Living Monstrance

When Jesus sends out his apostles to preach, He sends them out as “sheep in the midst of wolves“.  (Mt 10:16)  Now, sheep cannot defend themselves, and wolves love to feast on sheep.  This looks like a definite suicide mission.  What’s the deal here?

Let me tell a story.  I’ve weighed about 160 pounds since I was about 17.  I think my body size and weight hasn’t changed much since then.  A few pounds here and there, sometimes in better shape, sometimes not.  I’m not a big guy and not particularly a tough guy.

My older brother is a little different.  We’re about the same height, but his clothes don’t fit me.  He’s much stronger than I am, and tougher, too.

Now, when I was a freshman in high school, there was a room in one particular lonely hallway called the stage room.  I don’t know how it worked out, but there seemed to always be the biggest football players in this room waiting to seize on younger vulnerable guys passing by for some hazing fun.  Maybe it’s no coincidence that the team name is the Wolfpack.

One day as I was walking by, the door opened and I was seized upon.  Dragged into the stage room in the dark, the hazing was about to begin, when one of the guys recognized who I was.

“It’s Larry’s little brother.”  After a few laughs, they let me go.  These guys could have bent me into a pretzel with no problem.  But I came out with nothing but a messed up hairdo.

My brother was one of the strongest players on the football team.

None of the bigger guys in the school ever messed with me, because to them I was Larry’s little brother.  I was never afraid of hazing at my school.

What gives the apostles confidence to go out as sheep in the midst of wolves?  What gave St. Paul the guts to proclaim the truth in the midst of all the conniving of his powerful enemies?  I think I know: they have a Big Brother that the wolves of the world can’t mess with.

Now, we know the world can be a wild place.  It has wolves.  But you have the same Big Brother.  Never be afraid when you feel like a sheep in the midst of wolves.