The first reading from the book of prophet Jeremiah (Jer 20:10-13), catalogued some of the hardships experienced by prophet Jeremiah. During his call as a prophet, the Lord informed him that before his birth that he had been consecrated and sent as a prophet, hence he must not say, “I am only a boy,” but should rather go to those he shall be sent to by the Lord and proclaim His commandments without fear or favour.

Jeremiah challenged the people of Israel and asked them not to put false hope on the presence of the temple in Jerusalem. They must desist from impunity, worshipping false gods, and maltreating strangers. He warned them that they must not be living with impunity and believing that the presence of the temple would immunise them from punishment. They must repent from their iniquities.

Jeremiah chastised Pashhur the chief officer of the Temple who struck him and had him detained in the Temple because of his prophesies, by renaming him terror-on-every-side.

In today’s passage, there was a gang up against Jeremiah which he denounced, and nick named “terror from all sides.” His detractors threw lots of “muds” on him to see which one will stick. Jeremiah recounted thus: “All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’” Jeremiah also recalled that the Lord came to his aid, and he was saved from the hands of his enemies. Though the Lord was his salvation, yet he was thrown into a dry well to die (Jer 38:6) and later dragged to Egypt where he died.

In today’s Gospel passage (Mt 10:26-33), Jesus counselled the apostles to be steadfast in their faith and not to break their covenant with God because they want to please people and gain cheap popularity. Contravening God’s commandments to engender oneself to the people may elicit temporary accolades but eternal repudiation. We recall the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. In the nascent Christian community in Jerusalem, believers contributed money and goods with volition to help in the propagation of the faith and to take care of the needy among them. Some people like Joseph from Cyprus nicknamed Barnabas by the apostles sold a piece of land and deposited the full proceed with the apostles. Due to the gratitude Joseph received from the apostles and other believers, Ananias and Sapphira decided to sell a piece of land and brought the proceed to the apostles. They were not under compulsion to do this, and after they had sold the land, they were not under duress to bring the whole money to the apostles, however, they were obligated to be honest in declaring that they were only presenting the amount they wanted to, rather than presenting part of the money as if it was the total amount they realised from the sale. Their deceit led to their death! On the contrary, building our ethics around fidelity to God’s covenant channels us toward beatific vision at the end of our earthly existence. Jesus stated in the Gospel of today as follows, “‘… if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’”

Centring our lives on God’s covenant, do not imply that we may not face hostilities and other difficulties in life. Take Jeremiah for instance, he faced hardship from the people, but the Lord was with him in his ordeals.

We think of the life of martyrs whose blood are the seeds of evangelisation. We recall Maximilian Kolbe 1894 – 1941, a Franciscan Conventual friar who volunteered to die for Franciszek Gajowniczek in Auschwitz, a German death concentration camp, in Poland. Other modern martyrs include Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador in March 1980; Evariste Cagorora, who had sought shelter in a church during the Rwandan genocide of 1994; and the many Christians who have lost their lives in Nigeria due to terrorism. The lives of all these martyrs are in the hand of the Lord.