Daily Gospel Reflection – Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Bishop Robert Barron
October 20, 2023
Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
"Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us: “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”
In Jesus Christ, you are connected to the very power of God, to that which is here and now creating the universe. You stand above the vagaries of space and time. You are in the center of the wheel of fortune. No matter how much it turns, you stay the same. You are in the Interior Castle.
Now think of saints like John Paul II and José Sánchez del Río. The young Karol Wojtyła operated behind locked doors, preserving the great works of Polish literature during the
Nazi occupation. That same man, now come of age and newly elected as pope, said to all the world, “Be not afraid!” This from someone who had experienced the worst barbarism of the twentieth century.
During the Cristero Rebellion in early twentieth-century Mexico, the young José Sánchez del Río stood for his faith despite enormous opposition, torture, threats, and finally the firing squad itself. He wasn’t afraid of those paper tigers who could only kill his body.
*So, no matter how much violence is going on, we have a place of safety.
COMMENTS