We continue journeying with Saint Paul throughout his third and final mission. We are now looking at the second part of his discourse to the elders of Ephesus where he reminds them about the responsibility their appointment as bishop has now placed on them.
They are called to shepherd and protect God’s people. Paul foresees that this community will come under diabolical attack once he is gone:
…savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
He has now been familiar with this group in Ephesus for over three years. He knows the personalities, and he knows the difficult ones and the hard heads. From their very midst, there will arise those who cause confusion and division. So we see that this was a problem even right at the beginning of the Church. Are we understanding Paul’s concern? This should be our concern as well when we see laity and clerics alike, and even friars and congregations of sisters, individuals in our midst who seem to not be able to help themselves from causing division. Now, there’s two kinds of division… the one caused by Satan, and the one caused by imitating Christ. What did Jesus say: “I have not come to bring peace, but the sword. From now on, a man’s enemy will be members of his own household.” Jesus is talking about suffering for the cause of doing good, or speaking the truth, or defending the innocent. This is very different from the kind of division caused by the Devil. The devil will have someone causing division because of their own selfish desires, be it pride, jealousy, envy, anger… it is all diabolical. We need to be careful which side of the equation we have chosen through our little decisions in life. We will inevitably end up falling into one of those two categories. Those who say they’re neutral, have chosen a side without even knowing it, for when denying truth for the sake of keeping the peace, most likely cowardice is the friend you’ve espoused, and not the Holy Spirit.
Paul then goes on to speak about how we should do our best to work and earn our keep, but to also look after others and make sure we are taking care of the poor. And he quotes the words of Jesus which are nowhere recorded in the gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
The passage concludes with a very warm farewell, even if Paul would see them very briefly afterwards just one last time. He kneels to pray with them, and they were in tears, especially saddened because he told them his time was now short. This speaks to us as well. We need to know how to move on in life, from one assignment to the next, from one reality to another, always ready to make the best of what the Lord has lined up for us, but we should always try to leave good fruit behind. The people here are distraught because of the goodness they have seen in Paul, which they know now must move on to new pastures.
Paul is not alone. The risen Lord is with him, and also the Holy Spirit who strengthens, protects and illuminates his path. Our Lord continues his prayer for his disciples in today’s gospel. He prays that they will remain faithful to the message they’re to preach to others and remain one and united in doing so.
In truly embracing Jesus’ words they will be hated by the world, just as he himself was hated by the world. There’s a guy on the internet who goes around keeping people of authority in check by testing whether or not they know the law. He actually humbles them in the process. But this man, for humbling these people with mere facts and the truth, has had his life threatened, his house bombed, and his private properties continually under surveillance. This is the effect Jesus telling the truth had on the world around him. It humbled the powers that be, and they saw to it that he was eliminated. Or so they thought. We too must remember, that we are called to be bold and courageous with the message we preach, and if we are persecuted for it, like Jesus, glory awaits us in time.
The immediate victory might go to the opposition, but the final victory belongs to the true followers of our Lord, we just need the discernment to be able to distinguish between the two, and then it depends on our faith, whether we truly believe or if in fact, we are like the Judas who had to be replaced by a Matthias. In the end, our faith will be tested, and we pray that the Lord will give us the grace to remain faithful.
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