Use Your Brain - Keep Your Joy

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Remember, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as serpents and yet as harmless as doves.

Mt.10:16

Jesus is giving instructions to the twelve just prior to them heading off on their first mission trip. He warns that it will be no picnic, that they are to be cunning yet harmless.

These instructions are to all who are engaged in evangelisation, which should be all of us. It seems contradictory to be like a snake and like a dove. My wife just said the saints were like that. Maybe that's the key. Emulate the saints. 

Saint Philip Neri is my current favourite. He was clever (cunning) in the way he established oratories to evangelise parishes in Rome. These were the very first Alpha Courses. Yet he laughed a lot and played with children (harmless). Yes, the saints are the key...

Jesus you were cunning and harmless and you changed the world. Help me use my brain while still keeping my joy as I spread your Good News. 

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for us.