A reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Our lord said to his disciples, People will manhandle and persecute you, summoning you to synagogues and to prisons, bringing you to trial before kings and governors, and all of this because of my name. You would be brought to give witness on account of it. I bid you resolve not to worry about what your defense is going to be. I am the For I will give you words and a wisdom which none of your adversaries can take exception to or contradict.
You will be delivered up even by your parents, by your brothers, relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. All will hate you because of me. Yet, not a hair of your head will be harmed. By patient endurance, will save your lives. And this is the good news of the Lord.
The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. I offer you all a challenge. If you get 1,000 Christmas cards within the next twenty four hours or the next twenty four days, see if this quotation comes see if you find this quoted from Saint Luke. And this is what Christ promised his followers. Staggering.
It's scary. It's awesome. It's horrible. Within 1858. Just as the cross of Christ is horrible.
And this is all Christ ever promised us in this world. Now notice the contradiction here. He says you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be hauled up and sent into prison, your parents are going to betray you, your relatives. You'll even be you'll even be murdered, killed for his name. Notice he says from my name, just simply be claiming to be Christ's.
Then he says at the end, our lord is speaking, but not a hair of your head is going to be harmed. I don't know what bald men are going to do about this, but this seems to be crazy. Here in one minute he says you're going to be murdered, in the next second minute he says you're not going to be harmed. Put it together if you can. If you can.
And if you can't, why not? Because the son of God said it. And he's telling this, this is what you can expect if you're going to be my disciple. He never promised us that we're going to have a tranquil life or peace or success or failure. He never promised us anything like that.
All that Christ ever promised is what you have here or he summed it all up in one word, cross. Cross. Very recently, I heard of an eighth grade student who didn't know the meaning of crucifix. Because what's a cross? But the crucifix is entirely different concept in English.
Eighth grader didn't know what crucifix meant. Now, this is serious business. This isn't the good news that brings a smile to your face. This isn't the good news that makes you rush to join Christ. Or maybe it is.
Maybe it is. Because when our Lord says he's notice he's promising this, he's not saying that it may happen to you. He's saying this is going to happen to you. Your own parents are gonna betray you. And you're going to be sent to jail, you're going to be spurned, you're going to be despised, you're going to be persecuted, and you're going to be killed for my name's sake.
And yet he says, not a hair of your head's going to be harmed. Well, it all depends on what world you're in. Whose mass what master are you serving? Are you single-minded in serving God or man? Man, they're specific.
Or I should say man and or woman, suppose, to be very contemporary. Now in yesterday's mail, it brings all kinds of things, but it brought the Reader's Digest. The leading article, instead of having a summary of a contemporary notable book, it has a long, long document by Courtney Turner, a Canadian newsman. Well, he's more than a newsman, he's a writer up there, who spent two years trying to run down Mother Teresa. She he couldn't catch up with her.
And this article is the product of what he tried to do trying to find out what makes this good woman tick. Well, I urge you to read it just as late about two or three years ago, I urge you to see the moving picture about. I don't think the article compares with that documentary that was put on film. That was a that was a masterpiece. But it's worth reading.
Now there are so many things you can say about mother Teresa that I think are extraordinary. Remember, from an education point, she didn't have very much. She had a lot, but not a lot. She I don't think she even had a bachelor in theology. Anybody can have a bachelor in theology today.
And yet this woman's wisdom is fantastic. Now one of the things is how she carefully points out as she's not so much in this article by Courtney, but in that in the in the film. She's not telling you at the world that they all have to imitate her, not in the least. She told one reporter, go back and be a good reporter. That's wisdom.
That's being a follower of Christ. That's being a true follower of Saint Francis. It wasn't he that got all this mixed up about poverty. But the one thing that every single human Christian can take from Mother Teresa is this, her single mindedness. Now remember, we are all called to be that single-minded in serving God through Jesus Christ his son.
We baptism commits us to it. Whether you're in a habit or out of a habit, whether you're a cleric or a lay person, whether you're religious or a cleric or a lay or whatever you are, if you're baptized, you were committed to be single-minded in serving Jesus Christ, the son of God incarnate. There should be no distinctions there except in degree, more or less. Oh, he he remarks there how each one of her religious, each one of the nuns, not the men. Know, maybe the men too.
I don't know. But anyway, she gets three saris, her under clothes, and a tin pail. Where and the pail, the tin pail is so she can keep her sari clean. One she wears, one she dries, is washing and the other is drying because this good lady insists upon cleanliness. Now, this is being single-minded.
She's not telling us all that we have to go around with our tin tails and flouting around one suit of clothes maybe and being obnoxious to our neighbor. But the point is we have no choice about being single-minded in this matter. It's frightfully difficult to be single-minded about God, but it is not that difficult about being single-minded about Jesus Christ. You can't imagine God. You can't you can't even name God.
You have to give the Jews credit for that. That's the reason they had this they they made another word for they wouldn't even mention the word God. But you can visualize, Christ is truly human. We can be single-minded about Jesus Christ. We can grasp it.
You can even imagine what he might have looked like. We know for sure he was an oriental. And we can grasp Christ. As I've said many times, Jesus Christ is the divine conception of man and a perfect human conception of God. You can't be guilty of anthropomorphism in going to Jesus Christ and saying my Lord and my God.
And what he demands of us without equivocation is being single-minded about serving him. And let's let's not forget it. He lose he used very severe language. He even seems to be unjust and unfair. Think of the guy who comes into the wedding without the garment.
He kicks him out into everlasting punishment. Think of the five wise and the five foolish virgins. Think of the person with talents. Our Lord said, don't you know that your master reaps where he didn't even sow? He gathers where he never planted.
We have no choice about this. We've got all got to be single-minded whether you're a religious in the family where you're trying to live a good celibate life. We are all all of that is really unimportant in a way. The important thing is, are we single-minded in trying to follow Jesus Christ. And that's what he asks unequivocally, and there's a punishment if you don't.
Keep that in mind. It isn't just rewarding the good, it's punishment for those who are not so good. And so as we begin almost the season of Advent, let us think about this, that we are all called to be single-minded followers of Jesus Christ. Him our hope. In the name of the father and the son and holy spirit.
Amen.