DAILY HOMILIES #doves

Christianity is not a bed of roses. Jesus faced challenges from the beginning of his ministry to the end. Jesus had not even celebrated his first birthday on earth when Herod sought to kill him. Anyone who tells you that being a Christian is an escape from challenges and difficulties is lying to you. Moreover, removing souls from the grip of the devil is fighting a war. Jesus said: “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he may plunder his house.” (Mark 3:27).

Apart from the Gentile converts, a large number of those who embraced Christianity were Jews who believed that Jesus was truly the long-awaited Messiah, but those who didn’t believe felt threatened and sought ways to end the spread of Christianity among Jews. However, in their attempt to stop Jews from converting to Christianity in their numbers, the Jewish authorities suffered many setbacks. One of such setbacks was their lack of unity.

“How can Christians survive in a world that hates them?” Jesus recommends two things: One, to be wise like a snake, and Two, to be innocent as a dove. This is one of Jesus’ classical parables. And there could be more than one interpretation of the snake-dove analogy.

Just as the prophet Hosea calls on the House of Israel to repent and return back to God, we too are called to accept the difficult task of going out to call people to repentance. It is not easy to tell a person his mouth is smelling, he may hate you for it or attack you, yet, that is precisely what the mission is all about. Preaching that does not “offend” people – cause them to search inwards and change their lives is not preaching.