Christ came into the world for all of humanity. Christianity was able to spread far and wide because it was the one faith that did not discriminate based on status, nationality, wealth, or any other distinctions so prevalent in the past two thousand years. When we read the Gospels, we are fortunate enough to hear instructions from Christ that are addressed to each one of us directly. However, there are instances in the Gospel when we encounter something Jesus says that seems contrary to what we commonly understand about him. We are confident that Jesus came to save all of humanity, but in this Gospel passage, he instructs the twelve Apostles to avoid the pagans and Samaritans, and focus exclusively on those within the house of Israel to minister to. 

While it is true that Jesus is directing the words of the Gospel to his followers at all times of the Church, he does address specific groups within his Church exclusively. We first need to understand the formation and history of the Church as we know it today, consisting of a hierarchy with bishops as the shepherds, priests as mediators, and the laity as the flock. All bishops today are the successors of the original twelve Apostles due to Apostolic succession and episcopal consecration. We must understand that when Jesus addresses his twelve Apostles alone in the Gospels, he is addressing the leaders of the Church at any point in the history of the Church. If he wants to address us as the laity, he will speak to his disciples. If he wants to address the world, he will speak to the crowds. If he wants to address his vicar, he will speak to Peter alone. This gospel is not a directive to us as disciples of Christ; it is a directive to the bishops of the world today. Do not go seeking out trying to minister to the world when so many of us within “our house,” the Catholic Church, are lost, have been led astray, or in error. This is an especially pertinent message to the Church today: we are constantly being tempted to follow the ways of the world, to focus on elevating humanity rather than elevating God, to change the teachings of the Church because it does not conform to modernity. Fundamentally, bishops are human beings with human wills. They are just as easily swayed as we are, but by the power bestowed upon them by their office, they can be led by the Holy Spirit to the truth if they open their hearts. However, they are also susceptible to deviating from their office and their responsibilities, like Judas Iscariot.

These reflections always focus on us as the individuals within the Church, but through the reflection for this Gospel passage, we should focus on our shepherds of the Church, the bishops. Not all of us within the Church laity are lost because we rejoice in the hope of our Tradition and in the Gospel, but many who consider themselves Catholics need urgent ministry and catechism just as those who belonged to the house of Israel did when Jesus ministered. Jesus places this responsibility on his chosen twelve. It is the responsibility of our bishops to minister to us so that we, in turn, can go out into the world and minister as the disciples did. Pray for our bishops, pray for the Pope, and help them in whatever way you can to go out to the lost sheep of our own house so that as a unified body, we can properly evangelize to the world.

The discussion of wealth within the Catholic Church can be quite a contentious issue. We initially seem to be at odds: we preach and practice service to the poor and charity is at the heart of our faith, but our churches are beautifully adorned with precious metals and expensive designs while our leaders appear to be decked out in lavish liturgical vestments that seems to contradict the message of the Gospel. Christ came into this world taking upon himself the identity of a poor man, but it is truly unjust to simplify his humanity in terms of economic status alone. To say that Jesus was a “poor man” means far more than the fact that he did not have very much money. It speaks to what he took upon himself in character, and what we as individuals are called to take upon ourselves by following him.

By all measures, Jesus was not raised in a “wealthy” family. The man who raised him, St. Joseph, was a builder in a simple but populated area in Galilee. From what we know about the dynamics of their society, Joseph would have made a comfortable living for his family, but not much more than that. However, Jesus came into this world in a manger amid animals hidden away from the city of Bethlehem. It didn’t matter if his parents had the financial means to have a more comfortable birth because there was nowhere in Bethlehem that could house them; God chose to come into the world in this very humble manner. Jesus would have also been an apprentice to his father, but he decided to forego a stable living by going off on his own mission to spread his message throughout Judea and Galilee, yet another example of Christ taking on poverty rather than merely being born into it. Most importantly, though, he called his closest followers, the twelve men that would carry on the Gospel after his time on earth had ended, to adopt this life of poverty, as well. They didn’t have to do this: Matthew was making a very good living as a tax collector, Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen in an area that depended on the fishing business, and even Judas was put in charge of the community’s money bag. But Christ instructs them: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick.” The value of their work is not their poverty, but their poverty speaks of the value of the Gospel that they share.

