This week's readings Week of June 23 - 29 Sunday, June 23, 2002 Reading I: Jer 20:10-13 Reading II: Rom 5:12-15 Gospel: Mt 10:26-33 Monday, June 24, 2002 Reading I: Is 49:1-6 Gospel: Lk 1:57-66, 80 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36 Gospel: Mt 7:6, 12-14 Wednesday, June 26, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3 Gospel: Mt 7:15-20 Thursday, June 27, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 24:8-1 Gospel: Mt 7:21-29 Friday, June 28, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 25:1-12 Gospel: Mt 8:1-4 Saturday, June 29, 2002 Reading I: Acts 12:1-11 Gospel: Mt 16:13-19 Pope's Prayer Intentions June General Intention Cooperation among all religions for world peace: That both leaders and members of the world's religions may together seek world peace through conversion of hearts and brotherly dialogue. June Mission Intention To live out our Baptism in thought, word, and deed: That we the Baptized may use all that Baptism imparts to us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world in the whole circuit of our daily lives.

Terror on every side:
But be not afraid

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

The Scriptures anticipated for centuries the type of response that God's people would receive from those around them, whether the Hebrews chronicled in the Old Testament or the early Christians in the New.

Jeremiah the Prophet talked about those who whispered about, denouncing him and promoting terror, watching for "any misstep of mine" and looking to trap him. His "persecutors" he called them, "the wicked."

"Whoever acknowledges Jesus before others - even before those who hate and persecute his followers - Jesus will acknowledge before his Father."

Yet Jeremiah also writes of the Lord who rescues the life of the poor, who "is with me, like a mighty champion." Those who entrust their cause to the Lord need not fear their enemies, for the Lord tests the just and probes the mind and heart, and takes vengeance on those who hate his friends.

In the psalms we sing even today, we hear words describing those who bear insult for the sake of the Lord, shamed by blasphemers. But the psalms are songs of hope and trust, and those who, like Jesus, are consumed with zeal for the Lord's house shall be helped by his great kindness.

The lowly ones who seek God, their hearts will he revive! The poor he hears, "and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."

Readings for 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (June 23) Jeremiah 20:10-13 Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35 Romans 5:12-15 Matthew 10:26-33

Saint Paul teaches that it is not merely other people who persecute those who love the Lord, but sin also, and death. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." And just as sin entered the world through one man's transgression, so the gift and the grace of God "overflows for the many" through "the one man Jesus Christ."

Throughout the history of salvation, there has been terror and persecution on every side, but God says to his people "BE NOT AFRAID!"

These words that Pope John Paul II chose upon his election to the papacy as his first message to the world are the constant words of the messengers of God to the world: be not afraid!

What does Jesus say in the Gospel? "Fear no one," and "do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." No one, nothing - no power on earth and none in hell, not even sin and death - can separate us from the love of Christ, we read in the Scriptures.

Why does God care so much for his people, that even though they experience terror, confusion, persecution, and the effects of sin, he desires to rescue them?

"Do not be afraid," Jesus says, "you are worth more than many sparrows."

Not one sparrow falls from the sky that our heavenly Father does not know about - so much does he love the creation he made. And whoever acknowledges Jesus before others - even before those who hate and persecute his followers - Jesus will acknowledge before his Father.

The real terror would be to have need of fearing "the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." Should we deny Jesus before others, he tells us, then he will deny us before his heavenly Father.

That would be a terror worse than we can possibly imagine.

Yet "do not be afraid," Jesus teaches. He has given us everything we need to follow him, to turn away from the power of sin and death, and to fear nothing in this world or the next - if we love him!

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.