Friday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 10:16-23

Today’s passage clearly reflects later experiences of the Church as, for instance, described in many parts of the Acts of the Apostles and, of course, in the later history of the Church. Matthew’s Gospel was written some 50 years after the death and resurrection of Christ and naturally reflects some experiences of this period. It is both a warning and a description of what has happened and continues to happen to the messengers of the Gospel.

We are sent out like “sheep among wolves”. We are, in a way, defenceless, because we renounce any use of violence. There are wolves out there eager to destroy us because, despite our message of love, justice and peace, we are seen as a threat to their activities and ambitions.

We are to be clever as snakes and innocent as doves. We are to be as inventive and creative as we can be in dealing with the world. But we are to be innocent, not in the sense of being naive, but in the sense of being completely free of even any suspicion of wrongdoing. The end does not justify the means!

As has happened so many times and continues to happen, followers of Christ, simply because they are his followers and for no other reason, will be hauled into court or will be the victims of intimidation and torture. This is our opportunity to give witness to Christ and everything that the Gospel stands for.

“When they hand you over” is a favourite Gospel expression. John the Baptist was handed over; Jesus himself was handed over first to the leaders of his people and then to the Romans; his disciples too will be and are handed over; and in every Eucharist, we hear that Jesus in his Body is handed over to us:

This is my Body, which is given up [Latin, tradetur: handed over] for you.

When we are “handed over” we are not to be anxious about what to say:

…what you are to say will be given to you…

This has been confirmed again and again by people who have been arrested and interrogated. Not only do they know what to say, but very often their fear, too, disappears. In fact, once released, they simply go back to what they were doing when they were first arrested; we see this in the Acts of the Apostles. And Jesus continues:

…it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you…

The enemies of the Gospel have no ultimate answer to truth, love and justice.

Jesus also warns:

…you will be hated by all because of my name…

These words of Jesus are sad because they are true. The following of Christ can break up families. Family members have betrayed each other and handed each other over. However, once baptised, we enter a new family with new obligations. Our commitment to God, to love, to truth, to justice, to freedom, transcends obligations that arise from blood. I cannot obey a father who tells me to violate the Gospel; I cannot cooperate with a brother who urges me to do evil. It involves painful choices, but the opposite would be, in the long run, worse. This is something we can sometimes find difficult to accept. It is difficult to understand that the following of the loving and loveable Jesus can create such hostility and hatred.

When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next…

We need to be clear that Jesus never tells us to go out of our way to seek persecution or to be hated. On the contrary, we are to make Christianity as attractive as possible. We want people to share our experience of knowing and being loved by Christ.

One of the reasons why the Church spread so rapidly throughout the Roman world was precisely because of Christians fleeing from persecution. There comes a time, however, when we can run no further, or when it is clear we have to take a stand and cannot compromise.

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Friday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 46:1-7,28-30

After their emotional reunion with the brother they believed long dead, Joseph’s brothers return to their father, Jacob, laden with gifts and with an invitation for the whole extended family to return and live in the region of Goshen, to the east of the Nile in Egypt. In today’s reading we see Jacob (now being called by his given name, Israel) setting out from his home in Hebron and heading to Egypt with all his family members and all his possessions. Hebron lay to the west of the Dead Sea.

Before leaving Canaan he offers sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac at Beer-Sheba, which lay to the west of the southern end of the Dead Seas and south of Hebron on the road to Egypt. Here God speaks to Jacob in a dream. It is the last of God’s appearances to the patriarchs. He commands Jacob to go down to Egypt (the Exodus is already in view) just as he had commanded Abraham to set out for Canaan. The move is clearly presented as God’s will and not just a family decision.

God promises Jacob his protection and tells him not to be afraid to go down to Egypt. There he will make Jacob and his descendants into a great nation. God says:

I myself will go down with you to Egypt…

He also promises to bring Israel back to his ancestral land. Is there an ambiguity here with the name ‘Israel’? It can mean a promise to bring Jacob’s body back to Canaan for burial and also the promise that Israel, as a nation, will return to the Canaan after the Exodus.

And there is a promise that, in death, it will be Joseph, the son he thought he would never see again, who will close Jacob’s eyes. Jacob’s sons, together with their wives and children come to take their father to Egypt in wagons provided by the Pharaoh. The whole family—brothers, wives, children, grandchildren all move to Egypt to settle there.

On the way, Judah, the eldest son, goes ahead to arrange that Joseph should meet his father at Goshen. Joseph, riding in his official chariot, goes to meet his father. One can imagine the feelings of the old man as he saw Joseph, the son he thought was long dead, arriving in a magnificent chariot befitting his rank.

Not surprisingly, it is a very emotional meeting. Joseph throws his arms around his father’s neck and weeps for a long time on his shoulder. Jacob says to his long-lost son:

I can die now, having seen for myself that you are still alive.

Later (not in our reading), Jacob and some of his sons will be introduced to the Pharaoh and are invited to settle in Goshen, which was situated in the north-east part of the Nile Delta, a place very suitable for sheep-grazing. Jacob’s sons were shepherds.

Once again we see how what originally seemed like tragedy turn out to be a source of blessing for so many. It may help us to take a second look at events in our lives in which we wondered where God was present. Often, we may have to wait before we see the final outcome. God, as we have said more than once before, loves to write our life story with crooked lines.

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