In both the first reading, Acts 20: 17-22, and the Gospel, John 17: 1-11a, both St. Paul and Jesus speak about having completed the work God had given them to do. Paul states his message this way: "'You know," he says to the people of Ephesus, "how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus." Jesus says to His Father: "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him....Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. ...[T]hey have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me....And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
WOW! The confidence of Jesus in His Father and in Himself! He knew that He had completed the work the Father gave Him to do. And he also knew that the price He'd pay would be eliciting the anger of the elders, the leaders of the nation of Israel, the scribes and the Pharisees: an anger that led to himself being murdered. Jealousy led to the Pharisees, the scribes and the leaders of the nation of Israel plotting His demise. Jesus knew that was happening but that did not deter Him from proclaiming the truth, from revealing the Father's name and doing what the Father would do: heal the sick, raise the dead to life, make clean the leper, dry up the blood of a bleeding woman, make the cripple walk again, cast out demons, speak to women in public and include women in proclaiming the Kingdom, confronting unjust and hypocritical practices.
Paul, too, did not stop doing the work Christ asked of Him. No matter what Paul encountered--and he tells us that he was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned and knew that people were out to kill him--he spoke of Jesus, of His resurrection and of the need to repent of their sinfulness and follow Jesus! Who wanted to hear that message? Imagine confronting our leaders with this message or a member of our families who may have strayed! Would we risk our lives, our relationships? We know that many of the apostles fled after Jesus was arrested--no way did they want to risk the fate that Jesus was facing for standing up to truth and justice, for calling people to repentance.
Do you and I have the courage of Jesus? of St. Paul? Do we do and say what we know we are called to do and say even if the consequences put us in conflict with those who threaten us in any way? If we know that we will meet opposition to speaking the truth and doing what is right, do we still show up for Christ?
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