It will lead to your giving testimony.
When we encounter the mild forms of persecution that are currently socially acceptable in our culture to what do they lead? To giving testimony? How can it be that the world is now so clever in its assault on the faith that by threats much less than persecution and prison that we are now much more willing to be silent, much more afraid to give testimony?
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
What if we're led before family, friends, and coworkers who reject the teaching of Jesus as hostile or hateful? Are we so afraid to protect these earthly relationships that we are afraid to give testimony?
You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
Is it ultimately our relationships that we're protecting? It may seem like others would cut themselves off from us if we spoke up about things we feel are important to the heart of Jesus. But would they? Maybe, but perhaps more often than we'd guess we could come to live in a new, less close, perhaps, but more authentic relationship with them. It seems likely that more of the time when we feel prompted to speak but refuse to do so it is from a desire to protect our ego. It is pride that doesn't want others to dislike us. It is putting desire to be people pleasers above our commitment to the truth.
Once people were willing to be martyrs for the truth. Now we are reluctant to get our feelings hurt for it. This is not to say that we are called to always immediately shout the hard truths and calls to repentance in the presence of those we believe are unlikely to receive them.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
We must not plan beforehand, one way or the other, what we will say. We must be willing to remain silent if it is the Lord that is guiding us to do so. If he is the one telling us that this isn't the moment for a truth to be spoken we must be ready to let it go. This is in stark contrast to the way we often treat our political opinions, which are difficult for us to keep within, whether or not they are helpful. But it is perhaps even more the case that we must be ready to speak when the Lord calls us to speak. This may not happen when we plan. The moment may not seem, humanly speaking, to be the right moment. But if we do sense the Lord prompting us, a voice deep within, resonant with our own conscience, we must not avoid doing so out of fear. It is one thing for a dispassionate calculation about what would be helpful determining our speech. It is another when fear does so. In fact, fear might be a sign that what we are considering is something that needs to be said.
As if the Lord said to His disciples, “Be not afraid, go forward to the battle, it is I that fight; you utter the words, I am He that speaketh.”- Saint Gregory
The reading from Revelation today shows us the song of victory which we hope to one day sing. Wouldn't it be lessened if those from whom we now shrink from sharing the Gospel out of fear were not there with us to join the song?
They were holding God’s harps,
and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God,
and the song of the Lamb:
The Lord has words that can speak to even the most difficult cases, even the most recalcitrant sinners. After all, he had words for us. Let whatever we do, in word or deed, be motivated by love (see Colossians 3:17 and First Corinthians 16:14) Let is never hold back our love on the basis of fear. We have a great hope set before us (see Hebrews 12:2). It can help us to solidify our wills so that the assaults of fear cannot turn us from our course, from running our race with endurance, from the perseverance to which Jesus calls us.
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy.
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