Friday, July 10, 2020

10 July 2020 - among the wolves



Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;

The LORD is not sending us only to receptive audiences, to those who are ready to hear what we have to say. He does not say that we will encounter a situation where our proclamation is always met with the conversion of our hearers. In fact, he tells us that at times he will send us right into situations that are downright dangerous. These dangers are real and can include everything from hurt feelings to martyrdom. Jesus wants us to know that this is part of his plan, so that it does not take us by surprise. He wants us to be able to follow him without second guessing him even when things don't seem to work out smoothly, when all problems aren't miraculously removed for us.

And why did God will to send them into dangers? In order to manifest his power, because if he had sent them armed, it would have been imputed to God's violence rather than to his power; therefore, he sent them poor (see Commentary on Matthew by Saint Thomas Aquinas)

God wants to manifest his power in our weakness (see Second Corinthians 12:9). Yet he does not call us merely to an attitude of immediate surrender. He calls us to be shrewd as serpents, to charm the wolves around us, or at least, if possible, to avoid harm while continuing the mission. This calls to mind the way in which Paul set the Sadducees and Pharisees against one another in a debate about the resurrection so that he could continue proclaiming the Gospel (see Acts 23:6).

so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

We are called to be shrewd. But it is if anything even more important that we be simple. We can't let our shrewdness turn into competition with wolves, trying to beat them at their own game. We do not win hearts with shrewdness. Simplicity makes us convincing witnesses. It reveals that we are not people with something to prove, but rather people with something to give. Simplicity prevents us from thinking the treasure is something we have the power to give on our own and instead keeps us open to God working through us to offer the gift that is his own.

When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Even when we proclaim the truth in the power of the Holy Spirit, even when signs and wonders accompany the proclamation, it is no guarantee of success. At least it is not a guarantee of success that is apparent. For instance, who knows what power was unleashed by the martyrdom of Saint Stephen? Who can say the way in which seeing it may have begun to soften the heart of Paul? We are not called to be successful, at least not as we might perceive success, but to be faithful.

You will be hated by all because of my name,

If we are not persecuted for the name of Jesus we can give thanks for his protection and grace. But we should examine ourselves to see if we are shirking responsibility. Are we refusing to go on mission among the wolves? Do we only speak of him among like-minded sheep? It isn't as though we need to rush headlong into conflict. The shrewdness of snakes is still important. But we must be ready to go where Jesus sends us, wherever that is, to whomever he commands us to go.

God has a message for the wolves and the sheep, for the serpents and the doves. And he wants to communicate it through us. 

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.

This message has the power to unite us all. And it is worth the offering of our entire lives.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them (see Isaiah 11:6).




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