July 14, 2017 Friday 14th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Genesis 46:1-7. 28-30 Gospel: Mt 10:16–23
Jesus said to his disciples, “Look, I send you out like sheep among wolves. You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves. Be on your guard with respect to people, for they will hand you over to their courts and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, and so you may witness to them and the pagans. “But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say and how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your Father in you.
“Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved. “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For sure, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Jesus commissioned the disciples to go and preach the good news with the following instructions: “You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves” (Mt. 10:16). This calls to mind Luke’s parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:8ff) where the master commended the manager for being shrewd. Jesus does not want his evangelizers to stay naïve and gullible. However their shrewdness should only be in aid of furthering the kingdom of God and not of promoting evil. As St. Paul told the Romans we must be “wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil” (Rom. 16:19). To the Corinthians he also wrote: “In regard to evil, be infants, but in your thinking, be adults” (1 Cor14:20).
Jesus warned them about persecutions. Jesus said, “You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, and so you may witness to them and the pagans.” This is a warning to Evangelizers that opposition from enemies can include infliction of physical harm. As Jesus never compromised his ministry so evangelizers should persevere in their mission amidst strong opposition. Anyhow Jesus gave this assurance of support: “When the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your Father in you”.
We too are called to be evangelizers. We can pass biblical messages via text messaging, support religious radio programs, or volunteer as catechists. There is always something we can do; finding one is part of being wise! – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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