My dear brothers and sisters, the conversation in today's Gospel occurs during the last week of Jesus' earthly life. He and his followers had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
Each day between that first Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday, Jesus went with the Twelve Apostles to the Temple, to teach and preach, trying to convince the leaders and the people that he was the Messiah. At the end of the day, Jesus and his disciples would walk back to the town of Bethany, just east of Jerusalem, where they were staying.
On this occasion, they stopped and sat down to rest on the Mount of Olives, looking down upon mighty Jerusalem, with its magnificent marble Temple and stone palaces glittering in the afternoon sun.
Jesus then told his disciples about the future. He describes the coming destruction of this ancient city, and of the Temple - destruction which in 70 A.D., just forty years later, occurred just as he described. But the destruction of Jerusalem, the symbolic end of the Old Covenant, was also a foreshadowing of the end of history itself when this fallen world will be destroyed and replaced by a fully redeemed world. That is Judgment Day, the second coming of Christ.
Between Christ's conversation with his disciples and the destruction of Jerusalem, the Twelve Apostles experienced persecution, hardship, and martyrdom - just as Jesus predicted.
Between the time of the Apostles and Judgment Day, his Church will experience the same thing. And so, what Jesus tells them is meant for us too: tough times are part of his plan because they will "lead us to give our testimony."
In other words, our Christian response to the hardships of life in this fallen world will serve as advertisements for Christ and bring others to salvation.
Facing Death for Christ
There is a story before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Christians of all denominations were routinely persecuted for their faith by the Communist regime. One small group of believers used to meet in a family home every Sunday. They would arrive at different times, to avoid suspicion.
On one particular Sunday, they were all safely inside the building, with curtains drawn and doors locked. They had been singing and praying for a while when the door burst open and two armed soldiers crashed in. One shouted, "Everybody up against the wall. If you wish to renounce your faith in Jesus Christ, you can leave now and no harm will come to you."
Two people left right away, then a third and fourth straggled out. "This is your last chance!" the soldier warned. "Either turn your back on this Jesus of yours or stay and suffer the consequences!"
Two more slipped outside, crying and ashamed. No one else moved. Parents with small children trembling beside them looked down reassuringly. They fully expected to be gunned down on the spot, or imprisoned.
After a few moments of silence, the soldiers closed the door. One of them said, "Keep your hands up - but this time in praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. We, too, are Christians. We were sent to another house church like this several weeks ago, and we became believers."
The other soldier added, "We are sorry to have frightened those who left, but we have learned that unless people are willing to die for their faith, they cannot be fully trusted."
In times of trouble, our faith is tested, and we have a chance to do for Christ what he did for us: love him to the end.
Know, Love, and Follow Christ
Jesus is reminding us today that we have a mission amid life's difficulties and storms. Our mission is to "give testimony," to spread the Good News of Christ's Kingdom, and to help other people find and grow in Christ's friendship. But in order to do that, we have to have a vibrant friendship with Christ ourselves.
One reason we sometimes find that difficult is because this friendship, unlike our other companies, takes place in the mysterious atmosphere of faith. We don't see and hear Jesus the same way we see and hear other people. He works in our lives through the visual signs of the sacraments, and through the hidden action of the Holy Spirit deep in our hearts.
If that's the case, what exactly can we do to grow in this all-important friendship? We can do three things.
First, we can know Christ better, a little better every day. This happens especially in prayer, but also through reading or listening to good spiritual books about Christ, and to commentaries on the Gospel.
Second, we can love Christ better. The better we know him, the more we will love him, because he is infinitely loveable. We can show and grow this love by doing things to please him each day.
And that leads to the third thing we can do: follow Christ better, a little more closely each day. This means trying, with the help of his grace, to treat those around us as Christ would treat them if he were in our place.
Christ wants us to be his ambassadors, to "give testimony" to this passing world about his saving grace. This week, let's do so by knowing, loving, and following him a little better each day.