Do Not Be Afraid!

 (Homily 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)

    The liturgy of the Word today presents before us situations of anguish and terror. First it is seen in the prophecy of Jeremiah in the first reading, he was constrained to announce violence and oppression, and his enemies accused him of spreading terror around. And they threatened to speak out against him. As such, the prophet was living in fear. The second situation of anguish is that of the psalmist: “It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame has covered my face. To my own kin I have become an outcast, a stranger to the children of my mother…and taunts against you fall on me” (Ps. 69:7-9). Furthermore, the first reading and the Gospel passages insist on two characteristics of the Christian existence: the difficulties and the persecutions; and trust in God, which dispels every fear. Prophet Jeremiah confessed, putting words in the mouth of God thus: “I have listened to the calumnies of the people” and at the same time he felt encouraged by God’s presence, “But the Lord is with me like a powerful hero” (Jer. 20:10a, 11a). In the same vein, in the Gospel we hear similar words: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul” (Mt. 10:28), these were the words of Jesus to his disciples and to us today. Why should we not be afraid? Because in the words of the second reading, “there is no comparison between the free gift and the offence” (Rm.5:15), between the powers of the persecutors and the power of God.  The effulgence of God’s grace surpasses all. Many of us need to hear these comforting and encouraging words of Jesus: Do not be afraid!

     The first reading (Jer. 20:10-13) presents the figure of prophet Jeremiah, who lived between 650 and 586 B.C., it was an epoch deeply tormented politically and religiously, which will culminate in the conquest of the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and in the deportation of the King and the major part of the citizens. Jeremiah remained in the destroyed city, with the poor that escaped from exile. More than the sufferings that were coming as a result of the destruction of the Holy City and the deportation of the citizens, he was object of hostility in the sight of the official representatives of religion and of the Jewish cult, who did not understand his prophetic message. When Jeremiah was deeply oppressed, facing suffering from all angles, prior to the passage of today’s reading, the prophet throw it to God on the face, the fact of being not only abandoned, but disappointed and deceived by God. “Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, for me you are a deceptive stream with uncertain waters!” (Jer. 15:18). And again, “You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a laughing-stock all day long; they all make fun of me” (Jer. 20:7). Those were the words that he used to express his bitter experience.

     This passage from the prophecy of Jeremiah is clearly chosen to suit the Gospel passage, which speaks of the persecution the apostles are going to encounter in their mission. Jeremiah was majorly the prophet that suffered persecution severely on account of his prophetic activity. From his experience came the conception in the later Jewish view that rejection, persecution and martyrdom go hand in hand with the prophetic ministry; this idea appeared in the New Testament (cf. Lk. 11:51, 13:33-34; Mk. 12:1-9). In that perspective, to be a bearer of the word of God amounts to suffering, because the word of God encounters hostility and rejection. From the experience of Jeremiah we can decipher that a Christian is called not only to a prophetic mission of announcing the truth in the name of God, but also of a mission of suffering for the sake of the Good News of Salvation. Jeremiah prefigures the great moment of the revelation that will be fulfilled in Christ.

     In the Gospel (Mt. 10:26-33) Jesus says to his disciples “So do not be afraid of them. Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from housetops” (vv. 26-27). With these paradoxical expression Jesus entrusts to his disciples the task of announcing the word, of proclaiming the Good News, “without if and but”! This passage of the Gospel can be summed up in one sentence: “Be afraid, don't be afraid." Jesus says: "Fear not men... Fear not those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul; rather fear him who has power to destroy both soul and body...” Of men we should neither fear nor fear; of God we should fear, but not fear. So there is a difference between fear and fear and let’s try to understand what it is. Fear is a manifestation of our basic conservation instinct. It is the reaction to a threat brought to our lives, the response to a real or presumed danger: from the greatest danger of all, which is death, to particular hazards that threaten either our tranquility or our physical safety. Fears are like ghosts: they need darkness to act. Now let’s move on to considering the fear of God. The first difference from fear is this: the fear of God must be learned. "Come, children, listen to me, says a psalm; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Psalm 33:12). Fear, on the other hand, there is no need to go to school to learn it, it surges suddenly in the face of danger; things take charge of themselves to instill fear in us. The fear of God is a component of faith: it is born from knowing who God is. In the face of the miracle of the paralyzed who, at the word of Jesus, stands up and walks, the sacred author said that "everyone was amazed and gave praise to God; full of fear they said: Today we have seen miraculous things" (Lk. 5:26). Fear, as you can see, is another name for awe and praise. It is even one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Is. 11:2).

