June 21, 2026 - Preaching Despite Persecution

Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem, H. Vernet

Good morning, brothers and sisters, and happy Father’s Day to all fellow dads.

Alas, I’d love to preach all about the important role of Christian fathers, but today’s readings clearly follow quite a different theme: namely, the importance of preaching the truth fearlessly, even in the face of possible persecution.

In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah recounts how everyone around him is whispering behind his back trying to denounce him; even his former friends are trying to ensnare and punish him for his preaching. Remember that Jeremiah was the Old Testament prophet given the difficult task of preaching a painful truth that nobody wanted to hear: that the Babylonians were coming to capture Jerusalem and enslave the Jews because of their sins of idolatry.  It would have been much safer for Jeremiah if he had just kept his mouth shut…but he boldly proclaimed the truth as God asked him, because he hoped in the Lord, whom he called his “mighty champion”, who would save his “life from the power of the wicked.”  Jeremiah’s life wasn’t easy: ultimately he was beaten up, imprisoned in a pit, then released then re-imprisoned, before he was ultimately stoned to death. But for his faithfulness he is numbered among the saints.

The responsorial Psalm follows a very similar theme, proclaiming: “For your sake I bear insult, and shame covers my face. I have become an outcast to my brothers”

The Psalmist is facing persecution for the sake of his religious faith, as he says: “for zeal for your house consumes me.” He is devoutly trying to speak God’s truth to those who blaspheme God. The Psalmist trusts in God, praying [quote] “In your great kindness answer me with your constant help. … For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

So even if he is imprisoned – put in bonds- he knows that he is not alone, the Lord is with him. Like Jeremiah, the Psalmist knows his faithfulness to God may bring him persecution, but he trusts that the Lord will ultimately preserve him.

Finally, we move to the Gospel, where Jesus tells his apostles to boldly proclaim the gospel – even from the housetops. Jesus acknowledges that this may be dangerous: but he assures his apostles that they should fear no one, including those who can kill the body. And indeed we know that 11 of the apostles – everyone except John - were martyred for their evangelization efforts. Anticipating the persecution they will face, Jesus tells them that they should only fear not their earthly persecutors but the one who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna or Hell – i.e., the Devil. In other words, we should always keep in mind our coming final judgment. Whoever acknowledges Christ before others, Jesus will acknowledge before God the Father; but whoever denies Christ before others, Jesus will deny before God the Father. It’s frankly a scary thought: standing in front of Jesus Christ on his judgment seat, and having St Peter play a video back of the times we denied him in front of others, and then possibly hear Jesus tell us, “I do not know you.”

So this is the clear message this Sunday: that we should preach the Gospel with boldness, and worry not about persecution but about our final judgment.

On first glance, we might think: ‘is this message really relevant to me?’ It’s true, that it’s extremely unlikely that any of us will face physical torture or martyrdom here in the USA… although this certainly happens in other countries. The media don’t report on this, but Christians are by far the most persecuted religious group worldwide, with around 4000 Christians in Africa being martyred every year. But here in the USA, martyrdom is extremely unlikely.

On the other hand, faithful Catholics or Christians who preach the Gospel certainly still face persecution every day in the USA.

The most glaring area where the Catholic message is very unpopular, and likely to catch flak, is in areas related to sexuality morality.  One can recall Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the world-renowned physician-scientist who (among other amazing feats) discovered Trisomy 21 as the cause of Down Syndrome. As people began to use this discovery for prenatal diagnosis and termination of babies with Down Syndrome, Dr Lejeune was aghast, and he spoke boldly in defense of life. In response, the scientific community that had previously embraced him instead shunned him – his friends became his enemies. After he used the opportunity of receiving a major Genetics Award to give a keynote speech defending life, he wrote to his wife, “Today, I lost my Nobel prize.” And indeed he did.

Closer to home… One of our parishioners here who is a decorated faculty member at the Harvard has also met persecution, including calls from some students for him to be fired, for the stance he has taken on same-sex marriage and abortion.

Similarly, I can think of several physicians close to me who have received flak (or been passed on positions) because of their Catholic views.

Today’s society says that it embraces diversity and toleration, but it does not tolerate diverse views that differ from the prevailing ideologies related to reproductive health or gender.

Fortunately, there is much more to being Catholic than sexual morality, and our wonderful Pope Leo has recently reminded us that our Church generally has bigger priorities. To reach the millions who have left the Church or do not know Christ, we don’t start the conversation with the Church’s teaching on sexual morality.

The question is: are we trying to start a conversation at all? Are we trying to proclaim this Gospel with boldness, or are we denying Christ - either actively or passively?

In the Examination of Conscience app that I sometimes recommend for preparing for Confession, it lists numerous questions. One of them is: “Have I failed to admit I was Catholic, or to speak up for the Faith in situations when the Faith was being harmed and I could have reasonably provided a witness and example?”

