HOMILY - TWELFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
JUNE 25, 2017
9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS
The amygdala is a pair of almond-shaped group nuclei located deep within the temporal lobes of human beings and other animals. The amygdala appear to be tied into processing of emotional responses, most especially fear. Individuals with a damaged amygdala have no fear, while an excess of trauma can cause the amygdala to go into overdrive – resulting in overwhelming emotions in daily events.
Someone once said that “Fear is a great motivator.” But I’m not sure I buy that.
Fear itself is an emotion caused by danger or a threat – real or perceived – which causes certain metabolic changes … increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, among others. Fears are categorized as appropriate or rational versus inappropriate or irrational. The latter are also called phobia.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt said:
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,Fear, for a person experiencing it, is real. Yet the experience of fear is different for each person.
but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.
Today is the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
The readings have an undercurrent of “fear.”
In the first reading from Jeremiah, we hear the prophet say:
I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side!’He finds himself in the midst of opposition, yet he falls back on the promises God made to him early on in his calling:
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.
And in the Gospel, at the very beginning, Jesus says:
Fear no one.But then goes on to indicate that one should fear only the loss of eternal life.
St. Paul emphasizes that due to the “gracious gift of … Christ” which “overflow[s]” with “the grace of God” we are redeemed from sin and death.
For us our daily fears are a combination of encounters out in the world, and deep within our minds. Elsewhere in Scripture, in the First Letter of St. John we are told:
There is no fear in love,And so, we seek to be perfected in God’s Love, through the free gift of grace in Jesus Christ.
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us pray for a deeper outpouring of God’s grace in our hearts – and overflowing of His merciful and Divine Love in our lives. May we, by sharing in the triumph of Christ over sin and death, triumph over fear … through a more intense sharing in God’s grace, mercy, and love … in our hearts, our minds, and our life.
