Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 23, 2016 - Wednesday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rev 15:1-4 and Luke 21:12-19]They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. [Luke]
By the time the Gospel of Luke was put into writing, the community was actively experiencing persecution of the kind foretold by Jesus. The rejection of the Christian message could be violent. Indeed, in the Roman empire, Christianity would not become "legal" until the emperor Constantine issued the Decree of Milan in the 300's A.D.. That is a long time to live in fear because of what you believe in faith! Luke is trying to comfort and encourage his community to persevere. The promise of Jesus that ultimately his message will triumph must be their motivating force.
On November 24th (Thanksgiving Day this year!), we Dominicans would ordinarily celebrate the feast of some of our brothers and sisters who were martyred in Vietnam in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are the ones who "gave testimony" of the kind Jesus foretold. In fact, the very word "martyr" comes from the Greek for "witness." Martyrdom of the physical kind is not a quaint holy card reality. It still occurs. It is occurring now in Syria and Iraq. We will have many other things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, but I hope we will not forget our brothers and sisters whose faith and witness remind us of the cost of discipleship. AMEN