Word to the Wise
Saturday, October 17, 2009 - St. Ignatius of Antioch
[Romans 4:13, 16-18 and Luke 12:8-12]When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.
Jesus' words were recalled by Luke and addressed to the audience to whom he was writing. Those early Christians were already experiencing persecution! They needed all the encouragement they could get! For myself, I count on that help from the Holy Spirit in teaching me what to say when I face a congregation in a parish mission or a group of priests or deacons on a retreat. Those are tough audiences! To be a faithful Christian means that one may very well expect to be a threat even to one's fellow believers at the local parish! The tendency to pick and choose - a kind of build your own sandwich type of Catholicism - does not tolerate well an "integral" Catholicism which accepts the tradition and tries to live it faithfully without ignoring what one might consider inconvenient. One may expect to be hauled before the court of popular public opinion as a "fanatic" or "up tight" or "rigid." Those are epithets that come from uneasy consciences. What does one say in the face of such opinions? One has to rely on the Holy Spirit and reply in faith and not in defensiveness! St. Ignatius of Antioch wound up being thrown to the lions. Who remembers at all the names of his executioners? AMEN
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