Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Ben Riley
Ask any priest to tell you their vocation story, the journey of faith that eventually led them to the seminary, and almost all of them will tell you about how at some point in their discernment, they ran away from the Lord’s call. And I am no different. In my last two years of high school, I was seriously discerning the priesthood, but I was afraid. I was afraid of the sacrifices, I was afraid I wasn’t good enough, not holy enough, not smart enough, didn’t have a good enough prayer life, and many more fears than that. It took years of formation, before I learned that God does not speak to us through fear. Which is a good thing, because today our magnificent readings all have to do with the reality of fear in the spiritual life, and how we are called to address it.
Everything you need to know about yourself spiritually speaking, has to do with what is at the center of your heart, what are your deepest desires, and what fears are getting in the way. So, with that in mind let’s look at our first reading from the great prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is given a difficult task from God. First, the Lord commissions him to stand at the Benjamin gate of Jerusalem and call the people to repentance for violating the Sabbath. Then the Lord commands Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house, take a clay pot and break it in view of the elders accusing them of false worship, especially the worship of the God Ball. Then he takes the same message to the Temple, but he is arrested, beaten, and placed in the stocks.
God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet and the message he has for Israel is this terrible message and it turns out to be true, that no one’s going to listen to him, and all the people are going to end up hating him. Well, that’s exactly what happened with Jeremiah. He says, “I hear the whisperings of many, terror, terror, on every side. Denounce! Let us denounce him. All those who are my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.”
So here is Jeremiah, in the midst of his fear and despair. I was called to deliver this message, I’ve done so, and what’s the result, everybody hates me. Terror on every side. Everybody’s denouncing me. Well, a lot of us experience life this way don’t we. There are times when it feels like everything’s going wrong. All of our fears are being realized. All of our best efforts have met with failure. But listen now to how Jeremiah responds to his fear. Not with despair, but with Hope. “The Lord is with me like a mighty champion. My persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.” In the midst of his fears, he experiences a deeper peace. You see, we would like to think that by following Christ, The Prince of Peace, we would experience peaceful lives, but sadly that is rarely the case. Instead, those who are faithful and are not afraid to express their faith, are ridiculed, mocked, and even persecuted. Terror, terror on every side.
Our faith doesn’t promise a peaceful life, it promises hope in an everlasting life. And this doesn’t only pertain to our personal fears, it also relates to the great malaise that is infiltrating our society and culture.
Many people have a great deal of fear about the direction we are headed. Our society has championed an emphasis on power, pleasure, and prestige, and it has infiltrated every aspect of our personal, public, social, and political lives. Indeed, terror on every side. These social issues are something we should be concerned about, but not to the point of allowing them to rob us of our joy. Listen to Christ’s words in our Gospel.
“Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nothing is secret that will not be known.” The Lord said to fear no one and then he takes it further. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Now we see how we are called to address the fear. To see it, as the paper tiger that it is. Don’t fear those paper tigers who can only harm the body but cannot touch the soul. Yes, there is terror all around, enemies all around. I’ve got failures and fears and anxieties all around me, but at the level of my soul, I am connected to that power which created the universe and loves me to the point of death.
The worst that can happen in this life, to any believer in Jesus is to die, and yet even death, for the follower of Christ, has been transformed to the entrance into eternal life. Jesus says that “all the hairs of your head are counted,” Which does not mean that we will never be subject to harm. Rather, it means that nothing happens to us that is not part of God’s ultimate loving plan for our lives. And yes, that includes suffering. There are some truths about God that can only be learned through suffering. Suffering can expand our heart and enable us to love more, to love like God, who suffered for us.
“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly father, but whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly father.” Jesus does not mince words here. There is fear and there is suffering all around us, but “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” It is so sad when that fear and suffering causes Christians to become afraid of publicly being identified with Christ. Christians who are afraid to evangelize. Do our coworkers, friends, acquaintances know that we are followers of Christ, and are we setting a good example of what it means to be a Christian? Or do we imitate the manners and patterns of everyone around us in order to avoid conflict. Let’s learn from and imitate the example of the Saints who recognized that those paper tigers can destroy the body but cannot touch the soul.
Consider Saint Maximillian Kolbe. A polish priest who was imprisoned by the Nazis. He was sent to the death camp of Auschwitz and when a group of prisoners were to be starved to death, he offered himself up in place of another prisoner who had a family. Maximillian Kolbe didn’t let the paper tiger Nazis kill his soul.Consider young Karol Wojtyła, the kid that grew up to be St. Pope John Paul the 2nd. He experienced the worst of the world as a young kid. The Nazis invaded his home country, thousands of people killed, his seminary classmates were forced underground. Auschwitz was just a few miles from where John Paul the second was going to school. And yet when he becomes Pope, what is the first thing he says from the balcony of the papal apartment, “be not afraid.” He echoes Jesus in this gospel who says, “fear no one.”
Terror on every side, absolutely. From Jeremiah, to Maximillian Kolbe, to John Paul the 2nd. But finally, what are you afraid of, those that could harm the body, or do you have fear of the Lord. That is, a reverence of the Lord, who maintains and safeguards your soul. This week, let’s pray for the strength to be publicly identified as disciples of Christ.