Fr. Simon Sleeman OSB: This is a tough set of readings -sin, death, people whispering against Jeremiah, and even sparrows seem to be getting scarce – and three times the gospel tells us, ‘Not to be afraid.’ I am told, by the experts that this occurs 366 times in the bible. I am sure the congregation in the church in Smyrna, (referred to in the Book of revelation) were a bit taken aback when they were told one Sunday morning, to sit up and ‘not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer and not to stop believing even if it should cost you them their lives.’ And this despite their dire poverty and imminent persecution.
‘Do not be afraid.’ It is not a suggestion, or a nice idea or a request – IT is an imperative, the briefest, clearest, least ambiguous way to formulate a verb – a command.
Yet, there seems lots to be afraid of, Goliath’s everywhere, inside us and outside us. And this fear is not just a symptom of our age – there are fearful people in the gospels – Peter comes to mind….the witnesses at the resurrection…And we are biologically set up to fear of Goliath – our brain didn’t evolve to have happy thoughts but to help us survive – to recognise Goliath and run!
We do our best to keep Goliath out – install better alarm systems, build higher walls….but fear is inside and sin too – ‘our minds conformed to the ways of the world’ – a world running on fear. Yet, ‘Do Not be Afraid is the gospel command.
What are we to make of this serious, oft repeated command? The message seems to be, a) that this is possible and b) we, as Christians, are meant to live free from fear – our lives transformed by the renewal of our minds, for we, as Jeremiah says, ‘have God at our side a mighty hero.’
And we have ALLIES and EXEMPLARS who can help us grapple with this …particularly the poets…David and Jeremiah, Isaiah…Heaney and De Chardin.
We don’t live in an age of poetry which is unusual in the overall scheme of human history, and I am a recent convert, so it is easy to miss the message of much of the poets and much of the biblical message.
We live in a time of prose, journalists set the agenda, obsessed with information, facts and data…And all the data tells us is, ‘be afraid’! Petrol is running out, toilet paper running out… scramble in fear….
Poets call us to another reality – what our eyes blurred with too much gawking and our ears dulled with too much chatter… easily miss….
David, perhaps the greatest biblical poet, surrounded by people paralysed by fear as he stood facing Goliath in the valley of Elah. He was incredulous – people of God, cowering before this infidel giant – their minds conformed to the moment – dominated by Goliath, by Amazon.
David…his God-dominated imagination – ‘free to worship him without fear’ – he had no giants. There was God. He downed Goliath.
Jeremiah, one of the great poets, knows our senses are dulled by sin. He wants to drag us into the deeper reality – the God reality – the basement where we can walk without fear and, as he says; ‘Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord.’
Seamus Heaney – invites us to go ‘another level down’, into the underground – beneath the fear. He knew. The last text he sent his wife from his hospital bed as he lay dying …read: Noli temere….Do not be afraid…
Teihard de Chardin discovered…. there was no need to be afraid when he heard the voice of the gospel.
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For the first time in my life perhaps (although I am meant to meditate every day), I took a lamp and, leaving the zone of my everyday life where everything seems clear, I went down into the abyss whence I feel, dimly, that my power of action emanates. And when I had to stop my exploration because the path faded from beneath my steps, I found a bottomless abyss at my feet, and out of it came -arising from I know not where -the current which I dare to call ‘my’ life. Stirred by my discovery, I wanted to return to the light of day and begin living again at the surface without plumbing the depths of the abyss. But then, beneath this very spectacle of the turmoil of life, there reappeared, before my newly-opened eyes, the unknown that I wanted to escape. And if something saved me, it was hearing the voice of the gospel, speaking to me from the depth of the night: Ego sum, noli timere (Do not be afraid, I am here). Yes, Oh God, I believe it: and I believe it all the more willingly because it is not only a question of my being consoled, but of my being completed. |