In today’s Gospel, we see on full display that life as a Christian was never promised to be easy; rather, Christ Himself says, “I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16). He explains that we will face affliction on account of being a follower of His (Matthew 10:17-23). It is a common experience for many of us to question why bad things happen to us. We may question God about why we face hardships even when we do our best to follow Him and bring others to Him. For this reason, the words of Jesus in this Gospel can be comforting, as we see that life as a Christian was never supposed to be easy. It is not unusual to face troubles, and as counterintuitive as it may seem, having these experiences can actually prove to us why we should trust Christ in everything. He tells us that we will struggle, and we do; therefore, we know we can trust that what he says is true.
It is precisely in those struggles that we find the Lord’s light. Jesus tells us not to worry when we are handed over to those who hate us, for when that does happen, the Spirit of the Father will come into us and help us to know what to say (Matthew 10:19-20). God is saying to us here that we are never alone. We are never left to our own devices; even when we are being persecuted, He will be with us and will help us figure out what to say. The only thing we need to do is bring a willingness to follow whatever God calls us to do, because when we adhere to His will, we will be truly fulfilled. No matter the response to what we say from the world around us, we can be sure that it was what God knew was best to say. He helps each of us get through this world; He empowers us with strength we could never find by ourselves. We are told that “whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). If we want to live in eternal beatitude, we must relentlessly follow Jesus.