Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - 34th Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Revelation 15:1-4 and Luke 21:12-19]Remember, you are not prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
There are not too many lawyers that I know who would find it easy to follow Jesus' advice! But Jesus is talking to disciples who were facing persecution in their ministry. He is trying to get them to realize that their strength is in their faith and not in their eloquence. Indeed we do not have to look back as far as the early Christian community to find examples of this. We have them in figures like Dorothy Day or Oscar Romero or others who have given their lives for the truth of the faiith in our own lifetime! We Catholics are uneasy about "standing up" for what we believe. Sometimes it's because we are ignorant of what the Catholic tradition teaches. I often get questions at gatherings which begin, "Father, what DOES the Church teach about......? Sometimes it's because we are genuinely afraid of the reaction since some teachings of the Church are definitely unpopular with some elements of American culture. Sometimes it's because we're not so sure we agree with the Catholic tradition on this or that teaching, but we still would consider ourselves Catholic. We just don't voice our disagreement, and we stay silent. Jesus never presents discipleship as something easy. He does say it will be ultimately rewarding, but never easy. In fact, it can be downright dangerous in certain circumstances. How courageous are we? AMEN