"Without fear we sang in prisons 30 feet beneath the earth. We were terribly hungry, beaten, and tortured. The Communists were good at torturing us. We would say to each other, 'The Communists beat us very well - let us do our work well. Let us sing well.'" - Richard Wurmbrand, spent 14 years in a Communist prison in Romania during the Cold War
Gospel
Text: (LK 11:47-54)
The Lord said:
"Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
'I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute'
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
"Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
'I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute'
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day
liked to boast. The liked to build memorials to the prophets that their
ancestors had stoned and killed. They liked to revise history to distance
themselves from the responsibility of those who went before them, only to do
the same thing in their lifetime.
They like to use their knowledge to
twist the truth. They build a life and a future on falsehoods.
Jesus came, speaking the truth and
went about doing good. This enraged them so much that they plotted against
Jesus to put him to death, to silence him, to stop him from doing good. They
thought that they had power over Jesus because they thought that they had the
power to put someone to death. They boasted in their false righteousness.
Humility is not easily accomplished.
Pride wears many disguises. Pride distorts the truth. Pride drives us to boast
about things that we never done by ourselves, about achievements that we alone
are responsible for and a false future that is not ours to give.
The saints that we honor today, St.
John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companion martyrs, overcame their
desire to boast, to rely primarily upon their own resources and placed their
future into God’s hands. When this lead to their death and martyrdom, then they
took their rightful place beside Jesus, the Crucified Lord who rose from the
death and the communion of saints.
Thus, let us rule out all boasting in
our life!
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