So what about the Church today? What about our beautiful churches, the rich vestments, the priceless art? None of these things are for the glorification of man; all of these things are for the glorification of God. We should utilize the greatest accomplishments of men exclusively for the glorification of God, whether that be in art, architecture, aesthetics, or riches. For the three years of his public ministry, Christ depended on the charity of those who had the means to fund his ministry. When one of these anointed him with expensive perfumed oil, we hear the same tired words of the scandalized: we could have sold it and used the money for the poor. But Christ tells us that we will always have the poor, but we will not always have him. When it comes to our individual needs, we must take on the poverty of Christ. But when it comes to glorifying God, we must give all we have for the sake of worshiping the one who gave of his entire self to us.

Trust serves as the foundation of discipleship, but what happens when we want people to follow our example without establishing a level of trust beforehand? The truth is that it is quite difficult to have people listen to you and follow you if you haven’t been able to gain their trust. But the uncomfortable truth is that trustworthiness is not the only thing that motivates someone to follow you. Christ’s mission was trustworthy from beginning to end - everything he proclaimed, everything he taught, and everything he prefigured would always eventually be affirmed. Despite this, Jesus had many enemies, and even more who disregarded him.

So often, we try our hardest to make ourselves presentable and welcoming to everyone. There are few worse feelings than a person not liking you. However, it is simply impossible to be universally liked and followed. When we attempt to gain favors with everyone, it sometimes means having to sacrifice our own values and our own identities. As soon as we begin seeking the validation of everyone else, we immediately become less trustworthy. 

The fact that Jesus was rejected by so many is not simply enough for us to deem him trustworthy - we need to ask ourselves why some people rejected him. It becomes apparent as we read the Gospels that these people were challenged by Christ for the inadequacies that they refused to address within themselves. It was not Christ who earned his own rejection, but rather those who rejected him. When you are faced with difficult relationships and when you find it difficult for certain people to like you, ask yourself if it is something you need to change about yourself, or if it is something that they refuse to change about themselves.

The life of a Catholic is not meant to be comfortable. We are instructed by Christ to take up our own crosses in life in order to follow him, which means that our faith is precisely what strengthens us when we encounter difficulties, not something we throw away as soon as life becomes difficult. If you only want comfort, you have to deny the spark of divinity that exists within you, a reflection of the one who suffered and died for you in the ultimate act of love. Some have attributed the following quote to Pope Benedict XVI: “the world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” In his encyclical Spe Salvi, he explains the meaning of these words: “Man was created for greatness - for God Himself.” There is nothing that reflects greatness more than love, which God gives to us freely and gave perfectly on the cross. A life of reciprocating that love (which is what we were created to do) is naturally going to be difficult.

In this Gospel passage, Christ lays out to his Apostles exactly what they will encounter as his followers. They will be like sheep sent out amidst wolves; they will be tried in the courts and punished in the streets; familial bonds will disintegrate for the sake of self-preservation; and no matter how effective they are in their ministry, they will not be able to minister to everyone before the Son of Man comes. On the surface, this is disheartening, especially for us as followers of Christ in the modern world. What good can come of something that produces so much pain and suffering? Jesus understands the human heart because he shares our humanity. He understands that in order to undergo a very difficult task, we need two things: something to strengthen us through the trial and a reminder of the thing towards which we are working and for which we are willing to undergo tremendous suffering. He tells us not to be afraid while in the “midst of the wolves” because the Spirit will strengthen us: the Spirit will give us the words we need in those moments, and we must be simultaneously shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves towards our persecutors. God is walking alongside us as we suffer, because He suffered for us first. But we are not simply suffering to build character or to prove something about ourselves: our persecution for the faith is a process that is leading us to know God as He knows us. He suffers knowing we remain in our sin, but He loves us regardless. Persecution and the difficulties of a life of faith allow us to love God exactly as He loves us. Ultimately, we are making our way towards Him.

If you want to be comfortable, you will struggle with following God. St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Comfort does not bring rest, it brings stagnation. True peace and satisfaction comes from God alone and it requires us to work our way towards Him first; that journey is inevitably going to be a difficult one. Rejoice in the difficulty, but also rejoice in the hope that trial and persecution brings. Pope Benedict wrote that, in the Catholic life, we do not know the details that await us in our future, but we know that our life will not end in emptiness. Suffering for God is the essence of hope in an eternal life of rest within Him.

