12th SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME - JUNE 25, 2023

Readings: Jeremiah 20.10-13 , Romans5.12-15 , Mathew 10.26-33

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says: ‘What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the house-tops’. Jesus wants his disciples to declare themselves for him publicly, to acknowledge him openly. The gospel reading strongly suggests that our faith is to be lived publicly.

In saying to his disciple, ‘Do not be afraid’, Jesus was not trying to minimize the opposition they would encounter when they began to proclaim the gospel by their lives. He is not saying to them or to us, ‘do not be afraid because there is nothing to fear’. There are a set of values embodied in the gospel, in our faith, that are very challenging and will be experienced as threatening by some, perhaps even by ourselves from time to time. There can often be a risk in taking a public stand for gospel values, such as the respect for life at all its stages, justice for all, the fundamental equality of all men and women under God, the priority of forgiveness over revenge, of serving over acquiring.

Jesus was saying, ‘do not be afraid because when you courageously bear witness to me and my gospel, God will be watching over you’, or, in the words of Jeremiah in today’s first reading, the Lord will be at your side. The gospel reading is assuring us that the Father cares deeply for those disciples who have the courage to live publicly their faith in Jesus and his gospel. ‘You are worth more than hundreds of sparrows’. Who we are as Christians and the values we stand for are of inestimable worth. If we really appreciated that worth, it would go a long way towards making us less fearful in the living of our faith. Amen

Fr. Terry.