Gospel (Mt 10,16-23) - At that time, Jesus said to his apostles: «Behold: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be prudent as serpents and simple as doves. Beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness to them and to the pagans. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you will say, because in that hour what you must say will be given to you: in fact it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. »Brother will kill brother and father will kill son, and the children will rise up to accuse their parents and kill them. You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But whoever perseveres to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one city, flee to another; Truly I say to you, you will not have finished traveling through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

«I send you out like sheep among wolves». Sheep are always weaker than wolves, indeed they seem condemned to always lose in this situation. Yet, it is precisely in this perspective - the one that Jesus himself experienced firsthand - that the mission of the Church is inscribed. Don Andrea Santoro, a priest from Rome on a mission in Turkey, where he was martyred, wrote a few weeks before being killed: «The advantage of us Christians in believing in a defenseless God, in a Christ who invites us to love our enemies, to serve to be "lords" of the house, to be last to be first, in a Gospel that prohibits hatred, anger, judgment, domination, in a God who becomes a lamb and allows himself to be struck to kill pride and hatred in itself, in a God who attracts with love and does not dominate with power, is an advantage not to be missed." And he quoted Saint John Chrysostom: Christ feeds lambs, not wolves. If we become lambs we will win, if we become wolves we will lose. Despite the humility and simplicity of the "doves", Christians oppose evil, with their words and their conduct. Faced with certain injustices, the scandal of the suffering of the weakest, the elimination of life, the wounds of a world increasingly divided between many poor and few rich, the disciple, even knowing that he is facing opposition, cannot remain silent and not announce with his life that he is a child of God and not of this world. We are encouraged and consoled by the words of Jesus in today's Gospel: "He who perseveres to the end will be saved."