The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah and the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew emphasize two characteristic aspects of Christian life: on the one hand, persecutions and difficulties and, on the other, trust in God who allays all fear. “I hear so many disparaging me… But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero,” confesses Jeremiah. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul… So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows,” Jesus exhorts his disciples. Why should we not fear? Because, in the words of the second reading: “the free gift is not like the effect of one man’s sin.” There is no comparison between the power of persecutors and the power of God.

Doctrinal Messages

There is no greater disciple than the Master. If Jesus was criticized (and before him, so were prophets like Jeremiah), if he was called a drunkard and “fond of his food,” and if the power of Beelzebub was attributed to him, we Christians should not be surprised if people criticize us and even slander us. When this happens, we are true disciples of Jesus Christ. It is certainly not pleasant to read in newspapers and periodicals or to hear in the media criticisms of our faith in the Incarnation or ingenuous arguments which tend to deny the Resurrection. It may seem shameful and unworthy to us that Catholic morals should be criticized on various issues that challenge secular morals and the common mentality. This pains us and appears shameful to us, but it should not in the least affect either our certainties as regards our faith and our morals or our confidence and our total security in the victory of grace over sin, of the gift over the trespass. In a world that is losing the soundness of faith, that is falling into the arms of “religious subjectivism,” that feels free to have opinions on anything, even what it does not know, we Christians are intrepid witnesses to values and attitudes, to truths and behavior which are not understood, which are consciously or unconsciously misinterpreted, which are rejected as obsolete or retrograde, which are considered to be outside the march of history and modernity. Christ tells us: “Do not be afraid.” Sooner or later, the steadfastness of our faith will give us victory.

God’s grace is superabundant for all. That is the basis of our security and confidence. It is not on our strength or our morality the we rely on in the face of persecutions, criticisms, rejections, calumnies, incomprehension and indifference. The rock of our security is God’s grace, freely given by Jesus Christ. We are confident that divine grace will enlighten the minds of those who now criticize or reject the faith of the Church; we are confident that divine grace will move hearts to love the truth of Jesus Christ that the Church transmits to us, and will move human wills to live in conformity with the Christian decalogue, summed up in the Sermon on the Mount. We are confident the Lord will give us the strength to bear our difficulties that are due to others, and to fight with zeal and perseverance for truth and goodness. God takes care of the birds of the air, how can he not take care of us, his sons, who are worth more than all those sparrows?

Pastoral Suggestions

To accept the reality of the world in which we happen to live. In the past, perhaps the situation was different in the country, town, or village where we lived. The majority were Christian, the institutions looked more kindly on the Christian way of life, there were less means of perversion and of doing evil, society itself protected the individual better from any abuse or excess, there was a greater religious and social homogeneity, freedom was more protected and limited, and the prevalent mentality was in harmony with Christianity. We must not be nostalgic for the past. This world has already passed. Ours is a different one. We must accept it with all its greatness and precariousness. We are believers and Christians in this new situation, marked by secularism, materialism, subjectivism and positivism on a wide scale, although it is also marked by other more positive and praiseworthy aspects. The difficulties we must face are those of our time, those that come from our contemporaries. The battles we must fight are those destined first of all to defeat in ourselves and in our neighbors the secularism of our time, the materialism, subjectivism and positivism of contemporary man. The battles of the past are already history. Our battles for Christian faith and morality are those of today, those that are fought every day with bravery and courage.

To look at the world with trust and love. “Have trust, I have conquered the world,” Jesus tells us. The world of evil can be overcome by good. Jesus Christ overcame it, surrendering his life for human beings. Thus we too must overcome it, with a surprising and constant love, with boundless trust, with tenacious work. The world in which we live will be saved if God can count on people prepared to give everything to save it and to regenerate it from within with his love. What are the small or great evils that afflict the daily life of our parish, of our Christian faithful? What concrete actions does my love and trust bring me to make in order to fight and overcome them? Let us not doubt or be afraid to put our trust in the grace and the mysterious power and realism of God.

SOURCE: YEAR A DICASTERY NOTES (1999)

The Only Thing Worth Fearing

25 June 2023 –  Saint Peter’s Square (Angelus)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus repeats to his disciples three different times: “have no fear” (Mt 10:26, 28, 31). Shortly prior to this, he had spoken to them about the persecutions they would have to undergo for the Gospel, a fact that is still a reality. Indeed, since her beginnings, along with joys — of which she has had many — the Church has experienced many persecutions.

