Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The reality of fear has certainly entered our human consciousness in recent years:

+ fear of the spread of the pandemic, which spread faster and further than the virus itself…
+ fear of lawlessness, mass shootings, and more, in our cities…
+ fear of government overreach violating our freedoms, yet incapable of managing the country… 
+ fear for our children’s future in an immoral anything-goes culture…
— just to name a few —

All three of our Scripture Readings today address human fears: the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah, the New Testament Apostle Paul, and even in the Gospel, Our Lord Himself, all speak to us of how to face the irrationality of false fears, as well as the sometimes-terrifying experiences that bring rational fears… and how, by the Grace of God, to overcome fear, and live in peace.

Jeremiah challenges us to trust… St. Paul speaks to us of grace… and Our Lord reminds us of the need for faith. Let’s look at each of these passages to see how they build upon each other in order to bring the peace that only trust, grace, and faith can bring.

We begin with the Prophet Jeremiah, listening-in on a conversation he carries on with himself. He starts by speaking of the betrayal of friends and others whom he trusted, which brings him “terror on every side.”

Yet, in the midst of this disquieting awareness, he remembers the fidelity and power of God: imparting to himself the thought that: “…the Lord is with me like a mighty champion.” In the end, Jeremiah’s trust in God’s Providence turns his lament into a hymn of praise.

Then… Saint Paul identifies the source of Jeremiah’s terror for what it eventually is: the treacherous and even death-dealing consequences of sin. However, where Jeremiah meets fear with trust, St. Paul meets fear head-on with Grace. He tells us that the gift, that is, grace, is not like the transgression, which is sin, saying, “… if by the transgression of one man — Adam — many died… how much more did the grace of God and the precious gift of the one man — Jesus Christ overflow for the many.
We know that because of our humanity we share in the sin of Adam. But God does not leave us there, because His grace is greater than our sin, wiping out fear of divine retribution.

And third, where Jeremiah leads us beyond fear through trust, and St. Paul leads us there through the remembrance of grace, now Our Lord shows us the way beyond our fears through faith. I’m sure you’ve noticed that in many Scripture stories, when God is planning to break into a person’s life, He sends an angel whose first words are “Be not afraid…” as exemplified in the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation, the event for which our parish is named.

But in today’s Gospel passage, it is the Lord Himself who utters these words… and not once, but three times in the space of one paragraph. Looking closely at the Lord’s threefold admonition, He seems to speak:

+ first, of fear retained from sins of our past, the realm of regret…

+ second, of fear in the present, wherein uncertainty about one’s life brings misgivings about the the end of one’s soul… the realm of hesitation, or even scrupulosity…

+ third, a fear that is oriented toward the future: the very real realm of anxiety.

Let’s look at these more closely, beginning with Regret for our actions in the past:
Our Lord reassures us that the Truth will triumph. And, we should not be afraid of the Truth because God knows the Truth of who you are, and still loves you, and still wants you in heaven.

To this end, Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we might live in grace and holiness beyond our forgiven sins. The Final Judgment might give one some hesitation about one’s eternal soul, but other than the Lord Himself, no one else there will care about the sins of your life… after all, we’re all awaiting judgment, and by then our love will have begun the process of perfection, to the point where we’ll all be cheering each other on.

To get us moving in this direction, the 20th-century writer Søren Kierkegaard wrote “Life can only be understood looking backwards… but it must be lived looking forward.” 

Next, we look at The present fear of uncertainty:
Our ultimate fate lies in the hands of God: not in the uncharity of others… nor in our own apprehensions about ourselves. We should retain, however, what we call a “Holy Fear,” which brings together mindfulness of God’s justice, hopefulness for His mercy, and faithfulness in His love.

This can be life-changing, in that “Holy Fear” is actually liberating because it frees us from self-determinism and re-focuses us on God’s intentions for us, for He knows us better than we know ourselves. The 20th-century writer Corrie ten Boom wrote about this: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

And finally, we arrive at Freedom from fear of the future:
This freedom comes to us from remembering Our Lord’s promise to acknowledge us before God the Father. “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” as that old Gospel hymn reminds us, borrowing a thought from today’s Gospel, meaning that our sin does not define us… God’s search for us defines us, and our fidelity to God’s search gives us ultimate assurance for hope.

To bring this to a close, one more pithy maxim from a 20th-century source, but this time an anonymous one: “Fear not the future… for God is already there.”