     Jesus offers us some motivations for which we should not be afraid, he gives us some remedies to our fears. He says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul…Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair of your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid” (vv. 28-31). Here, Jesus evokes the paternity of God as a reason for which we should not be afraid. As such, the revelation of the paternity of God and the revelation of a life after death sustain the invitation of Jesus. Not only that, the death and resurrection of Christ are also guarantee for us not to be afraid, for this St. Paul courageously affirmed that “If God is for us, who can be against us?... Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice who can condemn?... Who can separate us from the love of Christ?... No, we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us” (Rm. 8:31-39). With each of those words he alludes to an event that really happened to him. And then he looked at all these things in the light of the great certainty that God loves him and concludes triumphantly: “In all these things we overcome through Him who loved us.” We are invited to do the same.

     Extrapolating from this passage we see certain attitudes and behavior that we Christians are tempted to assume in our existential experience: ●First, the most immediate risk is the temptation to abandon the Christian commitment of living as a Christian and return to live according to the spirit of the world. ●Second, is the temptation to believe that with Christ we have arrived at a certain privileged position of living in serenity and quietude, a sort of exemption from suffering and tribulation. Jesus does not give us any guarantee to that effect, instead he encourages us not to be afraid. ●Third, is the sense of fear that can take over a Christian. The message of Christ will always be provocative, and before the world those who live and announce the message of Christ will be confronted, rejected and persecuted. Many a times, Jesus makes reference to this fundamental condition of the Christian existence. It is as if the Christian existence is always exposed to risk, opposition, and even the danger of losing one’s life. And from this situation fear can emerge, which can paralyze a Christian to the point of denying Christ or be ashamed of being called a Christian. It is incumbent upon this conviction that Jesus repeatedly exhorted his disciples thus: “do not be afraid”. The disciples of Christ are therefore, invited not be afraid of those that persecute them or of the world that gangs up against them because: No human power can stop the success of the Word of God; God assures them of his Providence, He promises to safeguard them as he takes care of the birds in the sky and the flowers in the field (cf. Mt. 6:26-30) and for them He knows how to draw something good from evil. And finally, because God is on our side, on the side of his disciples, as he was on the side of Jeremiah in the first reading.

     On the other hand, our Christian life has to be founded on a certain type of fear, a healthy fear. Not the fear of or for persecution and threats, rather the fear of God and the divine judgment. For we know, as the word of God has made us to understand that at the end of our life, we shall be judged. Healthy fear therefore, entails living coherently and adhering to the Gospel, reverence for God. A Christian is therefore, called to be courageous and strong in proclaiming his faith in Christ and in the Gospel, and always ready to confront dangers on account of this. St. Peter gives us the spiritual secret code thus: “Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for the people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have” (1Pt. 3:15).

     However, giving the foundation of our Christian faith, a convinced Christian does not fear men of this world, for Jesus in the passage of today’s Gospel repeated three good times: “So do not be afraid of them” (Mt. 10:26); “Do not be afraid of those…” (Mt. 10:28); “So there is no need to be afraid” (Mt. 10:31). The disciple of Christ should not be afraid of those who persecute them, because we know that God is always on our side, as in the case of Jeremiah in the first reading, he felt the presence of God at his side, notwithstanding the persecutions he was passing through. However, let us appropriate the word of God in the Gospel of John “I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world” (Jn. 16:33), yes our courage is founded on his victory. A Christian is therefore, called to be courageous and strong in proclaiming his faith in Christ and in the Gospel, and always ready to confront dangers on account of this. “Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for the people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have” (1Pt. 3:15). Therefore, if we are Christians we have to confess Christ openly in every situation, without fear and shame, like St. Paul who was glorying in the cross of Christ.

