Friday of 14th week, even numbered year "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves ; so be cunning as snakes and innocent as doves.
Be prepared for people to hand you over to the Sanhedrin and scourge you in their synagogues; you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence tot hem and to the gentiles."
With this Word of Jesus we enter into the inside of a great Gift : the mystery of God’s Love for us. Jesus has strong words for us , he wants us to be engaged in ’a combat where life and death confront each other in a prodigious dual.’
We are victorious as on the day of Easter. ’I am sending you out like lambs amidst wolves’ says Jesus
The wolves don’t come from the outside, there are some inside of us also, such as the seeking of oneself, and disordered passions.
But we have nothing to fear of these wolves manifesting their aggression against us if we are frightened of them. We can move ahead trusting in Jesus, knowing that for Him our strength is in our weakness. In our weakness we place our confidence, for God is in us with his All Powerful Love. In the joy of our hearts we can give everything to Jesus and move forward. If we feel that our family and friends were not in the perspective of the Kingdom, we pray for them.
But persecution is all the more harder when it comes from the people whom we love.
“But when you are handed over, do not worry abut how to speak or what to say ; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you will be speaking but the Spirit of the Father will be speaking in you.”
Jesus delivered his apostles from all evil, he armed them with the power of His Holy Spirit. He made them firm as iron. He predicted the evil that would
happen to them, and not just the things that would threaten them but again what would happen throughout their whole life.
He formed them early on for this war against demons that would be so hard and threatening. These Words prevent the apostles to attribute the ills they suffer to weakness or to their Master’s powerlessness. These Words warned them about disturbances that could have made them fall down had they been unexpectedly surprised by these afflictions.
We are indeed those sent by God ’the Spirit of God is within us’. God loves us so much that he engages in our daily life. He always manifests his Victory over death and discouragement. The Easter victory is for us. It is the Infinite Love of God that is revealed in our lives like this. We shouldn’t draw back, but say to Jesus how much we want to remain in his Love. It is the Spirit of the Father, the Defender who inwardly sustains us. We don’t have to seek our defence, for God is given to us in weakness.
“If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you there, take refuge in another town”.
In truth I tell you, you will not have gone the round of the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes."
The Apostles give themselves over to what is commanded to them, and with Jesus they obey to what is commanded to them. This submission is the proof of Jesus’ wisdom. Jesus brings to each person the remedy an consolation they are both in need of.
If the combat becomes too difficult, we don’t let the wolf tear us apart, but we stay away from a path of violence and go into neighbouring town.
The God of love is given within weakness, humility and gentleness. Its only power is that of his Love.
"You will be hated by all…but whoever will have persevered right to the end will be saved.’
To persevere is to remain in the love that brings victory. Jesus overcame death_ it is fidelity to God that will lead us to the kingdom of Love.
The God of Love has created us out of Love, we want to remain in this Love.
Mary is our model of endurance, she is the perfect model to correspond to grace by remaining faithful right to the end. She has received the grace to say
Yes’ to God generously and completely and she lived out the consequences linked to the gift of herself to God at every moment of her life.
We are called to respond to the grace of God in our lives with the same strength, the same unending love and with the same perseverance.