Monday after Epiphany
(I John 3:22-4:6; Matthew 4:12-17.23-25)
The gospel says that Jesus “withdrew to Galilee.” But we should not think of Jesus as retreating. He is actually heading toward the battlefront. Herod Antipas has just arrested John the Baptist for criticizing his unlawful marriage. Jesus leaves the solitude of the Jordan desert to take up John’s banner in Galilee. His message is the same as John’s, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” Herod Antipas can hardly ignore it. We wonder if he will manhandle Jesus as he did John.
Like Jesus we are sometimes called to the battle line. A shouting match turns into a fist fight where someone is going to get hurt. We should intervene. A minority person is accused of wrongdoing, but we know that another – one like us -- did the dirty deed. We must speak up.
Courage enables us to act in such situations. As a natural virtue, courage moves us to defend ourselves and our loved ones. Magnified by the love of God, courage overcomes our fear in the face of danger so that we might act on behalf of what is right.
Certainly St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) showed this elevated courage when the Gestapo came to take her, as a Jewish convert, from her Carmelite monastery. Her sister, who had come to stay with her, was deeply shaken. St. Theresa, however, did not resist or seek to hide. She took her sister by the hand saying, “Come, Rosa, we are going for our people.” She meant that she would die, as Christ did, giving testimony to God’s love first for Jews and then for all people.
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