This weekend, the Gospel reading is from Matthew 10, where Jesus is teaching His disciples to bravely spread the Gospel. When we suffer persecution because of spreading the Gospel, there is a temptation to stop or water down the message. But Jesus gave the duty to evangelize to His disciples, and we cannot hear the message of God unless it is through their work. Jesus taught openly and was nailed to the Cross as a result. When we spread the Gospel like He did, we will also be martyred. The world can only harm our mortal bodies and not our souls. We ought to be afraid, therefore, only of the God who can send our souls into Hell. God will acknowledge those who acknowledged Him before other humans, but those who denied God in order to save their earthly lives will also be denied by God at the Judgment. St. Matthew’s writings are not meant only for Jesus’ disciples, but for all believers, so that we might learn to not compromise to the world and reject Christ. Jesus’ evangelizing had two approaches: firstly, to openly proclaim the Gospel; and secondly, to move on in the face of rejection. The Church also first spreads the light of the Gospel throughout the world in order to see who will accept the Gospel and who will reject it; then, having seen their reactions, she decides on further action.
「Spiritual Talk」Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fr. Anthony Ho