It seems paradoxical: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is a message of peace and justice, founded on fraternal charity and on forgiveness; and yet it meets with opposition, violence, and persecution. Jesus, however, says not to fear, not because everything will be all right in the world, no, but because we are precious to his Father, and nothing that is good will be lost. He therefore tells us not to let fear stop us, but rather to fear something else, only one thing. What is the thing Jesus tells us we should fear?

The Concept of Gehenna and Wasting Life

We discover what it is through an image Jesus uses today: the image of “Gehenna” (cf. v. 28). The valley of Gehenna was a place the inhabitants of Jerusalem knew well. It was the city’s large garbage dump. Jesus speaks about it in order to say that the true fear we should have is that of throwing away one’s own life.

Jesus says, “Yes, be afraid of that.” It was like saying: you do not need so much to be afraid of suffering misunderstanding and criticism, of losing prestige and economic advantages, to remain faithful to the Gospel, no, but of wasting your existence in the pursuit of trivial things that do not fill life with meaning.

Pastoral Examples of Modern Misplaced Priorities

This is important for us. Even today, in fact, some are ridiculed or discriminated against for not following certain fads, which, however, place second-rate realities at the centre — for example, pursuing things instead of people, achievement instead of relationships.

• For Youth: And again, I am thinking of a young man or woman who has thousands of commitments and passions — school, sports, various interests, cell phones and social networks — but who still needs to meet people and achieve great dreams, without wasting time on fleeting things that do not leave their mark.
• For Parents: I am thinking of some parents who need to work to maintain their family, but who cannot live for work alone — they need enough time to be with their children.
• For Religious: I am also thinking of priests or sisters who need to dedicate themselves to their service, without, however, forgetting to dedicate time to be with Jesus; otherwise, they will fall into spiritual worldliness and lose the sense of who they are.

The Cost of Fidelity Versus Modern Gehennas

All of this, brothers and sisters, requires some renunciation before the idols of efficiency and consumerism. But this is necessary so as not to get lost in things that end up getting thrown out, as they threw things out in Gehenna back then. And yet, people often end up in today’s Gehennas. Let us think of the least ones, who are often treated like waste products and unwanted objects.

There is a cost to remaining faithful to what matters. There is a cost to going against the tide. There is a cost to freeing oneself from being conditioned by popular opinion. There is a cost to being left aside by those who “go with the flow”. But it does not matter, Jesus says. What matters is not to throw away the greatest good: life. This is the only thing that should frighten us.

Examination of Conscience

Let us thus ask ourselves:

• What do I fear?
• Not having what I like?
• Not reaching the goals society imposes?
• The judgement of others?
• Or rather of not pleasing the Lord, and not putting his Gospel in first place?

May Mary, ever Virgin, Mother most Wise, help us to be wise and courageous in the choices we make.

Overcoming Human Anguish through the Fear of God

22 June 2008 |  St Peter’s Square

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 (cf. 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; other fears emerge later which are indeed founded in reality: 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.

Defining the True “Fear of God”

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 (cf. 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.

Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear

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 Example of St. Paul and the Jubilee Call

The more we grow in this intimacy with God, imbued with love, the more easily we overcome any form of fear. In the passage of today’s Gospel, Jesus repeats several times the exhortation to have no fear. Jesus reassures us, as he reassured the Apostles and as he did St Paul by appearing to him one night in a vision at a particularly difficult moment in his preaching: “Do not be afraid”, he said, “for I am with you” (Acts 18: 9).

Strong in the presence of Christ and comforted by his love, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the 2,000th anniversary of whose birth we are preparing to celebrate with a special Jubilee Year, did not even fear martyrdom. May this great spiritual and pastoral event inspire in us too a renewed trust in Jesus Christ who calls us to proclaim and witness to his Gospel without being afraid of anything.

I therefore invite you, dear brothers and sisters, to prepare yourselves to celebrate with faith the Pauline Year, which, please God, I shall solemnly inaugurate next Saturday at 6: 00 o’clock in the evening in the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, with the liturgy for First Vespers of the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul. Let us immediately entrust this ecclesial initiative to the intercession of St Paul and of Mary Most Holy, Queen of Apostles and Mother of Christ, the source of our joy and our peace.

