Word to the Wise
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Wednesday in the 4th Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 12:4-7, 11-15 and Mark 6:1-6]So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that none be deprived of the grace of God, that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble, through which many may become defiled. [Hebrews]
FEBRUARY 6 ST. PAUL MIKI SJ AND COMPANIONS - martyrs in Japan
Striving for peace and holiness and seeing that no one be deprived of the grace of God could be a recipe for all baptized persons. The Letter to the Hebrews continues its "pep talk" to a community that is trying to be faithful and learning how difficult that can be, even if no official persecution were taking place. Yesterday we had the example of St. Agatha from the earliest days. Today the example of the Jesuit martyr St. Paul Miki and his companions is celebrated. They date from the 16th century. But we have contemporary examples of Christian martyrs living now in Iraq and Syria or St. Oscar Romero in San Salvador.
In our American society it is not a matter of being arrested and killed but rather of being stifled by secular indifference or hostility to the very mention of God in the public area. Faith has become privatized and individualized to the point of being mere opinion. Media fascination with Pope Francis can swiftly turn to hostility on the local level. The Letter to the Hebrews is an encouragement to stand fast and proclaim boldly what we hold to be sacred in our faith. AMEN