In the sacrament of Confession, we approach another individual and reveal to them those things that we would not reveal to anyone else. What makes the sacrament of Confession so daunting is that we are facing our own inadequacies, our insecurities, our failures, and our deepest regrets; naturally, we might be afraid to face these things in our own hearts, let alone reveal them to another person. But the person to whom we are revealing these things is not a random stranger. A priest serves two roles in the confessional: he is acting as the listening Christ who already knows your sins but wants you to admit to them so that you may begin the process of atonement, and he is acting as a representative of the community. He is not forgiving sins by his own power, but by the power of the name of Jesus for the sake of the community.

Confession restores us to our natural inclination of honesty and openness in front of God. In the garden, there was nothing for Adam and Eve to fear because they were pure in their actions. Once they committed sin, they were no longer honest to themselves and they began to hide. Secrecy and hiddenness are side effects of sin; we don’t want people to know what we have done, especially those who expect more from us. We keep secrets, we hide things, and we are dishonest with ourselves out of shame. Why? As God reveals at the fall of Adam and Eve, He is always ready to help us get back on the right path as long as we are willing to admit to our mistakes. Of course, part of getting back on the right path involves acts of penance to make up for our past mistakes, but these are natural consequences to our sins. In the sacrament of Confession, we are revealing to our community both our sins and our desire to do better. Yes, it’s difficult, but it is the first step of atonement, which truly reveals a desire for atonement if we sincerely want it. This applies directly to the words of Christ in the Gospel: we can’t hide things forever, nor can we take secrets with us to our graves. “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” If your life were to end soon, would you be ready to have every detail about you revealed to the world? Instead, reveal them now in the context of the forgiving sacrament so that you may be at peace, in union with your community, and most importantly, in union with God.

Ultimately, the fear of revealing our weaknesses is the response that we await from those to whom we reveal them. We fear our public image will be tarnished, we fear being labeled hypocrites or bad people, we fear losing relationships. But confession is the one place where we always know we can reveal our errors and be forgiven for them. This will require penance and a turning away from those errors, though. But it is such a beautiful thought to consider that God does not define us by our pasts. He simply wants to love us; often the only thing that gets in the way of that is our own fear and despair. Have hope in the love of God. Have hope that all things will be revealed, and rejoice that you have already revealed and admitted to your greatest flaws. God loves you regardless, and ridding ourselves of secrecy only makes ourselves more receptive to His love.

The Psalms were written around a thousand years before the birth of Christ. They became a central pillar to prayer in Judaism because they encapsulated the human experience. 3,000 years later, their words still resonate with us because we can apply it to our own lives. When reading the psalms, whether they be about thanksgiving, joy, fear, hopelessness, or any other human emotional state, one can only imagine what the psalmist was experiencing in the moment he wrote it. One of the most well-known psalms contains a line that we ought to recite to ourselves on a daily basis: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.” What horrible thing was the Psalmist experiencing that he referred to as the “valley of the shadow of death”? How afraid must he have been initially before reminding himself of God’s presence?

Ares, the Greek god of war, was always accompanied in battle by his two sons: Phobos and Deimos. The direct English translation of these two names is fear and terror; their presence on the battlefield speaks to the power of using fear and terror as a weapon, especially when it is used nefariously, since Ares was not a particularly benevolent god. Fear and terror continue to be used by the enemies of righteousness because it is all that they have at their disposal (the word “demon” comes from the Greek word for terror). If you pay attention to demonic activity, especially in the presence of saints, Satan and his minions will only use fear and terror when attractive temptation no longer works on those who resist him. When we are attacked for being followers of Christ, whether it be in the spiritual realm or in the public sphere, our detractors attempt to use fear because it is all that they have left. When we experience fear in our daily lives, it ought to tell us that this is the final weapon being used against us by the evil one. Are we to give up hope in all that we have placed our trust in so far out of simple fear? Christ calms our hearts in this Gospel with a very simple message: do not fear. What do we have to fear in another person? At the root of fear is the unknown, yet Christ tells us there is nothing hidden now that will not be revealed in due time. What do we have to fear in loneliness and isolation? Christ tells us that we are valuable and loved by God simply as His creation. What do we have to fear in the evil one? Christ tells us that the potential of the one who wants to harm us is nothing compared to God, who has power over both body and soul. This is also found in the lives of the saints; something they all share is that, despite all of their suffering, they set aside fear for the sake of trusting in God.

