TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
25 JUNE 2017
After completing the Easter Season and reflecting on the Mystery of the
Trinity and the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, our readings this
Sunday slam us back into Ordinary Time with a thud! The Prophet Jeremiah finds himself persecuted
by the authorities for speaking the truth to his own people. Jesus speaks to his disciples about the
dangers of proclaiming his name and his message. By the time Saint Matthew has written this Gospel,
his disciples had been thrown out of the Synagogues by their neighbors for
their faith in Jesus Christ. Considered
no longer authentic Jews by the Romans, some of them had been hauled into court
and executed. In response, they express
their fear and ask the same question which Jeremiah had asked centuries
before: Why is God allowing all these
things to happen, especially to believers?
Jesus answers this valid question by telling them not to be afraid. They need not fear, because they no longer
live in darkness. They now live in the
bright light of a Messiah whose suffering and death will be transformed by the
light of the resurrection. They no
longer have to keep the message secret!
They can tell everyone. In
telling everyone, they have already experienced rejection and a share in the
passion of Christ.
So, he tells them to stop being afraid.
He reminds them of the fate of Jeremiah.
His enemies may have killed his body and sowed it in the earth. But, they could not kill his soul and separate
him from God. They could not stop the truth
of his message, which lives on to encourage those who continue to speak the
truth to leaders who live in darkness. They can stop being afraid, because the
Father cares for them even more than he cares for the sparrows of his
creation. He promises that the Father
puts so much value on them and their witness to the truth that they will see
the light of his presence face to face in all eternity.
Jesus speaks this same message to his disciples in every age. When Karol Wojtyla was elected as Pope John
Paul II in 1978, his first words were:
do not be afraid, open wide the doors to Christ! John Paul II had seen many things that caused
fear. He saw the Nazis invade Poland and
kill priests who resisted them. He watched
in horror as his Jewish neighbors were sent to prison camps to be
murdered. After the war, he lived under
Communist control of his country and defended the Church against state
control. As Pope, he would return to
Poland and see the collapse of Communism.
As Pope, he would be shot in Saint Peter’s Square and eventually sit
down to forgive his murderer. As Pope,
he set aside all fear to travel the world to proclaim the light of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
He is one of the saints pictured on the triumphal arch, and he is
interceding for us as we face our own fears.
If anything keeps us from living the light of faith, it is fear. Those of you who are very young might
hesitate to speak openly of your faith, because you fear that you will be
rejected by your friends. Those of us
who have been blessed with material wealth may be afraid to share our treasure
out of fear that if we are too generous, there will not be enough for us to
live comfortably. Those of you who face
life threatening diseases might be afraid of what the future holds once your
health is gone. In each of these
situations, Jesus says the same thing.
Do not allow fear to keep you from living the Gospel! God knows everything about us, even how many
hairs are on our heads. (For some of us,
that is easier to count these days!) God
also knows the dangers we face. God will
not protect us from those dangers. But,
echoing Jeremiah, God will be our mighty champion. God will be with us. Precisely because of the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, we can squarely face our fears and live the Gospel!
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