Do not be afraid. We are victorious in Jesus.

Sunday 21 June 2020

Do not be afraid. We are victorious in Jesus.

Ps 27: 8-9

The Lord is the strength of his people,

a saving refuge for the one he has anointed.

Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage,

and govern them for ever.

Prayer

Father in heaven, grant

that we may always reverence and love you,

for you never deprive of your guidance

those whose life is firmly founded on love for you.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus our Lord.

First reading

Jeremiah 20:10–13 ·

He has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.

Jeremiah said:

“I hear the whisperings of many:

‘Terror on every side!

Denounce! let us denounce him!’

All those who were my friends

are on the watch for any misstep of mine.

‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,

and take our vengeance on him.’

But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:

my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.

In their failure they will be put to utter shame,

to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

O Lord of hosts, you who test the just,

who probe mind and heart,

let me witness the vengeance you take on them,

for to you I have entrusted my cause.

Sing to the Lord,

praise the Lord,

for he has rescued the life of the poor

from the power of the wicked!”

THE WORD OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

All love is tested and proved in the fire of life’s tribulations. So it is with our love for God. Jeremiah lived in very troubled times. He preached in Jerusalem, just as Jesus would do some six hundred years later. He denounced the evils of his time, idolatry, superficial religious practices and reliance on the Temple for safety without true devotion, injustice to the poor and the king’s dependence on human alliances in the face of the advancing power of Babylon, the super power of the day. For this he was bitterly persecuted as we hear in today’s reading. Jesus in the same place will denounce the hypocrisy of the priests and leaders. Like Jeremiah, he was hunted down, persecuted. Ultimately, he died on the Cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Hounded and persecuted, Jeremiah remained firm in his devotion to the Yahweh. In this he proved his love. He is a type of Christ Jesus. Jesus too suffered at the hand of the leaders of Jerusalem, but remained firm in his love for his Father even to his last breath on the cross.

It is in the crucible of suffering that following in the footsteps of Jeremiah and supremely of Jesus, we prove our love for God.  We pray today that we may have the love Jesus showed in the face of all kinds of tribulations.

The message of Jeremiah and later of Jesus is the message that he proclaims to us: love and fidelity to God, brings ultimate victory. Victory comes for those who persevere to the end. It comes not through us, but Jesus. Do you pray for grace to be faithful in love today?

Psalm

Psalm 69:8–10, 14, 17, 33–35

Lord, in your great love, answer me.

For your sake I bear insult,

and shame covers my face.

I have become an outcast to my brothers,

a stranger to my children,

because zeal for your house consumes me,

and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

Lord, in your great love, answer me.

I pray to you, O Lord,

for the time of your favour, O God!

In your great kindness answer me

with your constant help.

Answer me, O Lord, for bounteous is your kindness;

in your great mercy turn toward me.

Lord, in your great love, answer me.

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the Lord hears the poor,

and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.

Let the heavens and the earth praise him,

the seas and whatever moves in them!”

Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Second reading

Romans 5:12–15 ·

The gift is not like the transgression.

Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned— for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come.

But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.

Prayerful reflection

The human race condemned itself to death and ashes through sin. There was no hope, only despair. But, in God’s infinite mercy, we can now have eternal life with God himself. How? By repenting and giving up sin, and coming to the feet of Jesus. He will then give us victory and everything we desire and even that which we cannot even imagine.

Have you come to the feet of Jesus today?

John 15:26b, 27a

Alleluia, alleluia.

The Spirit of truth will testify to me, says the Lord;

and you also will testify.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Matthew 10:26–33

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body.

Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD.

Prayerful reflection

“Do not be afraid”. How many times we hear this command in the Bible and from the lips of Jesus. In the midst of the storm, ‘do not be afraid’, at the Transfiguration, to women after the Resurrection, today, ‘be not afraid of them that can only kill the body, but not the soul’. In fact, it is the command given most to his followers. Why? Because in Jesus we are victorious. No one can destroy us. Like Jesus they may torture and kill us, but we rise again to the glorious life of God. Jesus has overcome the world and he has destroyed death. Anyone who is in Christ is invincible. That is why the martyrs of every race and time joyfully suffer and die. They know that the victory is theirs not their opponents.

How will we have such faith and strength? It is through our union with Christ now through prayer and through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which he is truly present with his flesh and blood, soul and divinity. We must grow in union with him now, so that when the test comes, we have his presence and HIS strength.

Has the truth that you are victorious changed your life?

Ps 144: 15

The eyes of all look to you, Lord,

and you give them their food in due season.

Prayer

Father in heaven, may your Word be our daily food

that gives us wisdom and courage and

prepares us to receive your Word in the flesh

in Holy Communion.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ our Lord.