\u201cHave no fear\u201d, says the Lord Jesus in this\nSunday\u2019s Gospel. Rather, be courageous\nand proclaim the good news of the Gospel \u201cfrom the housetops\u201d. Upon our first reading, perhaps many of us\nare eager to express our confidence in the Lord. \u201cIf God is for us, who can be against us?\u201d\n(Rm 8:31). Yet had this Sunday\u2019s Gospel\npassage included the verses immediately preceding it, perhaps we would be less\ninclined to act with such courage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Directly before the Lord\u2019s command to \u201chave no\nfear\u201d he warns of the coming persecutions. \nHe foretells that his followers will be handed over to the authorities,\nmany will be killed and hated, and even members of the same family will be\npitted against each other. Are we not\nseeing exactly this in our own time? \nAround the world, for various reasons, Christians are being persecuted\nfor their faith in Jesus and the Holy Trinity, just as they have always been. Cardinal Ratzinger reminds us that from the\nearliest days of the Church \u201cbearing the name \u2018Christian\u2019 was a crime\u201d. Therefore, we should not be surprised when we\nface similar accusations; truly, \u201cthere is nothing new under the sun\u201d (Eccl\n1:9). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although our current age faces different trials\nand circumstances, we must not forget that it is the same Lord who is\nprovidentially guiding all of history, and that his grace will sustain us if we\nplace our trust in him. Yet in today\u2019s\nGospel, Jesus is asking for more than trust and courage \u2013 he is asking us to\nhave a proper perspective, to see the unfolding of reality clearly, and to live\ntruthfully. I would say that in our age,\nthis admonition could not be more timely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We live in a time where there is great\nconfusion about when human life begins, who is female and who is male, and the\nnature of love (particularly spousal love). \nEven the very existence of objective value, intrinsic evil, and Truth\nhas been called into question. \u201cThe fear\nof the Lord is the beginning of wisdom\u201d (Prov 9:10), and ultimately it is faith\nin God that allows us to perceive things clearly and truthfully. The Lord Jesus echoes the wisdom of the\nProverbs when he states, \u201cDo not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill\nthe soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell\u201d (Mt 10:28). In other words: have a clear perception about\nwhat is really important. It is this\nprinciple that gives life order; abandon it and you abandon wisdom itself, and\nopen the door to the chaos, confusion, and relativism that plagues modern\nmorality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can be tempting, usually out of sincere\nkindness and compassion, to want to appease the modern world, and downplay the\nseriousness of its errors. But we must\nremember that we are called to sanctify and edify the world \u2013 and we can only\ndo this by proclaiming the truth without fear, and by living holy lives\nourselves. So, let us live without fear\nof those forces that cannot truly harm us; let us live with a clear perception\nof reality and God\u2019s providence; and let us never cease placing radical, loving\ntrust in the Triune God, from whose love we can never be separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kevin Ponte<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Ricardo Gomez Angel\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n