St. Joseph of the Lakes

“...and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.  It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute” (Lk 21:18)

We are coming to the end of the Church’s year. We close next Sunday with the feast of Christ the King. This Sunday we traditionally reflect on the end of time. It is not presented as a pleasant moment; in fact, it is downright terrifying. In the first reading we hear the prophet Malachi say: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch,”  Jesus continues this perspective throughout today’s Gospel reading, but in the midst of this doom and gloom I find it comforting that Jesus promises to give us a wisdom in speaking. 

Since the great separation of the Christian Church in the Protestant reformation, we Christians have been turning that wisdom on each other attempting to prove that one group is right and the other then must be wrong. Instead of working together as a diverse yet singular group of believers in Jesus Christ, we belittle the experiences of one congregation or another. I have heard Eagle Brook church being described as a “grandstand”. I have endured being insulted for believing in the Divine Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. There are those who make fun of our statues and our relationship with Mary and the saints. Too often I have heard one Catholic or the other saying that the Protestant Churches aren’t real. Sometimes this talk has been encouraged by the clergy of all congregations. 

I do not think the promise of Jesus to give us wisdom was meant to be twisted into itself, but instead it was to be directed outwardly to those who do not believe in Christ. It is a wisdom that grows out of a personal relationship with Jesus and through it we will speak in a heartfelt way to the non-believer. Our task is not to somehow prove that we are right and the other is wrong, instead we are to win over the non-believer so that they too can share the joy that our faith brings to us. Do not worry about being caught in an argument and not having the right answer, instead trust in your relationship with Jesus and let His Spirit guide your words.