In today's Gospel, Jesus talks about not fearing the things that don't matter much; or at least that's my interpretation of it (Matthew 10:26-33):
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not be afraid of them. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.
‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
‘So 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. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’
Don't buy into the fear 'they' are peddling, because there are more important things to be concerned with – your soul and your relationship with God for example. If we are companions of Jesus, then what is there to fear?
I can see Jesus' disciples at the time getting concerned with their standing in society, with what was being said about them, with threats being made about their new way of life. Maybe they were seeing this around every corner - respected leaders were saying they were going the wrong way with this Jesus character, established groups may have been shutting them off from the community's resources. Everywhere they turned, it didn't look good; and maybe they didn't see it getting better any time soon, either. That sure could get a person on the defensive, and it could make one's outlook on life a bit pessimistic.
We're subject to this pessimism today, too. There are plenty of reasons to worry about, things that threaten our safety and security – terrorism, job security, rising energy prices and so on are all real. Everything is being made in China and every customer service organization is in India (or so it seems); more jobs are going overseas so what will we be left with? When companies want to improve profits – which they always do – they often cut wages, benefits and retirement; they downsize and outsource and spin-off... and this has a huge impact on people. If it hasn't happened to you, then you probably know someone it has happened to.
This sour view of things has a negative impact on our current productivity and on our view of the future – it's a self-reinforcing downward spiral. I can imagine Jesus' disciples feeling this way because they didn't have it easy. They were going against the grain and probably suffering the consequences.
But then I can see Jesus calling them to snap out of it: 'Don't be afraid of those things because they don't matter so much in the larger scheme of things. Keep holding close to me, to God, and care for your soul.'
Sometimes we can get convinced things are worse than they really are – bad events get put into a continuous media loop, and the seemingly endless analysis serves to ingrain it deeper into our minds. And I think sometimes we over-identify with our jobs, letting our self-esteem get too entangled with work-life. Sometimes we overlook and downplay the things that count – our relationship with God, our spouse, our family. Maybe it's time to 'snap out of it' and get back to caring more about those things that count.
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