Word to the Wise
Friday, July 10, 2009 - Friday in the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30 and Matthew 10:16-23]Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves!
We are all accustomed to using various non-human animals as symbols of various qualities of character. Lions mean courage; foxes mean slyness; elephants mean strength, etc. Jesus' statement in today's gospel scripture treats us to four different animals! At times, sheep seem to have various qualities in the gospels - meekness, obedience, and, in this case, vulnerability. Wolves are popularly associated with destructive killing! (Human reaction to wolves nearly wiped out certain species, a destructive irony!) Serpents are associated in the Bible with shrewdness, as in the one in Genesis. Doves are associated with innocence! The Christian commitment is not one of gullibility even if it should be one of non-violence and integrity. Learning how to deal with the secular challenges to our faith in a way that publicly witnesses to Christian values requires a great deal of shrewdness even as it demands quality conduct. So many folks just aren't willing to make that effort. Instead, faith becomes a "private" matter and public conduct becomes utilitarian. This division is one of the worst enemies of faith! Putting doves and snakes in the same cage may not be a good idea, but putting shrewdness and innocence in the same person can be a powerful Christian witness! AMEN
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