Commentary on the Gospel of
Sometimes, when we speak about persecuted Christians, our minds travel far far away. The readings of today, though, give us two messages that can teach us that the persecution of Christians appears in every place in which the life is truly lived in the will of God.
To begin with, Paul, who in spite of his feeling that he is not proficient at “oratory or philosophy” (1 Cor 2:1) doesn’t hold back from speaking to Pagans and Jews about Jesus. It wasn’t easy for him to abandon his comfort zone, to go ahead and to assume a huge responsibility in the first church. But he did it.
On the other hand, John the Baptist anticipates the coming of Jesus and foreshadows his prophetic life and his death. The people used to become perplexed when he was speaking, but he didn’t lose his deepest freedom, with which he could say to the others: you are not acting God´s will, you need to convert your life, this woman is not for you. It wasn’t easy for him to say to a king what the king didn´t want to hear and be persecuted –and assassinated- for that reason. But he did it.
We will understand Paul, John, Jesus, and our persecuted brethren much better if we only tried to do as them: go out, assume some commitment in the church, speak about Jesus in our secular society, and show others with love and clarity what it is the opposite of God´s tenderness. It will not be easy. But we can do it.