There will be times in our lives when we are going to be overcome by fear, when we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What good is there in being afraid of imposing forces? Why do we not trust that God is with us? In the Christian life, our faith will be tested, mocked, blasphemed, and we will be rejected by the world for taking upon ourselves the name of our Lord. The potential of this has led many to reject their faith. But we have battled the weapon of fear as human beings from the very beginning; it is the only thing that Satan has left to terrorize us with. In the light of Christ, it is an utterly useless weapon. What made the saints brave was not the fact that they were stronger than us. They simply went all in on their trust in the Lord. What cost would it be for us to do the same? We ought not to be afraid; We are worth more than anything in the eyes of God, and He will protect us if we give Him the chance.

What are the things of value within an individual lifespan? What is it exactly that we are orienting our lives towards and what do we spend our time doing in order to attain that? If you were to reflect on the most important thing in your life, your answer might vary according to your age or situation. For some, family is of primary importance, and for others, their career or their work eclipses all else. This makes sense; we spend the majority of our time on a daily basis either at work or with our family. But as Catholics, the most important thing in our lives should be the exact same thing: God. If God is not at the center of our lives, we are listless and without direction. We will never understand the value of work nor the meaning we derive from our families if God is not at the forefront.

This is far easier said than done. Many people who claim that God is at the center of their lives will cave when that is actually tested. If there is anything in your life that you could not give up if God asks you to do so, you can be assured that that is more valuable to you than God. We must reevaluate our values if this is the case. This Gospel passage is by far the most difficult message we hear from Christ during his public ministry; it seems so antithetical to who we know he is and what his message is. First, he begins by stating that he did not come to bring peace on earth (which is a contradiction to many of the things we learned about Jesus growing up), but the sword! Then he claims to have come to set families against each other. How is it that Christ came to bring the sword upon the earth? How is it that he came to divide families? His public ministry and the history of his Church proves his prophetic words here: He was brutally executed as were his followers, great wars have been fought because of his influence, political and social unrest have ruined societies all because of who Christ was and what he taught. Even now as Catholics, we experience persecution and derision for our choice to follow Christ, even sometimes among those within our own households. Are we willing to hold onto our faith in Christ even if it means being cut off from our family or our community?

As one community, Christianity enables us to rely on each other and love each other as we were meant to as human beings. But if God is not placed at the center of family life, there will inevitably come a time when choosing to place God in the center of your individual life will be confronted by the desires of those who do not, even within your own family. This is a cause of great suffering, but Christ tells us in the Gospel that he came to us precisely to reorient the inevitable suffering caused by the world. He is not going to magically alleviate our suffering because our suffering enables us to model his own life in which he suffered for our sake. This suffering is not meant to be easy or mundane; if you place family in the center of your life, the suffering caused by them will be truly great. If you place God at the center, though, and allow His love to flow to everything else, you will have the strength to not only bear the suffering caused by sin, but to embrace it as a means to express your love for God.

There is often a misconception of Jesus that he was someone who preached a message that was easier to live by than the law of the Old Covenant. Since the Old Law was filled with many small but restrictive laws, it seems tedious by our modern standards. Coupled with the fact that Jesus established a New Covenant through his own sacrifice, it’s clear how we might fall into the trap of thinking the Christian life is easier. After all, Jesus sacrificed himself for us, so why would we have to suffer or make our life more difficult?

The truth is that the Christian life is incredibly demanding. There might not be those overly-specific rules from the Old Law, but there are far more difficult rules by which to live. Jesus did not come to make our lives easier - his sacrifice was done for the sake of everyone, but there is still so much sin and rejection of the Christian life that it becomes necessary for us as Christians to take up our own crosses for the sake of our neighbors. The Christian life is a calling, and for those who are called, much is expected from them. These sacrifices may be as simple as giving up a life of comfort and convenience for a greater purpose, or it may mean having to give up things that are more important to us - “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38). This is one of the most difficult sayings of Christ to hear, but it puts into perspective what it means to be Christian - everything must be done at the service of love, and the manifestation of love is sacrifice, whether that means sacrificing your own comfort, your relationships, or even your own life.

The life of a Christian is demanding, which means many are quick to misunderstand it and reject it. Some will even go so far as to oppress and kill those who follow Christ. But we must look at Salvation History as our guide - the more righteousness is oppressed, the more it multiplies and spreads. The more our own individual lives reflect the loving act of sacrifice, the more love multiplies and spreads.