Casting Out Fear

When I was a teenager, there were a few clothing brands that it seemed like all the cool kids wore. I was not a particularly cool kid, but I still was able to convince my mom to buy me one or two of those T-shirts that I thought would make me cool. I remember the first one I ever got was from the brand No Fear, and it had some pithy, slightly ridiculous saying on it about not being afraid.

I look back on that with a smile and a shake of the head; 14-year-old me didn’t really know what fear was. In many ways, perhaps I still don’t, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of things that I think I’m afraid of, no matter what kind of clothes I have on: fear of failure, fear of rejection, even fear of public speaking, which I’ve managed to overcome at least in part.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to the hearts and minds of his disciples, touching upon what must have been the deepest fear for many of them – the fear of death and bodily harm. Life was precarious in the ancient world, with the threat of violence, disease, poverty ever present. Jesus knows that his listeners would have faced a constant struggle of how to provide for themselves and their families, how to avoid confrontation and conflict with those around them, how to not run afoul of the authorities who could cause them trouble – how to survive basically from one day to the next.

Does any of that sound familiar? Maybe our fears are slightly different than those of Jesus’s day, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we worry about many of the very same things: health, well-being, security, liberty, happiness. And not only do we worry, but we also experience the pain and the loss that comes as part of life. In light of all that, perhaps we wonder then how exactly Jesus can tell us to “Fear no one.” Okay, yes, we need to have faith through it all, but isn’t it a little bold for him to say that we shouldn’t be afraid of all these things that are worth being afraid of?

The answer, of course, is that we must remember who is speaking. Jesus was never afraid of being bold, or of challenging those who heard him. But Jesus’s words are not empty, but are backed up by his own life. As the Son of the Father, he knows of what he speaks, which is why we can trust him when he tells us that there is nothing to fear when we know we are loved. The answer to our greatest fears – death, sorrow, loss – is the perfect love of the Father. All that we experience is seen by him, and he holds us all of us in his grasp.

If all of that sounds a little too neat and nice, then let’s remember Jesus’s own life. He trusted in the love of his Father to such a degree that he was not afraid of those who sought to destroy him; though surely afraid at some level of his being, he also went joyfully and confidently to the Cross, knowing that it was the very means of giving all of us a share in the perfect love of the Father. But Jesus also knew that the Father would raise him – that the perfect love of the Father would not permit death to have the final word but would instead reveal the gracious gift, as St. Paul calls it (Rom 5:15), which is the resurrection of the body. If we’re listening closely to what Jesus says today, he is giving us a preview of the truth of the Resurrection. And it’s that ultimately which helps us to face our fears – indeed, to cast them out: that we believe that no matter what harm or loss or sorrow may befall us, the Father will restore and resurrect all in his perfect love. God will have the last word, not our fears.

Christ the Teacher mosaic (4th c.), Basilica of Saint Constance, Rome

 Perhaps now we can see how Jesus calls us to not be afraid. It’s not by thinking we are so strong or so courageous, as if we can deny our fears entirely. Rather, it’s only by placing our fears within a larger framework of love – contextualizing them, allowing them to be answered by a faith and a trust in the One who himself has passed through death into the eternal life of the Resurrection. And that’s why Jesus says that in the end the only thing to fear is losing out on all of that – being afraid not of the destruction of the body, or anything that might happen to us from outside, but what can happen from inside, the destruction of the soul through our sin, our pride, and our self-justification. A lot of our sins are motivated ultimately by our fears: fear of feeling pain; fear of being criticized; fear of being alone; fear of missing out on something. Today, Jesus tells us, “Don’t be afraid of those things; don’t let your fears compromise your love and your trust in my Father, such that you risk losing what he wishes to give you.”

Do you know what sums up all of this perfectly? That which we do here at Mass. We come with our hearts full of anxiousness and worry, but also commending ourselves to the love of God, trusting that he loves us and trying to love him. And we listen to his word to us, and we respond with faith renewed. And then we participate in the very proof of that love which is the Sacrament of the Altar – when the mystery of Jesus’s self-offering, his death and resurrection, is made present again for us. And receiving that gracious gift (Rom 5:15) of he who once was dead but now lives forever, our hope of sharing in his Resurrection is strengthened and deepened, so that as we face the things that bring us fear and worry, as we seek to live out the joy of the Gospel that Jesus calls us to, we can have the confidence of perfect love which casts out all fear (1 Jn 4:18).

Friends, ask the Lord to give you some insight this week about your own fears. Where are you being tempted to lose your faith, to lose your love because of your worries and anxieties? And then ask him to give you an even deeper insight into the perfect love that the Father has for you, a love that the Son has shared with you by his blood, a love that, if you believe in it, can cast out your fears. May this Eucharist and every Eucharist we celebrate give us the foretaste of receiving one day the fullness of the gracious gift the Lord has prepared for us.