12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time are a call to trust in God. In the first reading Jeremiah refuses to be intimidated by terror from every side. That doesn’t mean that the terror doesn’t get to him it means that he has no intention of allowing the terror to dictate who he is or what he does. Jeremiah has been abandoned by all his friends who now try to discredit him. He is thrown into prison for his preaching, and the army council threatens him with death if he doesn’t change his tune. But Jeremiah refuses to be bullied into agreement because he believes that “the Lord is at his side, a mighty hero”. What keeps Jeremiah sane amidst all this persecution is the profound belief that God cares for him. And, less spiritually, the frank hope that God will clobber all his enemies in good time! The message of the Gospel is quite simple Jesus tells us not to be afraid. Jesus encourages His disciples to fearlessly proclaim His teachings, assuring them that whatever is hidden will be revealed and their actions will be brought to light.
He does not disguise the truth that his disciples will be confronted by those who threaten, bully and intimidate others into submissive agreement. He emphasizes that the apostles should not fear those who can harm the body, but rather fear God who holds ultimate authority over both body and soul, and promises that those who acknowledge Him before others will be acknowledged by Him in return Not only does Jesus want his disciples to refuse to submit to the merchants of death, he tells them not to be afraid of them: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” What our Lord said to His Apostles applies to all Christians including you and me in the practice of our faith where we are today. By the very fact of fully living our faith day and daily we are apostles. So today we think of all of those who have given us an example by living their lives in faith. These may be parents family members or people we have known we all have people who have shown us the way of faith. So as faith filled people Jesus teaches us that our only source of freedom and strength is the goodness of our heavenly Father a goodness that is comes to us through Jesus himself as well as through people we know.
Our world is full of hype and glitter, but Jesus tells us here and now the same thing he told His apostles: “Do not be afraid. “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Jesus wants to us understand that with God there is no such thing as a nameless, faceless individual as we are all part of gods family and our names are carved in the palm of gods hand. Like Jesus, Jeremiah and the disciples, knew all about persecution and rejection. If we allow fear to silence us how will the Good News of Jesus Christ ever be heard in the world? If we don’t speak, who will? If we don’t act, who will? As St Francis of Assisi said, ‘Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary use words’. This means that by the way we lead our lives and the things we say and do for others the people around us will see we are the Christians we are called by Christ to be.
Fullerton T 