Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Peter H. Davids

Ordinary Time • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Popular Christianity nowadays talks about how happy and prosperous the Christian life is. Jeremiah might beg to differ, for he suffered due to his faithfulness and obedience to God. God protected him, but not with suffering and eventual death in exile. Paul reminds us that sin remains in this present age and that the gift of God does overcome these things, but it is the cruciform gift of Christ. So Jesus tells us not to be afraid, for all will be revealed in the end. We can speak openly and even boldly, if only in a caring manner. The evil forces can only kill the body. The only one to be feared is God. And he does have a wonderful end in mind for us, one that has us revolving around him in union with the Son.

Notes

Transcript

Title

Do Not Be Afraid of Them

Outline

The popular narrative of the Christian life is that God has a wonderful plan for your life and wants to make you happy

Sometimes this is combined with physically healthy and even prosperous

Often this implies a life in which every difficulty is solved

The problem is that this is a half-truth at best and misleading at worst, ignoring the fact that allegiance to Christ means renouncing our default allegiance to the world, the flesh, and the devil and joining the battle on Jesus’ side, who has chosen to work through us and the power of the cross to establish his victory. And that is for our good.

Jeremiah was called as a youth to recall Israel to God

He was a young priest, faithful to God, pained at the apostasy of his people and their desperate plight, but also terrified at the enormity of being called as God’s spokesperson

Was he loved and happy as he was faithful to his call? No, he experienced “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!”

Yes, he experienced, “the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion” and could at times sing because, “[the LORD] has rescued the life of the poor.” But he would suffer greatly, at times being up to his waist in a muddy cistern of a prison, see the nation go down in flames, and even then the remnant would not listen to him, but forced him to go with them to exile in Egypt, where he died.

Yet in remaining faithful in all of this he embodied God’s cruciform love that suffers for us, and is perhaps the most Christ-like of the prophets, living the cross of Christ and leaving much of the future restoration of Israel, that is, the resurrection rule of Christ, to other priest-prophets, such as Isaiah and Ezekiel.

God did have a wonderful plan for his life.

Paul reminds us that sin and death reign over most in this present age

Through sin death reigns in this world even over those who did not sin exactly as Adam did. That is, as James says, desire or our passions, give birth to sin and sin when “full grown” gives birth to death. And the reigning force that we often do not talk much about that is fighting to bring this about is the devil or the demonic kingdom.

There is a wonderful plan, but it is cruciform, for “how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” But that one person gives the gift by enabling us to enlist under the sign of his cross and renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil thereby ensuring their enmity (not that the demonic loves anybody, even themselves, for they are all malice). So we are in a battle with a good outcome, but which is a struggle because that cruciform struggle is for our good, our purification.

So Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of them.”

First, when it is demonic or human opponents truth and reality will ultimately be revealed: “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” Therefore, speak boldly, but of course in a kindly, gentle, and caring manner, “What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”

Second, remember that they can only kill your body, and only do that with God’s permission: “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Evil, demonic or human, uses the threat of social or physical death to control, and since it can only be actualized with divine permission it is mostly threat, although the pain can feel like a living death.

Third, there is only one to “fear,” to have reverential awe towards, and that is “the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna,” and many are living in the outskirts of Gehenna even in this life, in pain, but unaware of their slow destruction.

Finally, stay true to your baptismal allegiance and you are indeed moving towards a good and grand finally, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” Notice that the finale does not revolve around us, but has us revolving around the “Father” and the “Son.”

In the end, the wonderful plan of God is that we win the battle over the world, the flesh and the devil by following the cruciform path with Christ to the presence of the Father. If we do that all will be well, it will be well indeed, even if the path is not happy, happy, happy.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 6-25-2023: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Jeremiah 20:10–13

10 Yes, 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 can be tricked; then we will prevail,

and take our revenge on him.”

11 But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:

my persecutors will stumble, they will not prevail.

In their failure they will be put to utter shame,

to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

12 LORD of hosts, you test the just,

you see mind and heart,

Let me see the vengeance you take on them,

for to you I have entrusted my cause.

13 Sing to the LORD,

praise the LORD,

For he has rescued the life of the poor

from the power of the evildoers!

Catholic Daily Readings 6-25-2023: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 69:14c

14 But I will pray to you, LORD,

at a favorable time.

God, in your abundant kindness, answer me

with your sure deliverance.

PSALM

Psalm 69:8–10, 14, 17, 33–35

8 For it is on your account I bear insult,

that disgrace covers my face.

9 I have become an outcast to my kindred,

a stranger to my mother’s children.

10 Because zeal for your house has consumed me,

I am scorned by those who scorn you.

14 But I will pray to you, LORD,

at a favorable time.

God, in your abundant kindness, answer me

with your sure deliverance.

17 Answer me, LORD, in your generous love;

in your great mercy turn to me.

33 “See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, take heart!

34 For the LORD hears the poor,

and does not spurn those in bondage.

35 Let the heaven and the earth praise him,

the seas and whatever moves in them!”

Catholic Daily Readings 6-25-2023: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SECOND READING

Romans 5:12–15

12 Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned— 13 for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. 14 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.

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

Catholic Daily Readings 6-25-2023: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 15:26b, 27a

26 “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.

27 And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

GOSPEL

Matthew 10:26–33

26 “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. 27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 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. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. 30 Even all the hairs of your head are counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 6-25-2023: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 2023 | ORDINARY TIME

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR A | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Jeremiah 20:10–13

Response Psalm 69:14c

Psalm Psalm 69:8–10, 14, 17, 33–35

Second Reading Romans 5:12–15

Gospel Acclamation John 15:26b, 27a

Gospel Matthew 10:26–33

GREEN

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