HOMILY Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time June 25, 2023

 HOMILY    Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time     June 25, 2023

           Anyone here ever see the 1986 horror movie, The Fly, staring Jeff Goldblum?  In it there is the line, “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”  This phrase has since entered the common parlance, since it captures a very real emotion.  “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”

          There is much to arouse fear in us.  There are a plethora a reasons to keep you awake at night.  Rogue nations with nuclear weapons.  Terrorists with biological weapons.  Mass shootings.  Hackers stealing your passwords and all your money.  Irrevocable degradation of the environment and natural disasters.  Cancer.  Politics.  And more.

          So the phrase “Be afraid.  Be very afraid” rings all too true.   We see, especially in young people today, a scary increase in anxiety and despair and even suicide.   “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”    //

          Our Gospel this evening however takes a totally different approach.   In the Gospel we just heard Jesus tells us: “Fear no one.”  A little later He says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”   And still later He concludes simply, “So do not be afraid.”

          Do not be afraid.  OK.  How do you do that??  By a shear act of will?   I can’t do that.  Can you?  I doubt it.

          However, we read in the First Letter of St. John, chapter 4, verse 18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.”

          Perfect love drives out fear.  If we could love perfectly, we could drive out all fear from our hearts.  But that is a pretty tall order.  Fortunately, the love with witch Jesus loves us IS perfect.  It is total and complete.  And so it has the power to drive out fear.  This is why St. John in the very next verse states: “We love because he first loved us.”  

           The love that Jesus has for you individually and particularly is both real and very powerful.  His love has conquered death.

          Brothers and sisters, the more we can open ourselves to the love Jesus has for each of us, the more we can love in return, and then we will be so whole, so holy, that we can let go of fear.  We are, each of us, God’s beloved children.  So do not be afraid. 

          AMEN.