Persecute then canonize?

Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them
and you do the building.

So says our Lord in today's Gospel (Luke 11:47-54).

It is an old accusation that the Church persecutes saints while they are alive only to canonize them after they are dead.

Often, this is said by people who feel they are being persecuted by the Church, as if this proves their eventual vindication.

In truth, the overwhelming majority of those individuals whose words or actions were opposed by the Church were never rehabilitated, let alone canonized. Their words and deeds were in error and remain so.

May God have mercy on us all.

To be sure, men and women who take bold stands and bold actions in this world, even if their cause is holy, usually meet with resistance, even from those who ostensibly share their faith.

Many times this resistance is simply the caution of discernment. Over the millennia, many people have been put forward as messengers of God and many of them have been false prophets who have led other people to ruin. Sometimes this discernment can take a long time, after the fruits of their words and deeds can be fully examined.

Sometimes, of course, this resistance is the stubbornness of entrenched sin and selfishness on the part of individuals, even individuals in high positions.

So, how do we avoid falling under the condemnation our Lord pronounces in today's Gospel?

By focusing always on discernment: both discernment of those around us and discernment of ourselves.

If we focus continually on discerning the truth of God more fully and on purifying ourselves by the light of God's truth and God's grace, then we will be better able to recognize the true prophets and the true saints, the living and the dead, and by the grace of God become true saints and true prophets in our own lives.