On Jesus encouraging his Apostles to suffer Persecution

From  
Meditations on the Life of Our Lord 
by J. Nouet, S.J.


Seventeenth Week After Pentecost - Saturday

1st Point. "But be aware of men.  For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge  you in their synagogues." (Matt., x. 17) The Son of God prepares his disciples for the trials that await them.  The labours of a missioner are so liable to be opposed by men, that unless armed with untiring patience, he can never effect permanent good.  "Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode.  And we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless; we are persecuted, and we suffer it.  We are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all even until now." (1 Cor.,iv. 11-13.) All this you must expect if you would labour profitably in the service of Jesus Christ.

2nd Point. "But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak.  For it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." (Matt., x, 19, 20.) Learn form this instruction of the Saviour, when treating on the duties of your ministry when persons of the world, neither to yield to anxiety, nor confide in your own judgment, because it is on the Spirit of God you should depend for necessary light.  The Spirit of God alone can know that which is of God.  It is said in the gospel to those who speak by the Spirit of God: It is not you that speak; and it may be said to all that love and practice virtue: It is not you, it is the Spirit of your heavenly Father, that loves and practises it in your person.

3rd Point. "And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another.  Amen, I say to you, you shall not finish all the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man come" (Matt., x. 23) to judge the world and crown your labour.  Death puts and end to suffering, whereas he that flies protracts his trials.  The greatest saints have been fugitives.  Jesus Christ himself, who came to save mankind by the death of the cross, was pleased to fly from the tyranny of Herod.  When he sends Apostles to convert the world, he admonishes them to shun death, that they may preserve their lives for announcing the gospel, to which they are to draw all nations, before he will come to judge the world.