So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows

14 JULY (Mt 10,24-33)

Jesus asks us to live the Gospel, offering Him our whole life. That is how this same truth was already announced in the Old Testament.

But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect. But the wicked shall receive a punishment to match their thoughts, since they neglected justice and forsook the Lord. For he who despises wisdom and instruction is doomed. Vain is their hope, fruitless are their labors, and worthless are their works. Their wives are foolish and their children wicked; accursed is their brood. Yes, blessed is she who, childless and undefiled, knew not transgression of the marriage bed; she shall bear fruit at the visitation of souls. So also the eunuch whose hand wrought no misdeed, who held no wicked thoughts against the Lord – For he shall be given fidelity’s choice reward and a more gratifying heritage in the Lord -Lord’s temple. For the fruit of noble struggles is a glorious one; and unfailing is the root of understanding. But the children of adulterers will remain without issue, and the progeny of an unlawful bed will disappear. For should they attain long life, they will be held in no esteem, and dishonored will their old age be at last; While should they die abruptly, they have no hope nor comfort in the day of scrutiny; for dire is the end of the wicked generation. (Wisdom 3,1-18).

The Gospel is lived up to the supreme witness, pouring out life for it. Giving life to the Gospel is finding it entirely glorious in the blissful eternity. Taking it out of the Gospel is to losing it for eternity. How do you give life to the Gospel? You give by delivering it to the truth that it contains and announces. The truth of the Gospel are the Beatitudes. Who gives life to the Gospel, must be a man, a person of the Beatitudes; that is, a person, a man, entirely consecrated to the good according to the way and the form of Jesus Christ. No complicity with evil. No act of our life might be lived in the will of men, if this is contrary to the will of God.

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.

You cannot live as Christians in secret, in hiding, in the desert, in retirement from the world. The Gospel is the witness to be made to Christ Jesus before the world. The Gospel is the leaven of the world, the salt of the earth, the light of the Gentiles. The Gospel requires a public, clear confession, always present of loyalty to it when a man asks you the truth to be lived in the intimacy of the conscience, in secret in the desert, far from the city of men, out of its institutions. The Gospel is fighting, combating against the prince of this world and this is not in the desert. It is in the heart of the city.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints make us true witnesses.