Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Course 2025
Let’s honestly look at St. Matthew’s story in today’s Gospel, and the lesson that Jesus is trying to teach us disciples. Admit it. You don’t like what Jesus is saying, and neither do I. A little flock of sheep in the midst of a band of wolves is not the kind of vision we have for our families. It’s scary, just as it’s scary to see some of the videos available daily in the news and on social media. We stand up and defend the freedom of speech and of religion, and know that there are thousands of people and hundreds of organizations that would like to put clamps on those very freedoms. In certain cities if we simply pray in front of abortion clinics and try to show compassionate care to women going into them, police will try to harass and detain us. A national political figure spoke at a rally and someone in the crowd yelled “Jesus is Lord,” but was told that he belonged in the rally down the street. That candidate lost the election, but the incident is terrifying evidence that the glory of God is way down the list of priorities in the lives of many of our fellow Americans.
It’s important to remember the promise in the middle of our Lord’s sermon: “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Just as an aside, when I teach homiletics, I tell the deacon candidates that Jesus is not telling us to ad lib all our sermons. The promise is for us being hauled before courts for our faith in Christ. That’s when the Spirit works, as was the case with deacon Stephen before the Sanhedrin.) We should understand Scripture and stay focused on Christ as His teachings, so that the Spirit can tell us what to say to defend the Truth, whenever and wherever we are challenged.
The patriarch Israel, born Jacob, is pictured today in Genesis as a very old man being called to leave the land promised to him years before, and move to Egypt, where there is food for his family. Joseph, his son, is using his position as prime minister of Pharaoh to permit this to happen. Like any divine challenge, then and now, it took a mighty work of faith in this patriarch to make that change.
What challenge is God asking of you today? Certainly it is to take the graces you receive from Christ as we pray in this hour and apply them to your life of prayer and action. There may be a bigger “ask” God is making of you, one that affects your whole family. Make certain every member of your family understands God’s call you may feel, to the limit of their ability. Ask others to pray with you over big decisions like changing cities or states. And use careful discernment. Picture yourself and your family making the change, and ask if all of you feel peace or anxiety, even if you are imagining the best possible outcomes. Act for the praise of God’s glory, or don’t make the change. Always keep in mind that we are all first of all God’s servants and children.
