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Going through something hard in your life right now? A tough decision? Illness? Challenging relationships? Financial hardships?
Today’s theme is “Be Not Afraid.”
This rendition was done by professional artists during Covid-19.
Hear the words from the prophet Jeremiah, St. Paul and Jesus. They all say the same thing: “Be Not Afraid for God is with me always.”
JER 20:10-13
(The 1st Reading is Old Testament. It always links to the Gospel.)
We’re in Jeremiah today, one of the four major prophets (Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel). Jeremiah has a very tough job. God called him to warn the Israelites that they would go into exile and be attacked by the Babylonians if they didn’t turn back to God.
Today we hear Jeremiah’s self-talk. He’s in conversation with himself and God about the hardships he is enduring: (“I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!’). He talks himself down and then up again, recalling God is with him: (“But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion”).
Hear his words today and remember than when you feel others are closing on you from all sides, God is with you, too, “like a mighty champion.”
Responsorial Psalm 69
Lord, in your great love, answer me.
(The Psalm is a “response” to what we heard in the 1st Reading)
This psalm is truly a “response” to Jeremiah in the first reading. It’s almost as if you can hear him saying these things to God as he tries to convince the Israelites to turn back to God. He may as well have written the psalm himself!
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
ROM 5:12-15
(The 2nd reading is usually one of Paul’s letters. The 2nd reading speaks to how the early church built The Church after the passion, death and resurrection).
The book of Romans is Paul’s longest letter. It’s packed. Today we’re in the first major section where Paul tells those in Rome that they are in desperate need of a savior. This is the same message from Jeremiah:
- Jeremiah told the Israelites that due to their sins and rejections of God, they are in desperate need of God or they’d be cast into exile by the Babylonians.
- Paul tells us that we are a sinful people and if we reject Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we’ll find ourselves in exile as well (e.g. not enjoying the Heavenly banquet God has prepared for us).
Another similarity is that Jeremiah started out with a negative message (they torment me) and moved to a positive one (God is at my side). Paul does the same saying that we are in sin because of Adam, but ends with hope: “If by the transgression of the one the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many?”
MT 10:26-33
(The Gospel is the Highest Point of the Liturgy of the Word. We are about to be instructed by Christ Himself, and that is why we stand )
Today’s gospel is particularly beautiful in light of the above readings. It is almost as if Jesus is speaking not just to us today and his disciples, but also directly to Jeremiah who tries to defend God in Babylon and to those in Rome who ought to listen to St. Paul. Jesus tells all who defend him to Be Not Afraid:
“Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
In closing? Defend the Lord your God at all times. Know that He is with you always. Remember that you need his saving grace. In time he will reveal what we see as concealed.
Banquet of the Word 