Jesus said to the disciples: “Be on your guard, for people will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.” – Matthew 10:17-22
What in the world is going on? Yesterday was Christmas. Now all of a sudden we get a gloomy Gospel passage like this.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first recorded martyr in Christianity. Since the fifth century, his martyrdom has been celebrated on the day after Christmas. It is a reminder that belief in the child born on Christmas can be costly.
This Gospel passage is from a section in Matthew in which Jesus is preparing to send the Twelve out into the world. He tells them that just as the share in his mission, so they will share in his persecution and martyrdom.
It’s not likely that we will be killed because we are Christian.On the other hand, the Christian way of life is, at times, out of step with what would be called normal standards. We could sometimes get “killed” by others, figuratively speaking.
Not only we could. We have. And we can probably anticipate it happening again.
Talk to the Lord about this.
- Little Blue Book, December 26
What in the world is going on? Yesterday was Christmas. Now all of a sudden we get a gloomy Gospel passage like this.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first recorded martyr in Christianity. Since the fifth century, his martyrdom has been celebrated on the day after Christmas. It is a reminder that belief in the child born on Christmas can be costly.
This Gospel passage is from a section in Matthew in which Jesus is preparing to send the Twelve out into the world. He tells them that just as the share in his mission, so they will share in his persecution and martyrdom.
It’s not likely that we will be killed because we are Christian.On the other hand, the Christian way of life is, at times, out of step with what would be called normal standards. We could sometimes get “killed” by others, figuratively speaking.
Not only we could. We have. And we can probably anticipate it happening again.
Talk to the Lord about this.
- Little Blue Book, December 26
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