12th Sunday of Year
(A)
(Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15;
Matthew 10:26-33)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus was speaking from His own experience when, in our Gospel
reading, He told His disciples not to be afraid. He Himself had come into
this world to speak peace to God’s people and to free them from the darkness
and servitude of sin by proclaiming His Gospel of salvation. He had not
been well-received by the ‘religious establishment’, and He knew that worse,
including political alarm and popular disenchantment, was to follow.
Therefore, He was sending His Apostles out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel
with this commission (Matthew 10:7):
As you go, preach,
saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand'
He warned them (10:16-18):
I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves;
therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of
men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their
synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake,
as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
Jesus' warning cannot have failed to stir them, perhaps prompting them
to remember what happened to Jeremiah when God had sent him to preach
forthcoming disaster and desolation to the people of Jerusalem become
‘stiff-necked’ in their disobedience; for, as you heard in the first reading,
despite his divine commission, it had not made Jeremiah acceptable, on the
contrary, it had been a downright dangerous message for him to deliver to God’s
People:
I have heard the whispering of many, "Terror
on every side! Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!" All
those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine saying:
"Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him and take
our revenge on him."
And yet, discounting any possible fears that they themselves might
meet such opposition, Jesus insisted that His Apostles should proclaim His
message not only without fear, but to the very utmost of their powers:
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the
light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Jesus had already spoken -- and would still continue to speak -- many
things to them in the calm solitude of their evenings together, and what He
had, in that way, told them privately ‘in the dark’, they were to speak
publicly in full light of day. And perhaps those words what you hear whispered
is a reference to the Holy Spirit Who – according to Jesus’ promise -- would
recall to their minds and hearts whatever aspects of His teaching they might
otherwise have forgotten or even, perhaps, like to have forgotten.
Whatever, whether it was words Jesus' own voice had spoken in their hearing, or
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit whispering to their minds and in their
hearts, all had to be proclaimed without fear.
How can we today learn from Jesus’ sending His Apostles then?
The Twelve were being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
to a people that is who had been prepared over thousands of years to hopefully
hear, understand, and embrace their message:
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a
worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a
house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if
not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to
your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your
feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that
town. (Matthew 10: 11-15)
That is obviously not the situation for Mother Church’s proclamation
of Jesus today, but Jesus’ words and intentions still offer wise guidance for
us who want to be His true disciples in our modern world where rejection of God
is rampant and the exaltation of human values and expectations is blatant and
verging on the ludicrous at times. For example, learned academics of
Oxford and Coventry are now giving us the results of their recent studies
telling us that more sex -- for 50 to 83 year olds! – is healthy, indeed
promotes health; and ‘all caveats apart, the national birth rate must be
maintained’, says ‘The Times’ article. What has happened to wisdom
that used to be so lovingly sought and taught in universities? Surely
such elderly (!) parental health-witnessing or health-promoting pleasures
should not be inflicted upon their children … or perhaps the prospect of any
progeny is to be discounted, or any resultant ‘mistake’ got-rid-of?
I think that St. Paul has better advice than our scholars:
The one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but
the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the
spirit. (Galatians 6:8)
People of God, there are many disciples of Jesus today, in our own
society and in our Western world, who are afraid of the consequences that might
result for them if they were to publicly support/proclaim the teaching of
Jesus, for such teaching is not popular today just as Jesus Himself is not
popular. Of course, almost everyone today will say that Jesus was a good
man, indeed, a great man; but what they do not like about Him is His claim to have
a personal calling and authority, and above all, a divine dignity, which
obliges all who know Him and His word to decide either for Him or against Him;
and deciding for Him would oblige them to keep His word and risk
public derision or opprobrium while, on the other hand, deciding against Him
might secretly threaten their eternal destiny:
Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this
faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when He
comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)
Therefore, despite His many kind actions and wonderful words, this
Jesus of authority is unacceptable to modern society, as is the authoritative
teaching of His Church; and many who want to think of themselves as disciples
of Jesus actually find themselves hesitant or even afraid to proclaim the
fulness of His message by their words under the misapprehension that
proclaiming the Good News of Jesus means ‘taking on’ the unbelieving world
around by arguing in public or hectoring individuals in private. We have
to recognize, People of God, in our post-Christian, post-religion world, that proclamation
does not necessarily involve, and most certainly does not mean, arguing
with enemies, it also does not necessarily mean trying to persuade
people (such persuasion usually involves ‘watering down’ as an essential
component). What proclamation does mean, however, is calm and, if
necessary, courageous witness to what is true and beautiful (not
the latest hot-spot of public contention), something that can only be done by
patient and persevering testimony. For priests and leaders of the
people, there can be, at times, an almost overwhelming temptation to seek
success by flirting with popularity. Of course, on such occasions they
might even persuade themselves it is Jesus they are trying to make popular …
but who could ever make popular One who never courted popularity Himself in the
slightest! Jesus wanted love that leads to personal commitment, not
enthusiasm that cries out to be surrounded by others similarly excited.
