Do not fear rejection

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052719.cfm
Acts 16:11-15
John 15:26-27

Last week John talked about Jesus preparing His disciples for His great marketing plan.  This week He is preparing them for what they will face.

Preceding this week’s reading Jesus is telling the disciples that if the world hates you it has hated me before you. . . Remember . . . the servant is not greater than his Lord.  If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also.  

The readings from John 15 into the first few verses of John 16 are warning to the disciples about what they are to face.  He also advises them that “the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, will testify about me.  You also will testify because you have known me from the beginning”.  Now I am sure that the disciples were just as confused as I would have been.  Who exactly is this Advocate/Holy Spirit He is talking about and where exactly is he coming from?  How will He impart knowledge to me?  I would have been thinking that the Advocate would be another prophet or, in a worst case scenario, a lawyer.  I would never have imagined the tongues of fire and the overwhelming feeling of being filled with incredible knowledge and courage.  So much so that death would no longer be something to fear, but, rather, something to be embraced as a gift from God.

Up to this point in the reading we are left with the feeling that this is all well and good for them, but what about us.  Face it, Christianity is the most persecuted faith in the world today.  Look at the slaughter of men, women and children in the Middle East and Africa, the very land where Jesus once lived.  How about China?  They are demolishing churches everywhere and doing everything in their power to destroy Christianity.  This, unfortunately, is not limited to just the Middle East, Africa and China.  It is going on around the world.  In many places it is not as obvious, but rather a sanitized persecution in the name of political correctness and inclusion.  

As mentioned earlier, Jesus was telling them that they would testify about Him because they had known Him from the beginning.  Well, here we have to remember that we did not know Jesus in person when He was living among us.  However, we have scripture.  By reading scripture with an open mind and heart we can begin to know Jesus from the beginning.   

What about the Advocate coming to them?   When we were baptized we were filled with the Holy Spirit and cleansed of our Original Sin.  When we were confirmed the Bishop laid his hands on our head exactly as the apostles did to those being converted two thousand years ago.  The point of confirmation was to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we too could know our Lord and defend our faith.  As a matter of fact, in our days, the Bishop would give us a little slap on the face to remind us that we too would face persecution at times when we stepped out as Christians.  So, in many ways, we have been prepared in much the same way as the apostles and disciples.  I have to admit that I was not as aware of the meaning of confirmation as I should have been.  For me it was simply another step in my life as Catholic.  I was more afraid of what the Bishop would ask me in front of everybody.  Today, in the Evangelical movement both among Protestants and Catholics, the whole meaning of laying on hands and being filled with the Spirit is getting back to that really “Old Time Religion”.

The reading goes on with even more bad news.  Chapter 16 starts out with “I have told you this so that you may not fall away.”  He tells them that they would be expelled from the synagogues.  Can you imagine being told that you cannot go to church anymore?  Think about the Russians when their nice churches and cathedrals were turned into museums and the rest were demolished.  What would you think of having mass in silence and in total secrecy for fear of torture and execution?  Jesus tells them that those that will kill you will think they are offering worship to God.  The Islamic extremists come to mind.  But, what about St. Paul?  He thought he was doing God’s work in persecuting and killing Christians.  If it were not for Divine intervention, he may have continued in his pursuit of destroying Christians.

Jesus goes on to tell them that they do this because they did not know the Father or Him.  Does that not resemble what is going on in our world today?  With the rise of secularism, atheism, and, even, Satanism, their obvious targets are Christians, practicing Jews and devout moderate Muslims.  After all, these groups are causing them grief by fighting abortion, rampant sexual freedom at the expense of the sacrament of marriage, the abuse of children, broken families, drug use, alcoholism and many other addictions.  This is what they call freedom.  But that is not freedom.  Jim Caviezel, the actor that played Christ in “The Passion of the Christ” and devout Catholic, says, “Freedom is not the ability to do what you want but the ability to do what you ought.”  We live in a democracy, but it cannot continue to exist without a moral compass.  We are called to give ourselves over to God.  Isn’t that what all the great saints did?  Didn’t the apostles and disciples go out to bring people to Christ in spite of the threats of torture and execution?  Of course they did.  Saints were not born to blend into the crowd but to stand out.  To do this we have to pray, read scripture, fast, go to confession, and receive the Eucharist while recalling that it is in fact the body and blood of Christ.  Our Father has provided the assistance of the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the right words when we need them.  He sent his only Son to show us the way and the truth and the life and to sacrifice His life for us.  Now we are called to follow in His footsteps.  

One Saint in our time was Maximilian Kolbe and a model of standing out for his faith.  Polish born, he and his brother joined the Conventual Franciscans.  He went on to serve in missions in East Asia.  At the start of WWII Kolbe returned to Poland because of ill health.  There he set up a monastery and radio station.  When their town was overrun by the Germans he was arrested.  Later he was released and resumed his broadcasts despite severe warnings.  At the monastery he and the other friars hid 2000 Jews from the Germans.  He also published a number of anti-Nazi papers.   Eventually he and four other friars were arrested and sent to Auschwitz.  There he continued to serve as a priest.  For this he suffered severe beatings and lashings.  At the end of 1941 a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz.  In the event of an escape ten prisoners would be selected to be locked in a cell without food or water until they died.  When the ten were selected, one of the men, a Jew, had a wife and child.  Kolbe asked the commandant if he could substitute for the prisoner with the family.  Some of the prisoners thought that now they would execute him in addition to the ten already selected.  By Divine providence the commandant agreed to the substitution. After two weeks without food and water all the prisoners except Kolbe had died.  The guards wanted the cell emptied so they injected him with carbolic acid which causes a painful death.  The family that he saved survived Auschwitz and testified on Kolbe’s behalf at his canonization. 

St. Maximillian Kolbe said that the greatest sin of the 20th century is indifference.  Even though he was martyred in 1941, I believe that this is still true.  Fortunately there are people out there willing to risk their very livelihood to stand for their faith.  Three that come to mind are the owners of Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby and My Pillow.  Their stand on their faith has put them up against unwarranted attacks that could have ruined their businesses.  Mike Lindell of My Pillow helped finance the movie “Unplanned” and actually had a bit part in the movie.  When asked if he feared repercussions from his support of the movie he stated that he would not back down from what he believed regardless of the consequences.  

The question to ponder at the end of the day is whether we are indifferent to the demands put on us by a secular society or do we stand out for our faith.