Luke’s Gospel reading is one that fundamentalist, Bible-thumping preachers would love because it speaks of the “hell, fire and brimstone” that will occur before Christ returns. That’s not the God that I know; the God who walks with me and forgives me when I stumble. Are we in the end times today? Maybe yes, maybe no. Although Christ mentions the signs of his return, and many of these signs are around us today, many of these signs also appeared in the past.
We often want to know what the future looks like. That’s why some people resort to seeing false prophets or teachers such as psychics and fortune-tellers. We have the only true psychic and fortune teller, and his name is Jesus. In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells us and the disciples what the future will be like, and he does not pull any punches. The future will not be easy for his followers as they do his work in our world. We must make our brothers and sisters in Christ (as well as the lost) feel the real need to be a part of the worshipping community.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus foresees the opposition which we, His followers, will face. So, like a great general leading his troops into battle, He sets out to give us encouragement and strengthen our resolve to stand firm.
First, he foretells the kind of dangers that lie ahead. Christ’s followers would be persecuted, just as He was. They would be driven from the synagogues for preaching in the name of Jesus. They would be arraigned in both pagan and Jewish courts. So great would be the opposition to the followers of Jesus that it would split families. In fact, all this has proved to be true throughout the history of the Church.
Since we could easily become discouraged after these dire warnings, Jesus then reassures. Opposition to our faith can provide us with the opportunity of explaining and defending it. That was certainly true when the apostles were brought before the courts. Less dramatically, that can be true for us whenever someone challenges our faith and Christian way of life, or simply wants to know more about what we believe.
But that in itself may be intimidating. We may well fear that we won’t be up to explaining our faith. We may fear that we don’t have sufficient understanding and eloquence. It’s a healthy attitude, which prevents us becoming conceited or complacent – providing it doesn’t become paralyzing.
So, Jesus reassures us for when we are called to witness to Him; instead of relying on our human powers of persuasion we should trust in the help He gives us in spreading the Good News.
In other words, God commits Himself to helping us when He calls us to do His work. That Spirit is at work, both in us – in sharing the Good News – and also in those who hear it. The word of God itself is, indeed, alive and active. Thank God the outcome of our labours does not depend upon our feeble human efforts alone!
But we do have to play our part, as the Spirit assists us by helping to draw upon the faith, which we have come to know and love through years of prayerful reflection.
Luke’s Gospel ends on an up-beat note. When Jesus finally comes in glory, He will welcome into His kingdom all who have stood by Him, especially when our faith has been severely tested. Even if our bodies have been destroyed through martyrdom they will be renewed and glorified in the resurrection. That, I think, is what Jesus implies here when He says that not a hair of our heads will be destroyed.
Today’s Gospel gives Jesus’ prophetic warning to the apostles and disciples about the sufferings they will have to bear for their Faith in Him until Jesus’ Second Coming. Jesus advises them to bear witness to Him in spite of persecutions, for those persecutions would also encourage the disciples to flee to remote places and to preach the Gospel among the Jews and the Gentiles. Believers, Jesus warns, will be locked up in prisons and brought for trial before kings and governors. Jesus assures them that the Holy Spirit will give them words of defense and witness-bearing. Since there will be divisions in families between believers and non-believers, Jesus declares, close relatives will betray their Christian family members to the pagan authorities and cause their martyrdom. But Jesus assures the disciples in today’s Gospel passage that their suffering for Him will be amply rewarded.
As outcasts in our contemporary materialistic, secular, liberal, agnostic, and atheistic society, we are called to bear witness to Christ by loving those who hate us, by showing mercy and compassion to those who hurt and ill-treat us, by forgiving those who continue to offend us, by accepting our sufferings without complaint, and by continuing to keep Jesus’ word in our lives.
–Dcn. Terry Murphy