It will lead to your giving testimony

28 NOVEMBER (Lk 21,12-19)

Let who wants to serve the Lord be prepared to loneliness, abandonment, betrayal, denial, scourge, death sentence, and crucifixion. The prophet Micah prophesied this solitude, this turning away on the part of all. He might not trust in anyone. Everyone might sell him to his enemy. He must not even trust his closest relatives. They too can betray, sell, and deliver him.

Alas! I am as when the fruit is gathered, as when the vines have been gleaned; There is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave. The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more! They all lie in wait to shed blood, each one ensnares the other. Their hands succeed at evil; the prince makes demands, The judge is had for a price, The great man speaks as he pleases, The best of them is like a brier, the most upright like a thorn hedge. The day announced by your watchmen! your punishment has come; now is the time of your confusion. Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a companion; Against her who lies in your bosom guard the portals of your mouth. For the son dishonors his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are those of his household. But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will put my trust in God my savior; my God will hear me! Rejoice not over me, O my enemy! though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light. The wrath of the Lord I will endure because I have sinned against him, Until he takes up my cause, and establishes my right. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see his justice. When my enemy sees this, shame shall cover her: She who said to me, “Where is the Lord, thy God?” My eyes shall see her downfall; now shall she be trampled underfoot, like the mire in the streets””. (Mi 7,1-10).

Samson, a very strong man, trusted his wife and this handed him over to the Philistines by revealing them the secret of his strength and of his invincibility. Everyone can become a traitor. One must trust nobody, but right nobody. It is sad, but that is how it is.

Then she said to him, “How can you say that you love me when you do not confide in me? Three times already you have mocked me, and not told me the secret of your great strength!” She importuned him continually and vexed him with her complaints till he was deathly weary of them. So he took her completely into his confidence and told her, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been consecrated to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall be as weak as any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had taken her completely into his confidence, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has opened his heart to me.” So the lords of the Philistines came and brought up the money with them. She had him sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off his seven locks of hair. Then she began to mistreat him, for his strength had left him. When she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!”, and he woke from his sleep, he thought he could make good his escape as he had done time and again, for he did not realize that the Lord had left him. But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding in the prison(Judges 16,15-21).

Today Jesus announces his disciples what their future will: they will be persecuted, delivered, renegades and betrayed. By whom? Parents, brothers, relatives and friends. Every person could be the enemy to be aware of. One cannot have faith in anyone.

“Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

The disciple of Jesus is entirely in the hands of his Lord and God. Never might he put himself in the hands of a man. With this faith, he will have to go through history. With this certainty he must carry out, live his mission. His life is in God and no one else. The Lord will make of him what he pleases. If he wants him to go to death, he will go to death; on the contrary, if he called him for life, then he will stay alive.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us only of the Lord.