Everyone who acknowledges me before others
Rm 4,13.16-18; Ps 104; Lk 12,8-12
19 OCTOBER
Whoever wants to recognize Jesus before men must begin with an exemplary Gospel life in everything. He must make the Sermon on the Mount his robe, not letting it wear out, but renewing it day after day and making it become ever brighter. One starts from being true salt and true light. But this still is not enough. We must remember the Word of Jesus to every man. The Gospel must be known by the whole world and each according to the sacrament received is obliged to make it resound in every heart. There is also a third thing that must never be forgotten. We must attest to what Christ personally did for us, even at the price of pouring our blood. Life is given to Christ Jesus. If He wants blood, blood let it be. If He wants only the Word, only Word let it be. The choice is his. Paul in Jerusalem before the Sanhedrin, knowing that he could also have shed his blood, testifies who he was before he was called and why he became what he became. Nothing was from his will. Everything is by the will of the Lord.
“My brothers and fathers, listen to what I am about to say to you in my defence.” When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew they became all the more quiet. And he continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well. “On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’ My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’ Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.
“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’ “After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry, leave Jerusalem at once, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ But I replied, ‘Lord, they themselves know that from synagogue to synagogue I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I myself stood by giving my approval and keeping guard over the cloaks of his murderers.’ Then he said to me, ‘Go, I shall send you far away to the Gentiles'” (At 22,1-21).
Martyrdom must not be chosen by the disciple, but by the Master. It is the Master, in the Holy Spirit, who knows which way to go through to make the testimony more effective. If blood is needed it will be the blood, if beatings, beatings, if insults, insults, if courts, courts and if the Golgotha Golgotha.
I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defence will be or about what you are to say. For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
Whoever wants to be recognized by Jesus before his Father, in heaven, is obliged to recognize Jesus on earth, before men. An obligation that never fails.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that we always bear witness to Christ Jesus.