Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes.”
This is Jesus encouraging the 72 before they set off to proclaim the kingdom. In the gospel of Mark it is only the 12 that make this journey and proclaim the gospel two by two. I have read this passage many times before but never fully understood what it means that the spirit will speak through you. But many years ago, at a cursillo, I gave a talk where this exact thing happened to me.
For weeks, I prepped and practiced for that day, and had my talk well rehearsed. I knew my stuff, but the day of the talk, I got up out of my chair, started my talk, and 40 minutes later, I sat down, and I sincerely do not remember anything I said. I remember people telling me later that my talk was great, but I dont remember it. All I felt was a tremendous exhaustion as a result. I felt Like I could have slept for 12 hours. But all these years later I have been told by friends in the church that I am the reason that they came back to the church or something similar. I find these moments very uncomfortable, and deflect all of the credit to God for their conversion. But it is clear that the Holy Spirit does indeed use us to be His instruments in this world.
It is an amazing thing to allow yourself to be a conduit for the Holy Spirit, to do His work in this world. I don’t know what Gods plan was that day, but maybe he used me to get through to one of those men that was too hard hearted to listen to anyone else. I do not take credit for it, but I will never forget that experience. So this passage today is very clearly a message to us to learn and know our faith, to practice it everyday, so when the time comes that the spirit needs you, you will be ready. The only thing left is to allow yourself to be open to let Him work through you, who knows, you might actually help change someone’s eternity.
Lastly the main message of this reading is to trust in the Lord. God will give you what you need when you need it. There is no way that any of us could possibly prepare for every possible encounter that we might have. But if you know your fiath, and can discern right from wrong, and if you are open to the Holy Spirit working in your life, then He will provide you with everything you need along the way. The answer is to do as St. Paul said and “make your life a prayer,” and approach every situation with prayerful humility. Ask God to give you the words you need at the moment. Dispose your will to His, and wait for the Spirit to move you, and you will do miracles in this world.
