Twelfth Sunday In Ordinary Time (Year A)

DO NOT BE AFRAID, THERE IS PEACE WITH CHRIST

Jer 20.10-13;
Rom 5.12-15;  
Mt 10.26-33

How can we cast away all our fears when it seems to be a natural phenomenon that occurs to every individual? How would we not be so scared of traveling when there is no solid security to ward off killings and kidnappings? The world economy still scares nations with abject poverty? The world is full of suffering and pain; fears and anxieties? What should we do?

In the gospel for today’s mass, Our Lord speaks of hell.  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. That one of whom Jesus speaks is the devil, Satan, the master of sin.  Nowadays, hell for some people seems somewhat out of fashion.  Belief in hell and a desire to avoid it has waxed and waned during Christian history.  Hell-fire preaching, designed to frighten us into trying to be good, has virtually died out.  But we must note that Jesus warns us sternly to avoid Satan and to avoid hell.  Our Lord seems to hint that it is all too easy to find ourselves on the way to perdition.  A small drift to the left or right will soon have us off the road to heaven.

But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning asks ‘a young boy in a Catechism class one day; here is its answer.  St Leo the Great responds, “Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away.”  And St Thomas Aquinas wrote, “There is nothing to prevent human nature being raised up to something greater, even after sin;  God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good.”  Thus St Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”  And the Exsultet [the beautiful chant at the Paschal Vigil] sings “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer.”

In his great love, God allowed Adam and Even free will, which they abused.  But despite the ‘ruin of a race’, as an ancient hymn calls it, God’s individual love for every soul he would ever create is so great that he implemented an alternative plan to overcome the effects of the Fall.  Not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing.  Why, every hair on your head has been counted.  So there is no need to be afraid;  you are worth hundreds of sparrows.  God will care for us in turmoil and trauma;  he will defend us under attack from others, as Jeremiah trusted him to in the first reading.  Above all, though, he has sent us his Son, to save us from our sins and to lead us away from the road to hell and on to the road to heaven.  We have to choose – will we take the level, or even the downward path of fallen human nature?  Or will we allow God, in Christ Jesus, to raise us up to enjoy the peace that last forever? The choice is yours!

Fr Joseph Osho