughout history, religious and civil courts will be filled by more men and women who have humbly tried to serve and follow Jesus and the Gospel than by men and women who are committed to war, violence and injustice. Even at Jesus' trial human justice ran its course and a murderer was pardoned and set free. Throughout history, the Church hierarchy itself and the leaders of the people are the first and most aggressive accusers of those who humbly try to serve and to follow Jesus and His Gospel.
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. Third clarification.
God's children will be persecuted and scourged, imprisoned and consigned to the powerful, nonetheless with disarming simplicity and tranquility, Jesus instructed his disciples not to worry. God's children will not need to prepare a defense, a cross-examination. The Spirit will provide for all and everything. Jesus told his followers to totally and tranquilly abandon all worry despite the storm of evil around them.
Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. Fourth clarification.
The most furious hatred, the most poisonous divisions, the most violent persecutions will arise within the home itself, amid the closest relationships, i.e. the bonds of blood. The family of "the flesh" will always be the first and most violent enemy of the family of the Spirit, of the communion of the heart, of the evangelical sharing. God's children, who come together in Jesus' name and form relationships sharing and trusting in the spiritual dimension will face their fathers, mothers and brothers in blood who will often become their worst enemies.
You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. Fifth clarification.
Trying to follow Jesus and to accomplish His evangelical procedures will always stir up hatred, it will always lead to profound hatred and total persecution. Why? Simply because Jesus and the Gospel offer a completely new mental and spiritual approach to reality, which does not include the old systems of control, revenge, conflict, and competition which the brain and human chemistry are used to. The Greek verb translated into "to hate" actually stands for being made as ghosts, being frustrated, considered as smoke, as nothing. Misèo, the verb of total hatred, indicates no escape routes. It means to despise, to undermine, not to take into account a reality to the point of thinking that it does not exist. The verb misèo also implies a sense of persecution with hatred.
Hatred, but by whom? Jesus indicates that there is no way out and  offers a further clarification. You will be hated by all and everyone, from every side and every human dimension that are not illumined in the light of God and that want to retain in themselves the mental orientation of separation.
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. Sixth clarification.
Jesus will return, He will return in full power, no longer a child in a grotto in Mary's arms, but as Almighty God in the glory of His angels. Jesus will return - He gave us His Word - and He will return even before evangelization has spread to all corners of the world. Jesus is coming back, and all will see Him and they will have to respond with their hearts to His loving and peaceful calling. It will not be the end of the world, but the end of a time, of this time; it will be the beginning of a new time, a new history, a new life founded on the procedures of the Gospel and on the grace and gifts of the Paraclete. Jesus is coming back to open the way to a life full of wellness and happiness, communion and peace for all on this earth. Jesus is coming back, and it will be the intermediate coming, which will take place long before the end of all things.