365 Times: “Do not be afraid!”
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2013
Alleluia,
alleluia
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory
to you, Lord
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it
is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions
and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a
treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no
moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
"Be dressed
ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their
master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they
can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose
master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress
himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on
them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if
he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the
owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not
have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of
Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
The Gospel of
the Lord
Praise to You, Lord
Jesus Christ.
Introduction
The world: “Be afraid!”
The commercial world constantly
bombards us with the message: “Be afraid; be very afraid!” Advertising is
founded quite soundly on the hope that we are afraid of something. We are
afraid of an accident, so we buy car insurance. We are afraid of fire or flooding,
so we buy house insurance. We are afraid of getting sick, so we buy health
insurance. We are afraid looking old, so we buy an anti-aging facial cream, or
we undergo a `wrinkle-remove’ surgery. Etc.
The Bible:
“Do not be afraid!”
The Bible’s most commonly repeated phrase is “Do not be
afraid!” Some say it appears a good 365 times in the whole Bible. To mention
but one example from the Old Testament, when the Lord God called
Jeremiah to be a prophet (one who speaks in God’s name) Jeremiah found himself
stuttering: "Ah, Ah, Ah. Lord,
God, I don't know how to speak. I'm too young to be a prophet." God said to Jeremiah: “Do not be afraid, for I will protect you.”
(Jer. 1:4-8)
The New Testament (especially the Nativity
narrative) abounds with “Do not be afraid.” When Zachariah was burning incense at the
hour of incense, an angel of the Lord said to him. ”Do not be afraid, Zachariah! God has heard your prayer, and your
wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.” (Lk.1:13) When the Angel Gabriel announced
to Mary that she would become pregnant and bear a son, she was deeply troubled,
and Gabriel said to her, Do not be afraid,
Mary!”(Lk. 1:30) When Joseph, became disturbed upon hearing that Mary was pregnant, an
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid, Joseph! Take Mary as your wife, for it is by the
Holy Spirit that she has conceived.” (Mt. 1:20) Then when the fullness of time came and shepherds
were out in the fields, keeping watching over their flock by night, an angel of
the Lord suddenly stood before them and said, “Do not be afraid, good shepherds! I have good news for you: today
in the city of David a Savior has been born to you – Christ the Lord.”
(Lk.2:10)
Pope Francis is not afraid
An angel of the Lord speaks now to Pope
Francis and tells him, “Do not be afraid
to break the Italian monopoly on the governance of the Universal Church.” Francis
has courageously set up three bodies to flesh out his reform of the Church. All
told, they include 21 people with just three Italians among them! The angel
tells Francis, “Do not be afraid to
give the laity a meaningful role in reforming the Vatican and governing the
Church. And so his commission to study the economic and administrative
structures of the Church is made up of eight people - one of whom is a
Monsignor, and the other seven are laypeople drawn from the world of economics,
law and business management.
The angel of the Lord also tells Pope Francis, “Do not be afraid to reposition the Church in the center, after having drifted to the right for a fairly lengthy period. An Italian journalist writes, “It cannot be an accident that after 120 days of his pontificate, Pope Francis has not yet spoken the words abortion, euthanasia or homosexual marriage.” Speaking to reporters on the overnight flight from Rio de Janeiro back to Rome Francis said, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"
In one of the most symbolic events of his week-long trip to Brazil an angel of the Lord told Francis, “Do not be afraid to venture on foot into Rio de Janeiro’s infamous Varghina favela (slum-like shanty town). Despite heavy security and a cold rain, Francis waded into the cheering crowds and hugged and kissed residents young and old. He blessed the altar of a `shoebox church’ that serves the poor community, and he prayed before a replica of Brazil's patron saint - the Virgin of Aparecida. In the nearly week-long trip to Brazil, the pope put forward his priorities: showing solidarity with the poor, getting priests out of their parishes and closer to the people, and re-evangelizing regions where Catholics have abandoned the Church.
Conclusion
365 times!
We are told that the most common one-liner in the whole Bible
- appearing 365 times - is “Do not be afraid!” – a daily and yearlong reminder to
all of us to live without fear.
