"Nothing Is Concealed"
July 13th Readings Reflection: Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”
Our Lord spoke these beautiful words to give His Apostles courage and faith in the midst of slander and persecution. Often throughout Jesus’ life, He encountered those who attributed His works and miracles to the devil (cf. Mt 12:24 DRB). The Pharisees in particular accused Jesus of demonic activity, refusing to see before themselves the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies that they should have known so well.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus told His Apostles that they must not expect to avoid the same treatment that He Himself endured. Just as Christ was slandered, so too would His Apostles be. However, Jesus said, God’s infinite justice would triumph in the end; all of man’s sins will one day be revealed at the general judgement after the general resurrection. Once our souls are reunited with our glorified bodies, all men shall stand before God, and the deeds of all—both good and bad—will be revealed.
At the general judgement, we shall learn all of the spiritually meritorious deeds, prayers, and sacrifices that each person offered to God throughout his life. No matter how small a deed may have been, it will be revealed, and the full glory of its spiritual benefits will be understood by all. Likewise, all of our sins will also be revealed; no matter how small or hidden a sin may have seemed at the time, it will be revealed and judged by our infinitely just and infinitely merciful God.
Our Lord told His Apostles this to encourage them in the trials that He knew they will face. He knew that the Apostles—and indeed most (if not all) Catholics until the end of the world—would be slandered for their faith. Upholding the truth is never easy, and we are often misunderstood and sometimes slandered for doing so. However, this must not give cause to a paralyzing fear that prevents us from boldly and openly living authentically Catholic lives.
As St. John Chrysostom said, Christ followed His consoling promise of divine justice with the command that the Apostles’ “preaching should be free and unreserved.” Our Lord instructed His Apostles and their successors in the priesthood to proclaim their faith boldly and unwaveringly, “on the housetops.” While we the laity are not authorized to preach liturgically, this command nonetheless applies to us too, for we must boldly and fearlessly, without any compromise, live out our faith as members of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that Christ Himself founded.
In today’s world, surrounded by evil seemingly everywhere we turn, it is not easy to be a Catholic. Catholics everywhere are slandered and ridiculed when they boldly uphold the unchanging teachings of the Catholic Faith. May Christ’s promise in today’s Gospel give us hope and courage, and may we always trust that divine justice will triumph at the end of time, when all of our poor efforts in this life will be made glorious in the sight of our divine King and Judge.
