Wednesday, December 26, 2018 Stephen, First Martyr 1st Reading: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 Gospel: Matthew 10:17-22
Jesus said to his disciples, “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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
As early as this time of the Yuletide season the gospel warns us of the consequences of being a follower of the new-born child. These consequences are scary. With family members included as possible persecutors of those who follow Christ, the conclusion is inevitable: Hatred towards a disciple can come from anyone. As if betrayal from loved ones and rejection from anyone are not painful enough, the Gospel also warns us that the pain can be bodily inflicted because discipleship can take a follower to martyrdom.
Because the prospects are scary the disciple should rethink his options before following Christ. Should he opt to follow Christ he must be committed. Commitment here is all about strong relationship with God. Sometimes we call it “religion”. This word comes from the Latin “re-ligare”. This means “to tie up once again” what has been snapped in order to keep us connected with the ever gushing source of strength. Many times, however, religion worsens the gap between the person and God because religion is misunderstood as a body or rituals to be observed independent of other people.
To achieve its purpose religion must be exercised as an intersection of horizontal and vertical relationships: one between me and my God, and the other between me and my fellowmen. The cross is precisely the emblem of the Christian Religion because the relationships involved intersect like the cross, with its vertical beam representing relationship with God and its horizontal beam representing relationship with one another.
Commitment then, requires an added dimension of relationship with one another. Where these relationships are strong, perseverance comes as a matter of course because God himself stands as the guarantor. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M., Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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