Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - Wednesday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eph 3:2-12 and Luke 12:39-48]When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. [Ephesians]
OCTOBER 19 STS. JOHN DE BREBEUF, ISAAC JOGUES AND COMPANIONS. Jesuit and Lay Assistants martyrs
How did Christianity manage to spread from Jerusalem to the rest of the world? The North American Martyrs whose memory we celebrate today offer a hint! It was through missionary activity, aided, ironically, by persecution which caused early Christians to move away from Jerusalem to Antioch and then other locations in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern areas. Among those missionaries, certainly the figure of St. Paul is the best known. His "conversion experience" on the road to Damascus meant that God had taken hold of a zealous persecutor of Christianity and turned him into a zealous preacher of Christianity. But this meant also a theological change from Judaism to faith in Christ and a rejection of the central tenet of Judaism that the Mosaic Law had to be observed in order for a person to be considered righteous in the sight of God. This issue had to be resolved at the "Council of Jerusalem" (cr. Acts 15) because it stood in the way of the missionary ministry.
This is the "mystery" of which St. Paul is speaking in the first scripture for today. How could a crucified Jew from Galilee be the Savior of the world? Jesus' life, death and resurrection - the "inscrutable riches of Christ" - would be the mystery to be proclaimed. This is simply the message of the early Christian preachers like St. Paul. It is OUR message! Pope Francis has summoned all the baptized to be "missionary disciples." Our mission is not just to non-Christians, but even to our own brothers and sisters in the world-wide Catholic communion. The "New Evangelization" proclaimed by Pope St. John Paul II was aimed at our own Catholic community around the world! The celebration today of the "North American Martyrs" can inspire us to greater efforts in our own local circumstances. AMEN