Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

A tree swallow works
the lake at Mount Saint Francis

Lectionary: 300

The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst and take him into the compound. The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.”


In today's gospel, from John 17, we hear the Lord pray for us: 

Father, they are your gift to me.I wish that where I am they also may be with me,that they may see my glory that you gave me,because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

His prayer is apparently answered as we find Saint Paul in the thick of trouble. That's where Jesus was on that night before he died; so that's where Paul should be on his way to Rome. That's where we should be in the controversies of our time. 
The problem for many of us when we get into an argument, we'd like to be dead certain we are right! But controversies don't work that way. The skies almost never open up to allow a dove to drop down and assure us and everyone else, "This is the Truth! Listen to this argument!"  
We may be inspired to speak but that inspiration may feel like anger or assurance. It may sound like arrogance or humility. Employers might describe whistle-blowers as "disgruntled." Much depends upon who hears it, a friend or a foe. 
The earliest martyrs, it seems, died for testifying to the resurrection of Jesus or his Holy Name. Later martyrs die for other reasons: Saint Thomas Becket died for defending the Church's political power; Saint Thomas Moore, for refusing to countenance Henry VIII's divorce and remarriage; Saint Charles Lwanga, for protecting boys against a pedophile king; and Saint Maximilian Kolbe, for being a priest. Each died for speaking the truth to power. All witnessed to the Word made Flesh in a complicated world. 
As Christians address the epidemics of Covid-19, alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, violence, climate change, income gap, illiteracy, and suicide we will meet people who deny there is any problem! "It's a liberal thing!" they sneer, as if their sneering can disprove the truth. Certainly their sneering will draw many away from the Lord. 
But those who speak the truth are gifts from the Father to the Son. They will be with him to see his glory, because they were loved before the foundation of the world.