Jer.38:8-10; Heb.12:1-4; Lk.12:49-53
Maria
Teresa Goretti was born to a farming family, in Italy in 1890. Her father
died when she was nine, and they had to share a house with another family, the
Serenellis. Maria took over household duties while her mother, brothers, and
sister worked in the fields.
On July
5, 1902, eleven-year-old Maria was sitting on the outside steps of her home,
while Alessandro, a 22 year old young man of the Serenellis family, was
threshing beans in the barnyard. Knowing she would be alone, he
returned to the house and threatened to stab her with an awl if she did not do
what he said. She would not submit. She protested that what he wanted to do was
a mortal sin and warned him that he would go to Hell. She fought
desperately and kept screaming, "No! It is a sin! God does not want
it!" He first choked her, but when she insisted she would rather die than
submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times. It is a great example resisting sin
to the point of shedding blood.
In the
second reading we hear the words of St Paul. "Consider Jesus who
endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow
weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to
the point of shedding your blood." [Heb. 12:1-4]
St. John
Nepomucene was an example of the protection of sacramental secrecy, being the
first martyr who preferred to die rather than reveal the secret of confession. Then
he was Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Prague and served as confessor of
Sofia of Bavaria, the wife of King Wenceslaus. The king, who had infamous
outbursts of anger and jealousy, ordered the priest to reveal the sins of his
wife. The saint's refusal infuriated Wenceslaus, who threatened to kill the
priest if he did not tell him his wife's secrets. Filled with rage, the king
ordered the torture of the saint, whose body was then thrown to the Vltava
River in 1393. There are many priests, nuns and believers who readily shed
blood while resisting to sin.
During
today's First Reading, we heard how Jeremiah was mistreated by the king and his
officials. These persons of authority did not appreciate hearing the Word of
God that was being prophesied through the mouth of Jeremiah. While it cannot be
denied that Jeremiah was delivering bad news, such was being done in obedience
and servitude to God. In truth, it was not Jeremiah who was speaking but rather
it was God who was speaking through Jeremiah. As such, when the king and his
officials rejected what they heard, they did not reject Jeremiah, they were
rejecting God Himself. When they mistreated Jeremiah by throwing him in the
cistern of Malchiah, their actions were directed towards God.
The
Christian's resistance against sin, all that is evil, is an on going battle.
During today's reading from the Gospel of Luke, we heard Jesus say, "I
came to bring fire to the earth [Lk. 12:49]
The
message that Jesus brought caused conflict in the society. Conflict between
people who stood for truth and people who resisted it; conflict between people
who accepted good and people who sided with evil; conflict between people who
cherished love and people who spread hatred. So Jesus spoke to the crowd,
"Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell
you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided,
three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against
son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against
mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against
mother-in-law." [Lk. 12:49-53]
As Jesus
predicted it caused great division in the society. At the time of Jesus
himself there were many religious leaders who accepted the message of
Jesus. Among these was Jairus, a Jewish synagogue official in Capernaum,
who received his daughter back from the grave. Like Nicodemus in Jerusalem, who
came at night to ask how to be born-again. Then there were others who
believed, but didn't act. On the other hand some sought to annihilate him. They
abhorred his healing on the Sabbath day. They resented the fact that his
disciples did not always carry out ceremonial washings before eating. Most of
all they were intensely jealous of Jesus' popularity. And they found
insufferable the possibility that their nation might turn to Him.
There
were multitudes of crows following Jesus at the same time there was a
group that came to arrest him. "When the time came for His death, a great
multitude with swords and clubs from the chief priests and elders of the people
came and arrested Him." They clamoured for Barabbas.
This
division was all the more evident in the early Christian community. And this
division exists even today. There is the conflict between good evil. There is
the conflict between people who keep the commands of the Lord and people who
disregard them. There is the conflict between people who respect the rights of
others and the people who ignore them. There is the conflict between the people
who keep the precepts of the church and the people who vehemently
oppose them.
Saint
Paul reminds us that we as Christians must resist sin. Why? It is because, that
we may not grow weary or lose heart, Jesus endured great hostility against
himself from sinners.
If we
choose to stand by the side of justice we will have to endure persecutions
of various types and intensity, from the family and from the society. The
experience of Jesus and the Apostles is the greatest proof for it. As St Paul
instructs us let us draw courage from the life of Jesus, from the life of the
Apostles, from the life of saints, and many of our own brethren who endue
persecution as they stand for justice. Take courage to do whatever little we
can.
May God
bless us.
Satish