34th Week in OT 2019 - Wednesday - Testimony in Pagan Courts and Thanksgiving Tables

Jesus’ final Temple discourse continues in our weekday Gospel readings with a description of the end times, the era of the Church. The Lord explains how our faith will lead us to giving testimony before the pagan governors and kings.

This certainly came to pass in the lives of the apostles. I think of the Apostle Thomas preaching against polygamy in the court of the King of India, Simon and Jude preaching against the false gods of Persia, the Apostle Matthew being martyred in Ethiopia.

And then of course the Roman martyrs like Paul and Saints Perpetua and Felicity, St. Agnes, St. Agatha, and Lucy. And John Fischer and Thomas more martyrs for Christ because the opposed the British king’s claim as head of the Church. St. Charles Lwanga who opposed the pederasty of the King of Uganda.

Simple people, mostly: fishermen, maidens. They gave testimony to Christ with their words and convictions and they gave testimony to Christ with their lives.

In the first reading, Daniel foreshadows Jesus’ teachings and the role that Christians will have in the world in giving testimony before kings. Daniel interprets this strange vision of the hand of God writing on the wall of the final Babylonian King, Belshazzar. Daniel interprets that the Babylonian Kings have been on the wrong side of history. They have opposed the One True God, the have defaced his Temple and oppressed his people.

Notice that Daniel has not prepared some systematic defense; his ability to speak for God comes from this spiritual gift he has nurtured through a life of holiness, his vibrant relationship with God cultivated even while in exile.

So, too, our ability to witness to Christ in the courts of the kings and governors of the world, not to mention at thanksgiving dinners, doesn’t come so much from preparing our intellectual arguments ahead of time, but from the gifts of God that we have cultivated in the course of the spiritual life.

The pagans, the godless, the nones, as they are called these days, those who practice no religion, are, like Belshazzar, on the wrong side of history. But, the Lord wishes to use us, as he did Daniel, and so many of the Apostles and martyrs, to give testimony to Christ by the integrity of our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Lord, sanctify your bishops and priests, and grant them courage to preach the Gospel in its fullness.
Make the lives of parents examples of faith to inspire their children to seek first your heavenly kingdom.

Bring all those who have fallen away back to the sacraments, help them to repent of their sins and desire the life that can only come from you.

That the Wisdom of Christ may preside over our thanksgiving gatherings tomorrow, for safety for all travelers, and protection from food-born illnesses.

Bring comfort to the sick and suffering, charity and care to the destitute and down-trodden, be present through your church to the miserable.

Welcome into your kingdom all the faithful departed, those whose names are written in our parish necrology, all clergy and religious, and X for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.