Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Mt 10: 16-23
July 14, 2023 | Friday

Today’s Gospel

Look, I send you out like sheep among wolves. You must be as clever as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard with people, for they will hand you over to their courts, and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, so that you may witness to them and the pagans.

But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say, or how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, speaking through you.

Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.

When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, you will not have passed through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Today’s Reflection:

The tension between religious commitment and family obligations has always been part of Christian history. Particularly, in one reading, these tensions within the family are expressed clearly in these words, “the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies are the men of his house” (Mic 7:6). Early Christian communities experienced a time when believers often had to choose between the demands of their new faith and the claims of family members who were not at the time believers. Faced with situations of conflict and betrayal, believers could draw comfort from the fact that all these had been foreseen by Jesus as He comforted us with a wider perspective of our relationship and intimacy with the “Father in heaven.”As we are reminded of these, let us also reflect on the following questions—How would you describe the situations within your household? Are there any conflicts between your natural family and your “family with the Father in heaven?” /Vulnerasti, 2023