WITNESSING WITHOUT FEAR

SUNDAY, TWELVETH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME

Jer 20:10-13; Ps 69:8-10,14,17,33-35; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33

Our Declaration for Jesus Christ

Our quest for God, for the kingdom of God where righteousness will be at home, is an uphill task for the obvious reasons. First is the weakness of our wills, which have been weakened by the original and actual sins. Second is the fact of our habituation to physical or sensible things; believing and sticking with unseen realities becomes very hard and difficult. Third is the gravitational pull of the throng of those who follow the way of the world, pursuing and sacrificing themselves for the riches and wealth of this temporal world or kingdom. Fourth is the presence and activities of principalities and powers, thrones and dominions of demonic spirits who rule over these throngs of people desiring temporal goods and wealth. Fifth is the difficulty of discerning the true spiritual path amidst so much confusion and confused preachers of the Gospel. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to go against these general spiritual and physical forces that oppose the kingdom of God. Our vocation to believe in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ brings us to stand in opposition to these throngs of people rushing in the opposite direction to ours. These are formidable obstacles we must overcome to make it to the shores of heaven.

Given these numerous sources of difficulty in spiritual life, it is necessary that anyone who intends to attain the height of Christian spirituality must start with a resolute will and intention to give it their all. We have an idea of what the vocation entails in the life of the prophet, Jeremiah. He complains of isolation from people and attacks from people. “I hear so many disparaging me, ‘Terror from every side!’ Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’ Jeremiah's experience is not unique to him, but represents the experience of the Son of Man, in whose life we share when we resolve to do the will of God the Father. That resolution to do the will of God made the prophet receive the support of God. “But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.” The attacks and fury of these hordes of people and their demonic spirits will come to nothing because they have no basis in the will of God, that is, the cause of everything in existence.

Since these hordes of people and demonic spirits they worship through their desire for passing pleasure have no root in the divine will of God, they will pass away with time, and we will be left in peace. They manifest now only to the extent that God the Father wills it for our training and purification. Their attacks and afflictions turn us fully to God in faith, grow our love for God, and strengthen our hope in the reward He promises those who remain faithful in tribulation. The Psalmist expresses these sentiments. “It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame covers my face, that I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons. I burn with zeal for your house, and taunts against you fall on me.” Since it is never the will of God that we should be broken by these afflictions, he supports us with every necessary grace. God employs these attacks, visible and invisible, to destroy our attachments to creatures and nourish our love for God.

This reverses the process of our fall into sin; as we abandoned God and embraced creatures in every sin we commit, our resolution to come to God leads us through abandoning creatures and their company for the company of God. Their anger and attacks on us serve to purify us of our offences against God. But we are able to retrace our steps only through the grace of Jesus Christ, whose humble obedience in his humanity has become our way back to God. Saint Paul makes a comparison of our fall and rise in grace. “Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.” Since none is exempt from the fall, the tribulation of coming back is also for all. But what we gain by coming back through the grace of Jesus Christ is incomparable to the momentary troubles we suffer. “Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through the one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.” Paul considers the glory we receive in Christ a free gift, counting our suffering as nothing.

On this same basis of the inconsequentiality of any suffering that comes to us, here to the glory to be revealed that the Lord bids us to live without fear or trepidation. The greatest thing we can lose in these attacks of the proud worldling and their demonic spirits is our temporal lives. But Jesus promises to restore our lives as he restored his own when he rose from the dead. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” So, the fear of offending God should make us embrace every temporary tribulation in hope of possessing the eternal communion and the kingdom promised to the faithful. The understanding that all the fury of demonic spirits and the attacks of human agents can change little or nothing in God’s blessings upon us ought to embolden us to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in words and deeds. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ assist us in preaching Christ always.

Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.