     Jesus warns us that if anyone disowns him in the presence of human beings, he will disown that person in the presence of his Father in heaven (v.33). Jesus is thus, calling us to proclaim his message of salvation with courage, with our lips and our lives. Our world today has distanced herself from Christ and his message, has many a times disowned him and relegated the Christian values to the background, there is need of a “re-evangelization”. Our world today needs to be re-evangelized, few years ago the discourse and the concern on “New Evangelization” was very strong and intense. Behold, I think there is need to return to that awareness, but now from a different standpoint, we need to deepen the consciousness of the necessity of a continuous evangelization, at the personal and collective levels.

     The second reading (Rm. 5:12-15) expounds the liberating power and effects of Christ’s redemption. It is freedom and emancipation from sin and death. St. Paul makes a sort of comparison between Adam and Christ while enunciating our liberation from sin and death. Disobedience, sin and death were prevalent in Adam, but through and in Christ obedience, free gift of grace and life were made manifest. However, we should jettison the idea that Adam sort of introduced a hereditary stain, which is somehow biologically transmittable; rather the fact is that all men sinned like Adam. Adam opened the door to sin and death. In the passage St. Paul affirmed that “There is no comparison between the free gift and the offence. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (v.15). It therefore, entails that God’s grace is much greater than our sin. The grace of God abounds for all. That is the basis of our trust and confidence. In the face of persecutions, criticisms, rejections, indifference and incomprehension we neither rely on our strength, nor on our morals. The rock of our trust and confidence is the grace of God, manifested as a gratuitous Gift in Jesus Christ.

     No doubt, there are many things that threaten our internal peace, many things that frighten us. Many a times we are afraid of the future, afraid of sickness and death, but contrarily to all forms and manifestations of fear and anguish in our life, Jesus says: “do not be afraid”. In fact, the Bible is full of this hopeful reassurance of God “do not be afraid”. To Abram God says “do not be afraid” (Gen. 15:1; 26:24) even when He called him to leave his own country for an unknown country. To the prophets God says “do not be afraid” (Is. 41:10; 43:5; Jer. 1:8) for I am with you. Also to Mary God through his angel says “do not be afraid” (Lk. 1:30). When Jesus was sending his apostles on mission, he reminded them of the possibility of persecution, however, he says to them: “do not worry about how to speak or what to say” (Mt. 10:19). And to all his disciples Jesus says “do not be afraid, little flock” (Lk. 12:32). You too, do not be afraid!

     Today there are many things that threaten our life and well-being, many situations that make us be encapsulated by fear. Ranging from the current social and political upheaval, economic instability and moral decadence have plunged us more than ever in a long dark tunnel that we are desperately waiting and looking for rays of hope. Thus, in this dramatic situation of fear and uncertainty, Jesus’ words resound: “do not be afraid”. Jesus explains in the Gospel the inseparable connection between fear and trust in God. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair of your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid” (vv. 28-31). God doesn't want us to create fear but trust. Indeed, Jesus’ words fall like a healing balm: Nonlite timere. It is like a refrain that resounds in the words of Jesus. Before anything else, it is worthwhile to allow these words and invitation of Jesus to inhabit in our hearts, “do not be afraid”. Today more than ever, we need these reassuring words of Jesus. We need not only someone, but ‘Someone’ who calms us, who reassures us that there is still hope. Truly, in our present situation of fear, anguish, hunger, desperation and sickness, we need to hear the voice of Jesus. Beloved in Christ, the most important revelation about God to emerge from the Gospels is that he is a caring God, a compassionate and forgiving God, and a God who is on our side. Therefore, no matter what we are facing or whatever is facing us, our attitude must be that of the psalmist when he says, “In God I trust I shall not fear” (Ps. 56:11).

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)