“Preach from the housetops”:
The Gospel in the Age of Global Communication

27 May 2001 | 35th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY 

The theme chosen for World Communications Day 2001 echoes the words of Jesus himself. It could not be otherwise, for it is Christ alone whom we preach. We remember his words to his first disciples: “What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops” (Mt 10:27). In the secret of our heart, we have listened to the truth of Jesus; now we must proclaim that truth from the housetops.

In today’s world, housetops are almost always marked by a forest of transmitters and antennae sending and receiving messages of every kind to and from the four corners of the earth. It is vitally important to ensure that among these many messages the word of God is heard. To proclaim the faith from the housetops today means to speak Jesus’ word in and through the dynamic world of communications.

The Church’s Role in a Changing World

In all cultures and at all times—certainly in the midst of today’s global transformations—people ask the same basic questions about the meaning of life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? (cf. Fides et Ratio, 1). And in every age the Church offers the one ultimately satisfying answer to the deepest questions of the human heart—Jesus Christ himself, “who fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his high calling” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). Therefore, the voice of Christians can never fall silent, for the Lord has entrusted to us the word of salvation for which every human heart longs. The Gospel offers the pearl of great price for which all are searching (cf. Mt 13:45-46).

It follows that the Church cannot fail to be ever more deeply involved in the burgeoning world of communications. The global communications network is extending and growing more complex by the day, and the media are having an increasingly visible effect on culture and its transmission. Where once the media reported events, now events are often shaped to meet the requirements of the media. Thus, the relationship between reality and the media has grown more intricate, and this is a deeply ambivalent phenomenon. On the one hand, it can blur the distinction between truth and illusion; but on the other, it can open up unprecedented opportunities for making the truth more widely accessible to many more people. The task of the Church is to ensure that it is the latter which actually happens.

Navigating Media Culture and Evangelization

The world of the media can sometimes seem indifferent and even hostile to Christian faith and morality. This is partly because media culture is so deeply imbued with a typically postmodern sense that the only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths or that, if there were, they would be inaccessible to human reason and therefore irrelevant. In such a view, what matters is not the truth but “the story”; if something is newsworthy or entertaining, the temptation to set aside considerations of truth becomes almost irresistible. As a result, the world of the media can sometimes seem no more friendly an environment for evangelization than the pagan world of the Apostles’ day. But just as the early witnesses to the Good News did not retreat when faced with opposition, neither should Christ’s followers do so today. The cry of Saint Paul echoes among us still: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).

Yet, as much as the world of the media may at times seem at odds with the Christian message, it also offers unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human family. Consider, for instance, satellite telecasts of religious ceremonies which often reach a global audience, or the positive capacities of the Internet to carry religious information and teaching beyond all barriers and frontiers. Such a wide audience would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached the Gospel before us. What is therefore needed in our time is an active and imaginative engagement of the media by the Church. Catholics should not be afraid to throw open the doors of social communications to Christ, so that his Good News may be heard from the housetops of the world!

The Mission Ad Gentes and the Prophetic Task

It is vital too that at the beginning of this new millennium we keep in mind the mission ad gentes which Christ has entrusted to the Church. An estimated two thirds of the world’s six billion people do not in any real sense know Jesus Christ; and many of them live in countries with ancient Christian roots, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or no longer consider themselves members of the Church and live lives far removed from the Lord and his Gospel (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 33). Certainly, an effective response to this situation involves much more than the media; but in striving to meet the challenge Christians cannot possibly ignore the world of social communications. Indeed, media of every kind can play an essential role in direct evangelization and in bringing to people the truths and values which support and enhance human dignity. The Church’s presence in the media is in fact an important aspect of the inculturation of the Gospel demanded by the new evangelization to which the Holy Spirit is summoning the Church throughout the world.

As the whole Church seeks to heed the Spirit’s call, Christian communicators have “a prophetic task, a vocation: to speak out against the false gods and idols of the day—materialism, hedonism, consumerism, narrow nationalism…” (Ethics in Communications, 31). Above all, they have the duty and privilege to declare the truth—the glorious truth about human life and human destiny revealed in the Word made flesh. May Catholics involved in the world of social communications preach the truth of Jesus ever more boldly and joyfully from the housetops, so that all men and women may hear about the love which is the heart of God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever (cf. Heb 13:8).