Whom to fear and whom not to fear.

We live in a world where there is a circle of fear. We often hear

this saying about the web of fear, which says, Cockroaches fear
Rats; Rats fear Cats; Cats fear Dogs; Dogs fear Men; Women
fear men (Androphobia); Men fear Women (Gynophobia) and
Women Fear Cockroaches.
In this Sunday’s Gospel we find two invitations from Jesus: on
the one hand to “have no fear” of human beings, and on the
other, to “fear” God (see Mt 10: 26, 28). We are thus
encouraged to reflect on the difference that exists between
human fears and the fear of God.
Fear is a natural dimension of life. In childhood we experience
forms of fear that subsequently are revealed to be imaginary and
disappear;(Santa Claus, Crackers, Snakes).
Other fears emerge later which are indeed founded in reality
(passing in exam, teachers, public speaking, taking over a
responsibility), these must be faced and overcome with human
determination and trust in God.
However, especially today, there is a deeper form of fear of an
existential type and which sometimes borders on anguish: it is
born from a sense of emptiness, linked to a certain culture
permeated with widespread theoretical and practical nihilism.

In the face of the broad and diversified panorama of human

fears, the Word of God is clear: those who “fear” God “are
not afraid”. Fear of God, which the Scriptures define as “the
beginning of knowledge” coincides with faith in him, with
sacred respect for his authority over life and the world.
To be without “fear of God” is equivalent to putting ourselves in
his place, to feeling we ourselves are lords of good and evil, of
life and death. Instead, those who fear God feel within them the
safety that an infant in his mother’s arms feels (see Ps 130: 2).
Those who fear God are tranquil even in the midst of storms for,
as Jesus revealed to us, God is a Father full of mercy and
goodness. Those who love him are not afraid: “There is no fear
in love”, the Apostle John wrote, “but perfect love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not
perfected in love” (1 Jn 4: 18). Believers, therefore, are not
afraid of anything because they know they are in the hands of
God, they know that it is not evil and the irrational which have
the last word, but rather that the one Lord of the world and of
love is Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, who loved us to the
point of sacrificing himself for us, dying on the Cross for our
salvation.
The more we grow in this intimacy with God, imbued with
love, the more easily we overcome any form of fear.
1st Reading terms of withdrawal the people who lived in the
days of prophet Jeremiah suffered from Alethephobia, which is
the fear of truth. They wanted to get rid of truth by eliminating
Jeremiah the messenger of truth. They made every effort to
intimidate him and so he exclaimed, “Terror on every side”
(Jeremiah 20:10). In their lack of wisdom, the people forgot that
they can only kill the messenger of truth, but cannot kill the
truth.
 Jeremiah loved to live a peaceful and unperturbed life before
God entrusted him with a difficult mission, which brought him
into conflict with the authorities – the kings, priests and false
prophets. He was given the task of challenging the people to
keep the covenant they made with God or face the wrath of God.
He emphasized the need for a deep personal relationship with
God instead of the superficial religion, which the people
practiced. His message was too hard for the people and they saw
him as a prophet of doom. They shouted, “Let us denounce him”
(Jeremiah 20:10). Obviously, Jeremiah was persecuted,
threatened and opposed for speaking truth to power and to the
people. He watched how his friends turned into being his
enemies. He cried out in pains: “All those who used to be my
friends watched for my downfall” (Jeremiah 20:10). Despite this
grim situation, Jeremiah refused to be intimidated by the
opposing forces. He was deeply convinced that since God was
on his side, no enemy could defeat him. Jeremiah was confident
in God’s protective care and so he said, “But the Lord is with me
like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will
not prevail. In their failure they would be put to shame, to
lasting unforgettable confusion” (Jeremiah 20:11).

If so, then look no farther than the words of St. Paul to the
Romans in our second reading. “Through one man, sin entered
the world,” notes St. Paul and as a result “…death reigned from
Adam to Moses….”
 Our conventional wisdom tells us that sin is the result of a personal
choice. Do we do the right thing? Do we do the wrong thing? Our
conventional wisdom focuses on us. Our conventional wisdom focuses
on what we do. But in this very rich and deep message to the Romans,
St. Paul flips the telescope around. He focuses on the condition around
us. While not knocking the edges off of personal responsibility, St. Paul
stresses that the conditions for choosing the good, the wise and the
beautiful are premised first and foremost on a redemptive act of God.
This means that if we are under the spell of an addiction, it is impossible
for us not to drink, not to take drugs, not to escape in compulsive
behaviors without some outside help. We cannot choose wisely or well
left to our own devices alone. We need help. We need a Savior. We need
Jesus Christ. We need redemption. The famous writer C.S. Lewis in a
graphic lecture during the Second World War on BBC likens redemption
to a military rescue. He writes: “Enemy-occupied territory – that is what
this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed
in disguise and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of
sabotage.
God created every inch of creation as good. But things went wrong. Sin
entered. Rebellion occurred. We find ourselves in rebel territory. Our
words are those of St. Paul, who a little later in his message to the
Romans notes, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do
what I want but I do the very thing I hate.” As the Catechism of the
Catholic Church notes: “Sin creates a proclivity to sin.” In other words,
while sin is always a personal act in a fallen world, inside the rebel
territory our own time and place, our consciences are clouded and our
judgment marred.
Only in and through Jesus Christ, through our encounter with Jesus – a
Jesus whom we meet in Word and Sacrament –can we unite our
suffering to His and perhaps find meaning. By our desire to draw close
to Jesus with whom we can speak in prayer and worship we can perhaps
sense that we are not alone. By our contact with the Jesus whom we
touch and see in our spiritual and corporal works of mercy we can
experience His compassion growing in us. We cannot undo our losses.
We cannot take back our failings. We cannot avoid regrets. But we
can unite ourselves to the mind and heart of Jesus Christ.

“…In the world you will face persecution, but take courage, I
have conquered the world” (John 16:33). So many good people
face all kinds of persecution today. Today, there is a wave of
religious persecution.
Siroki Brijeg (Bosnia)
On February 7th 1945 the Communist soldiers arrived and said,
“God is dead, there is no God, there is no Pope, there is no
Church, there is no need of you, you also go out in the world and
work.” The communists forgot that the Franciscans were
working, most of the Franciscans were teaching in the adjoining
school. Some of the Franciscans were famous professors and
had written books. The communists asked them to remove their
habits. The Franciscans refused. One angry soldier took the
Crucifix and threw it on the floor. He said, “you can now choose
either life or death.” Each of the Franciscans knelt down,
embraced the Crucifix and said, “You are my God and my All.”
The thirty Franciscans were taken out and slaughtered and their
bodies burned in a nearby cave where their remains lay for many
years. Today they are buried inside the Franciscan church
 In our Gospel today Jesus said, “if anyone declares himself for
me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the
presence of my Father in heaven.”