Whether it’s the water cooler at work, or the online post we’re tagged in, or the dinner party with friends… all of these are occasions when someone might badmouth the Church: saying something like “I was raised Catholic, but I don’t really believe any of that fairy tale rubbish any more”. Or perhaps “the hierarchy is just there to oppress women and protect pedophiles”, or on and on.

In those moments, do we speak up, or do we stay silent and passively deny our faith?

Unfortunately, we Catholics aren’t very good at this.

The Pew Center did a national survey a few years back… they asked, ‘what would you do if you encounter someone with a different belief system?”  Among Catholic respondents, about 1/3 thought you should avoid discussing religion at all with the person and nearly 2/3 (60%) thought that you should ‘agree to disagree’ with the other person. Just ‘agree to disagree’ – i.e., I don't feel comfortable following Christ's command to preach the truth of God's love to non-Christians. Only 2% thought you should try to persuade the other person –to evangelize. This 2% for Catholics was the lowest percent of any of the religions surveyed.  

We feel so bashful about proclaiming our faith, to wave the Catholic flag. And yet so many of us have no problem about being quite outspoken in public or on social media on political issues, or about sports. Think about how embarrassingly loud World Cup fans can be. Can you imagine if we Catholics showed just a fraction of the loud enthusiasm for our faith, as the Scottish fans – the Tartan Army – have shown for their soccer team in recent days?

Certainly, there are other groups who are not shy about evangelizing – like the Mormons or Evangelicals or Muslims – and their numbers worldwide are growing at the fastest paces. It’s no surprise- they’re trained to evangelize.

Not only are we Catholics not trained, but we -quite rightly- fear persecution or backlash. Anti-Catholic prejudice has a longstanding history in the USA – recall that our parish's first church building was burned to the ground and the fire hose was cut in 1855 by the 'Know-Nothings' …and anti-Catholicism is arguably the last socially acceptable prejudice in many circles today. Think of the anti-Catholic costumes you see around on Halloween – like the promiscuous nun or priest, and imagine someone doing that with another religion like Judaism or Buddhism or Islam. Think of innumerable movies that portray nuns or priests as hypocritical and corrupt.

a common trope in Hollywood: the evil/corrupt bishop/priest (from V for Vendetta)

Knowing the anti-Catholic sentiment out there, many of us fear possible backlash or persecution, and we haven’t been trained to evangelize. Instead, many of us have been taught the words of St Francis of Assisi: “teach always, when necessary, use words”… which sounds nice, but actually St Francis never said this. In fact, St Francis definitely used words – he preached all the time, whether to the sultan or to the birds. Of course - both are important - both preaching and living an authentically loving Christian life (people can see straight through religious hypocrisy). The phrase “Preach always, when necessary use words” is often simply an excuse not to evangelize at all… we think “If I’m just a nice person, then other people will see my example and naturally want to become Christian.”

But this is not a very effective evangelization strategy… personally, I’ve never had someone come up to me and say, “wow, you seem like a really compassionate doctor, can I ask what inspires you or makes you tick?”

The only time I’ve seen any success in trying to bring non-Christians closer to Christ was when I was more explicitly trying to start a conversation, like when I was inspired by Bishop Barron to do a series of posts on Facebook about why I am Catholic. That actually started some conversations that led – through God’s grace- to people becoming Catholic-Christian. There’s a reason that the Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses are growing so quickly: they preach a lot.

I’ll admit I’m still struggling to muster the courage to ‘preach from the housetop’ more; it's awkward. But I know I need to be trying, even if it risks a bit of backlash, like what Jeremiah or the Psalmist faced.

For this week, can I suggest that everyone could prayerfully think of one way that you can preach the Gospel of Love with boldness, perhaps to one person in your life. It is a skill, and like any skill it improves with instruction and practice. I strongly recommend the books we have in our little parish library, including Brandon Vogt’s ‘What to Say and How to Say It.’ In general, it’s much more helpful to start within an established friendship/relationship, in which we can ask interested questions, rather than jump to polemics (what we think they need to hear) or hitting them over the head with the truth. We can ask questions like, “What sort of religious upbringing did you have growing up? Why did you stop going to Church?” In addition, we can use conversation starters, like wearing a miraculous medal or having Catholic imagery on your phone or computer. You can give interested/'searching' friends books or pamphlets, like the ones we have at the front of the church. You can invite a friend to join you for Mass.

Or perhaps if it seems too much to try to preach, at least we can resolve to speak up, if a colleague or friend is badmouthing the Church… let’s resolve not to stay silent.

Let's recall how the Scots might react if someone badmouthed their soccer team.

Or better, let’s recall Christ’s words:

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others

I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

But whoever denies me before others,

I will deny before my heavenly Father."

May the Holy Spirit inspire us all to acknowledge Christ, so that he will bring us to the Father’s embrace, the eternally joyful banquet of Heaven. Amen.