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Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 25, 2023
Jeremiah said:
"I hear the whisperings of many:
'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
'Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.'
But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O Lord of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!"
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother's children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
I pray to you, O Lord,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O Lord, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the Lord hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!''
Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
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."
Part I
"Truth be told..."
This old saying could be used in different ways. In ordinary conversation I think the most obvious meaning goes something like this: 'If I'm going to tell the whole truth...' So how is it that we don't tell the whole truth?
I think what makes us hesitate or leave something out is because the whole truth is likely to hurt, either oneself or someone else, and we try to avoid hurting (especiaally the self). The more serious the issue the more damaging could be the hurt.(1)
We all have our secrets that are meant never to be told. They might be about the hurts we've inflicted on someone, and we hope they've gotten over it almost as much as we hope they'll never spill the beans on us, particularly if we've abused them or bullied them in some way.
In thecurrent mood of society the gospel axiom, “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known” is part of the menu for the daily news bulletins. Who said the gospel is irrelevant?
All manner of things are being brought to the light. The callousness of tyrants, everyday bullying institutionalised in our work places, cover-ups of criminal activities are being exposed by victims desperate for justice, by whistle-blowers and by journalists. Vengeful attacks are mounted in defence. Nothing angers the tyrant as much as the raw courage of those who stand up to bullies with the naked truth and a determination to expose their secret injustices. What is particularly heroic in those who expose falsehood is that they themselves will be exposed to further injustice in being silenced or even imprisoned, since there is no law to protect the whistleblower.
Telling the truth is healing.
Yet telling the truth, 'confessing one's sins', is healing for everyone - perpetator, victim and society itself. The acknowledgement of wrong-doing restores a degree of rightness; it takes away the added injustice of lying to a victim in denying the facts of what happened; and the exposure of dark secrets in one's heart is healing for everyone. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are attempts to heal a community at large.
“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” Jeshua tells those he commissions to speak the truth to power. I wonder do Christians see this as their primary contribution in the healing of the world's crippling falsehood? Jeshua certainly did when, before Pilate, he summed up his whole life and mission in six words: to bear witness to the truth. As with a festering wound, the putrefaction must be exposed, the puss squeezed out and cleaned for healing to begin; so too, the darkness that enshrouds even our most honoured institutions has to be dispelled by light, the light of the truth. Whose job is it?
Part II
What does this gospel say?
If we read the whole chapter, even going back to the last lines of chapter 9, where we see that Jeshua said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” So he chose his twelve and sent them out “with the following instructions...”
So Chapter 10 contains a code of practice for apostles. This code can be compared with the general code laid out for all who would belong to the “Kingdom of Heaven”, the "Godly World" that Jeshua envisaged. However it differs in some important ways.
In the sermon on the mount (Mt 6-8) Jeshua first up-ends the pattern of values we instinctively follow in normal life. Instead of the rich holding pride of place through the power which their wealth gives them, in a godly world the poor are better off, better situated. While most of us are happy to be able to buy anything we want, those who don't know where their next meal is coming from are better placed. Rather than the bullies who can shove people around to suit their needs, it's those who are caring, merciful and gentle who have the right attitude. And in a world where the powerful can manipulate the 'truth' just by saying over and over what is plainly false, it is those who have a burning hunger for justice and truth that have God's blessing.
The entire 'sermon' is a collection of axioms that illustrate what is entailed in living a godly life. They are presented as injunctions that are already common practice, but now given a positive twist that amounts to saying: Look at where the law is pointing and try to go the whole way towards that goal. No half measures. Be 'perfect' as your heavenly Father is perfect in loving without limits, in giving generously, full measure, pressed down and flowing over, poured into our laps.
Speaking to apostles
The injunctions in Chapter 10 are more demanding. Jeshua instructs his missioners to not take payment in any form. Freely you have received, give God's blessings for free, as you go about putting hope into dead hearts, life into dead communities. But there will be a price to pay because it will be tough work, and dangerous.
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.”
After some horrendous examples of how bad it will get, Jeshua points to his own fateful life as the standard of one who would speak out in witness to the truth: “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!”
I would think both the gospel writer and his readers already knew what happened to Jeshua,(2) and how it turned out that he was the winner after all. He won out even over death. So, he says, don't be afraid of them, (3) because their selfish, mercenary motives and secret alliances will all be disclosed, their little secrets will be made known, and in the end, though they kill all the prophets, they will not win.
And what of us?
How might we apply this to ourselves. We need to be careful if we are going to get it right. Remember that the general, positive and relatively benign injunctions of the sermon on the mount are the guide to living an ordinary life as an average follower. We should not be discouraged because what we read here seems utterly beyond us, nor should a preacher make a church-full of people feel bad about themselves. Actually they mostly won't feel bad; they'll just shrug their shoulders and think: More pie in the sky. To be practical this bloke needs to get in touch with the real world.
Still, we can find heroic witnesses among 'ordinary' people everywhere. Remember how frequently our nightly news bulletins feature someone speaking out the truth, to the dismay of some offender. Or someone blowing the whistle on an employer or a major corporation. There can be no doubt these are martyrs [witnesses] to the cause of truth, whatever might be their personal philosophy or faith. For us to do as much, at least in the small circumstances of our lives, and to do it in the name of the Word, the Truth, and with the power of the Spirit working quietly within.
Check out the first reading where an anguished whistle-blower, Jeremiah, tells of threats against him and finds words to express his trust in the Lord.
And the Psalm, another prayer for when they're getting at us. And let's pray for all those who are speaking out. It's almost as though the age-old fashion, beloved of autocrats, 'the keeping dark secrets', is becoming unfashionable. Let's hope!
(1) Curiously, lying is not listed as one of the seven deadly sins, even though the gospels make a major isssue of it, with Jeshua charging the pharisees for being children of the devil, the father of lies. Likewise it is not a stand-out in catechetical instruction or in Sunday sermons. I wonder why?
(2)The gospels we were given written form around AD 80, after the city and the temple had been destroyed by the Roman armies under Titus in AD 70.
(3) In he text set down above vs 26 reads "Fear no one". But Jeshua is seting a standard for his apostles in the context of persecutions they will face from the powerful of the world. He says they will win in the end, as he himself will, "So, don't be afraid of them".