Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?

12 JULY (Mt 10,24-33)

One could be tempted, for fear of persecution, of being a hidden disciple of Lord Jesus. He is a disciple, but without anybody knowing anything about it. In this way, his life will never be exposed to martyrdom, to ridicule, to scorn, to all those evil words and deeds by men. Who falls into this temptation attests to the whole world to be filled in the hearts and minds of an unspeakable folly.

Christianity is not a mathematical theorem that you can hide in your mind and heart. It is a true system of concrete, real and practical life, embracing not only our mind, our soul and our spirit. It invests all of our body, our earthly existence, all our visibility, our choices, our daily habits, every word that comes out of our mouths and every operation of our hands. Since man is visibility and the Gospel being a way of life, never might one be a hidden disciples of Lord Jesus. He can be hidden disciples only if one is not a disciple at all. If you are a disciple you are necessarily also one in visibility.

Today, this temptation is unleashing with a fury never known before. It wants every disciple of Jesus to live his faith in Christ only when he is in his home, in the privacy of his home. Choosing to go to church on Sundays also creates much nuisance, because it forces you to declare not practicable certain roads now considered indispensable to modern progress and the current society. They speak of the opening of stores that compels to deny Sunday as the true Lord’s day. Faith must be excluded from schools, offices, by politics, by science, by technology, by sports, by leisure, by weekdays and even holidays. They want a Christian without any visible sign that reveals his belonging to  Lord Jesus.

The Word of Jesus that the disciple of Jesus follows, does not concern his soul. It regards instead his whole body. It’s his body that speaks Christian. Until the body will not speak Christian, no one might say and profess to be a disciple of the Lord. But what does it mean for our bodies to speak Christian? It means that every action that comes out of our body, both as words and as works, both as a decision and as a council, both as a political commitment or of any other nature, must breathe the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faced with an invitation to bring my body in falsehood, lies, in the approval of iniquity and of any other wickedness, I have to keep my body in the truth of Lord Jesus.

No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

If I have to keep my body in the truth of Lord Jesus, never might I live secretly my being his disciple. It would be extremely impossible to declare not in conformity to my nature leading the body into falsehood and then staying hidden as a disciple of the Lord. Man is an indissoluble and inseparable person. Soul and body are one. For this reason, it is just inconceivable what modern society offers to the Christian: living his faith in the secrecy of his conscience.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us visible disciples of Jesus.