Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I know a lot of people these days who really don't like Christians; one study suggests that non-Christians associate Christians with being un-loving, intolerant, and uncivil. These views are particularly cemented this year by the issues raised in this election year - about health care and contraception, immigration, and other issues associated with religious freedom. So, how are we to respond, as lovers of Jesus Christ, who also seek to love our neighbors?
Today’s gospel (Matthew 10:16-23) mirrors that kind of situation. Jesus' own disciples were in situations where people hated them, and Jesus faces his disciples and tells them that they will be living in crisis moments, when people would persecute them and even family members might hound them to the death. It would be enough to make anyone overwhelmed and tongue-tied. “How do I defend myself?” they might think. “How can I convince someone of the goodness of the gospel if they hate me and everything I stand for?”
Jesus’ answer is that his disciples be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” Later on in the passage, he describes what that wisdom looks like in part: it means not worrying about what they (the disciples) will say. That is, when they try as hard as they can to look wise, they can only fail. People who are already angry and full of hatred for them will have no difficulty jumping on the slightest mistake and turning it against them. But if they let the Spirit move them, and believe that the Spirit will move others, and don’t worry about appearances then God has the space to work through them.
Today’s Old Testament passage (Hosea 14:2-10) also speaks of wisdom. The ones who are wise are the ones constantly turning to the Lord and seeking God’s paths alone. Even today’s psalm (51 – a familiar Friday psalm) speaks of God teaching wisdom in “my inmost spirit.” What we Christians are called to do in the face of trouble is paradoxically to seem not to be doing anything, except to seek God constantly.
I would take a deep breath and say, “Okay, God – if this is going to be a grace-filled moment, it’s going to have to come from you. I am just at a loss.” If I am too hurried, too worried, to unable to focus on that kind of prayer, I truly would be tongue tied, trying to say too much with flowery but useless language. But if I allow God to work in me, I often find myself surprised at the way prayer and faith affect others in my life.
Today, let us pray for the grace to let the Spirit move in us, and help us respond well to those around us, whoever they may be.
Jana M. Bennett