Jesus’ message was neither intended nor phrased to provoke or promote His own
popularity, rather He deliberately sought to challenge, inspire, and then
convert, individual consciences before and for His Father.
Jesus therefore sought to comfort and strengthen the Twelve by
explaining:
Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will
not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.
There will be a final denouement, a day of judgment when all false
colours will be lowered in shame, all injustices corrected, and when all who
have suffered for God will be both acknowledged and rewarded, and that is
something that we who want to be true disciples of Jesus in this modern world,
as with the Twelve starting out on their first mission, must never forget.
St. Paul followed the mind and took up the purpose of Jesus when he
told his converts in Corinth who were seeking to overcome the notorious
corruption and depravity of that great sea-port:
The natural person does not accept what pertains
to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand
it, because it is judged spiritually.
And, because the Christian message is ultimately about redemption
through the Cross of Jesus, St. Paul said quite clearly:
The message of the cross is foolishness to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians
2:14; 1:18)
Therefore, for the Church and for all God's good people, there will
inevitably be much obloquy, suffering, and disadvantage to be experienced and
indeed embraced in our time on earth, in the course of which we are neither to
fear nor rebel; for both fear and rebellion come from looking at ourselves, our
situation and our possibilities, whereas our hopes and expectations as
Christians should all be centred on God. St. Paul learned to wait on the
Lord in this way through his many sufferings for Christ and he tells us what Jesus
told the Twelve:
(Do not fear men) for the foolishness of God is wiser than human
wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
(1 Corinthians 1:25)
Jesus Himself offered His disciples three motives for rejecting
fear. First of all, if you are going to fear, He said, at least fear Him
Who is supremely powerful:
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul. But rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell.
That is basic reality and all true spirituality has to be built on
reality.
However, Jesus did not limit Himself to correcting earthly fears with
the greater danger and threat of supernatural loss. Such a corrective
measure can indeed hold a man back from sin, but it will hardly ever lead one
to virtue, let alone love. Therefore, He gave the apostles, and us,
further advice:
Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And
not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. (Why)
the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear
therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
People of God, when our world seeks at all levels and on all occasions
to justify itself, when people generally are filled with ideas of their own
righteousness and totally opposed to seeing themselves as responsible before
God for any sins, it is of the utmost importance for us Catholics and
Christians to entertain right thoughts and develop attitudes which are
spiritually healthy and productive. First of all, we must, with the
Apostles, cast out of our hearts all fear of men. Then we must remember
and realize that our natural fear is meant to relate us above all to the God
Who made us, for fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and at times only
a healthy fear of the Lord can save us from the solicitations of sin and the
morally corrosive fear of men. Then, however, since love is the truest
motive power of any human being’s life, we must learn to love aright. We
all learn to love by being loved ourselves, and that is why Jesus went on to
make clear to His apostles the love that the heavenly Father had for them:
Why, the very hairs of your head are all numbered by the heavenly Father;
And His own appreciation of their courageous efforts:
Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also
confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
Therefore, let us not look with fear at men, nor with anxious
solicitude at our own selves, but rather let us confidently commit ourselves to
the Spirit of the Lord working in our lives, and allow Him to lead us along the
way of the Lord and Saviour we know and love, into the presence of Him Who is
above all, in all, and through all, the One eternal Father, waiting to embrace
us, in Jesus, as His own true and beloved children for eternity.
