They Will Also Persecute You
As they traveled from city to city, they handed on to the people for
observance the decisions reached by the Apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem. Day
after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number. Acts 16:4-5
“Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they
will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my
name because they do not know the one who sent me.” John 15:20-21
Piety
“May the profound theology of
Saint Oscar Romero, molded in the furnace of El Salvador, bring light to our
dark times.”[i]
Study
There is a great cultural
contradiction in what Jesus commands and what the world expects. Today’s Gospel points out that when the world
realizes this contradiction, it will react with hostility. The other synoptic gospels expound on the
theme of “predicting persecution.” John is not alone in relating these words
from Christ. See Matthew 10:17–25 or 24:9–10.
And the message crosses the millennia. Landing in my “snail” mailbox this week was The
Houston Catholic Worker, the periodical published on paper and online by Casa
Juan Diego. Every page is devoted to the cultural and economic conflict between
a religion that is commanded to break the shackles of poverty, self-interest,
and power. Every article brings the
Gospel vision to life thanks to the inspiration of martyred St. Oscar Romero on
the author and her family. St. Oscar lived John 15 not only through the poverty
of El Salvador but through the bullets that rang out in church and struck him
down.
Action
Jesus and St. Oscar remind us
that we have a responsibility to help the people, especially the poor. They are
the Image of Christ Today and arrive on our doorsteps seeking recognition. Louise Zwick, writing about the intersection
of Romero’s theological vision and modern culture reminds us:
We need to learn to see again. We need to learn to
see Christ’s glory in the families refused entrance to the United States to
apply for asylum after a long, terrible journey, in the faces of children
separated from their parents, in the suffering parents trying to reclaim their
children, in the poor children held in cages, in the children abused in
immigration custody in privatized detention centers, in those who are deported
to a bleak future in their own countries. And beyond, for example, in the
thousands of children dying of hunger in countries like Yemen in a war in which
the United States supplies the weapons.[ii]
Where do you see the poor? When do you hear their cry? How can you bring light, not persecution, to
their lives?
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| San Oscar Romer, Presente! |
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