Jeremiah
20, 10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5, 12-15; Matthew 10:26-33
Do not be afraid, you are worth more than many
sparrows ...
So many worries and troubles every day, so
much insecurity in our crazy life, so many doubts and depressing news around
... Where in all this to find peace and joy in life, where is a room for
confidence and trust, where a sense of security and comfort in the uncertainty
and fears? The world has become a global village without a doubt. And so what?
if it is also an ordeal for many, and for others a golden cage?
On one hand-it seems-that people live
better and happier, more prosperous and more careless life. So many
distractions and opportunities to entertain ... so many huge companies
producing only entertainment.
But on the other hand, we are increasingly
aware that this "brave and new world" is not so great and not so
perfect. We see more and more misery, and very often we are the participants of
this. We are experiencing increasing anxiety. I could lose my job and then
what? I'm not strong enough, my insurance is not sure, and if I lose my health,
who will take care of me? And what will happen if my child gets sick, or wife, or
husband, where will I get the money for treatment? Before me; old age, I didn’t
put down an appropriate amount of money for old age's security, because there
was no chance for it, because I was robbed by the company and who will help me
...? I do not have a pension, which would be enough to satisfy the most basic
needs, and what to speak of a happy and prosperous life?
And to that all the answer of Christ in
today's Gospel: "Do not be afraid, even the hairs on your
head are numbered. Do not worry, you are far more value than many sparrows."
May we only know how to confess Him to be the Lord of our life in front of
people ...
I wish I could only confess that He is
Lord of my life and believe that "even the hairs on my head are counted."
The Lord takes care and He is concerned of
everyday life. Please … let me see your care.
And let me not be afraid, because I'm much
more important to You than many sparrows.
Alternative homily …
"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will
acknowledge before my Father in haven; but whoever denies me before others, I
also will deny before my Father."
What a wonderful promise! Jesus gives his instructions to the
Twelve and gives them, and us through them, this wonderful promise that is at
the very heart of the Christian faith. That really is all we have to do, just
declare ourselves to be openly in favour of Christ and his Gospel of love.
It doesn't seem much, does it? And yet if we look at it in another
way it is everything. We declare ourselves openly for Christ and of course we
then have to start living accordingly. If we do not, but go back to our old
ways of life we are giving counter-witness and will have disowned him; this
will mean that he will disown us, as he says in the second part of his saying.
The plain truth is that if countless numbers of people down the
generations had not openly declared themselves for Christ and suffered the
consequences of doing so, and quite often this meant torture and death; then we
would not be here today. There would be no Church building; there would be no
community of Christians. The Church of today is built on the foundations of
those who openly declared themselves for Christ in the past.
A famous man of the world was asked if he was a Christian. His
answer was,
"Yes, but not very offensively."
He meant that he did not allow his Christianity to interfere with the company
he kept or the life of pleasure.
It is a bit like the Spaniard who when asked by a priest if he was
a Catholic was quite indignant and said: “Of
course I am”. The priest then asked him if he went to Sunday Mass on a regular
basis. The Spaniard said, "Father, you know, I'm a Catholic, and not a
fanatic."
There are three principal ways we can deny Christ.
We can deny him
-
by our words,
-
by our silence and
-
by our actions.
Each of us has had moments like Peter when the cock crows; moments
when we are deeply shamed by our open denial of Christ. We are put on the spot
and we openly deny him. “I don’t know Jesus. I am a modern man and
not a religious fanatic to manifest my faith in this way.” This is
denial by words.
There are other times when we deny him by silence, by our failure
to speak up. We see we are out-numbered or we are afraid we will be ridiculed
and so we say nothing, but that means that a grave injustice is done, the name
of Christ is mocked or an opportunity to witness Him missed.
We also deny him by our actions by living the sort of life that is
unworthy of a Christian; by basing our life on lies; by manipulating others; by
cruelty; by a life of ease; by pressing down the poor, by neglecting our
religious life and religious activities.
Maybe you have all heard of the famous book “Tom Brown's
Schooldays”. Tom Brown was very popular at his Public School; he lived with
about a dozen other boys in one of the school's dormitories. He was very
influential and was the undisputed leader of his gang of friends. One day a new
boy came to the school. When it came to bedtime the new boy innocently knelt
down by his bed to say his prayers.
Some of the other boys began to snigger, a few others began to
laugh and joke, one even threw a shoe at the kneeling boy. That night Tom
didn't go to sleep straight away. He lay awake thinking about what had happened
to the new boy. He also began to think about his mother and the prayers she had
taught him to say each night before going to bed, prayers he had not said since
he came to school.
The next night several of the boys were looking forward to having
fun with the new boy. But that night something totally unexpected happened.
When the new boy knelt down to say his prayers, Tom knelt down also. The whole
atmosphere of the dormitory changed.
Jesus tells us that He will declare Himself for those who declare
themselves for Him. One of the reasons Jesus made this statement is because
bearing witness to Him or not bearing witness to Him can have a profound effect
on those around us.
Perhaps the most important area in which this happens is in the
home. The deciding factor for Tom Brown was the influence of his mother's
example. Because he was so impressed with her faith he in turn gave witness to
others and influenced them profoundly. And how it is in our houses? Do we give
a witness?
It has been said that every Christian occupies some kind of pulpit
and preaches some kind of sermon every day. This is never more true than of
parents in the home. Bishop Halder Camara from Brazil used to repeat: “You
are the only Gospel some people will ever read.” Shouldn’t be this a motto for us all”.
In the course of the last twenty-six years since I was ordained I
have talked to thousands of young people. Whenever I’ve had the opportunity
I’ve asked them about prayer.
I have been very impressed with the answers and even more so by
the depth of their prayer-lives. Mostly
they pray because they were taught to do so as young children. But I have
been equally saddened by the fact the most of them have told me that prayer is practically a taboo subject in
the home.
It is easy and it is truly wonderful to talk to young children
about prayer. It is more difficult, but much more rewarding, to talk to
teenagers and young adults about prayer.
What many Catholics are lacking is the vocabulary to deal with
these things and I think that this is one of the reasons why we shy away from
talking about anything to do with religion.
An important thing is to get people talking about their faith and
to feel comfortable doing so. How many people would like to share their faith
with others? How many are simply embarrassed by such a proposal? Somebody in
the past told us that my faith is my private and personal almost intimate and
secret matter. And we believe it, and we are ashamed to share our faith.
One of the most important things that ought to be discussed by the
members of every family in which there are teenagers is how to make that
transition from childhood forms of prayer to ones that are more suitable for
adult life.
The most helpful thing for our young people would be to hear how
their own parents struggled with this transition. They want to know what prayer
is, and how you do it, and how it can give meaning and purpose to their lives.
This is something that really needs to be talked about, this is a
duty that no true Christian should neglect, this is precisely the sort of thing
that Jesus is referring to when he tells us that we ought to declare ourselves
for him in the presence of others.
And what about the moral and ethical problems we are facing in our
daily life? Do we dare to talk about this with our kids and teenagers? Do we
give the witness to Christ and his teaching, do we acknowledge Him before our
own families? Or we rather deny Him in our words, in our action or silence, and
in what we have failed to do - also?
For the Corpus Christi Sunday - see below ...
