Matthew 10:26-33 for the
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s reading
from the holy Gospel ends ugly.
But whoever
denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.
After the
authorities arrested Christ, his own apostle Peter publicly denied knowing
Christ.
We can
PUBLICLY deny that we are followers of
Christ.
We can also SECRETLY deny Christ.
We can turn away
from Christ in ways that no one else knows.
So he
tells us today: Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that
will not be known.
There
are big and small ways to deny Christ.
There
are big and small REASONS to deny Christ.
The
hardest ones to avoid are the small ways and the small reasons.
“It
was more convenient.”
“Everyone
does it.”
“I’m
not perfect— so what?”
“I
really needed it.”
“It
was only a little white lie.”
If, on
the other hand, we were faithful to Christ, would we escape inconvenience,
suffering or death?
No.
Faithful
servants and friends of Christ can still come to harm, and Christ acknowledges
that today.
And do not be
afraid of those who KILL the body but cannot kill the soul....
The
Gospel is complex.
But
then the complexities of our big and small choices and reasons throughout the
minutes and places of our lives all boil down to two results in the end.
Either
we have freely chosen to go to our heavenly Father, or we have not.
God
leaves the choice to us.
With
Christ speaking in today’s Gospel of denying us in the presence of his heavenly
Father if we deny him in the presence of others, is Christ just trying to scare
us into faithfulness?
To be
honest— that can be part of what his words today contain.
He
tells us today to be afraid of being destroyed both soul and body in Gehenna.
Yet,
he also tells us three times today: Fear no one; do not be afraid; do not be afraid.
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.
Whereas
Christ never told us that either God or his angels keep scorecards of our sins,
he tells us today that our Father counts the sparrows, and knows the death of
each one.
Then
Christ tells us: you are worth more than many sparrows.
God does not count
us just as he counts the birds.
Rather:
Even all the
hairs of your head are counted.
God
freely chose to make each of us.
He
chose and he continues to choose to let us also make our choices.
God
makes us free; and our freely made GODLY choices boost and keep our freedom.
Freely
made SINFUL choices do not make us free.
They
enslave us as they always have since Adam.
Satan
tempted humanity early on with the lie that we could free or remake ourselves
with the same freedom with which God is free.
Enslaved
by our own freely made bad choice, humanity has never been able to start itself
over again for the sake of making a better choice the second time around.
What
God has done in Christ is to give the human race both the gift of a new
beginning and the gift of a final success story.
Christ
is the new beginning of the human race, and Christ is the final success story
of the human race.
Christ
the Son of God chose to remain faithful to the Father, but he chose to do so as
a human being— as one of us, as the head of our race.
He
chose to take upon himself the consequences of our sinful choices.
By
embracing, entering and swallowing OUR deadly, hell-bound poverty, Christ gave us the wealth of HIS freedom and faithfulness as
Son of God.
What
Adam and Eve could never have snatched from God, God has freely handed over to
save them.
God
has handed over to us his own freedom in his Son.
The
Church sings of this every year at the Easter Vigil.
Father.... O
wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to
ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
Since
God has handed over his Son to save our souls and the hairs of our heads, let
us take care not to waste his Body and Blood by our choosing to do any thing
that does not lead or open to God himself.
The choices we
make that truly open us to freedom always reveal the Father from whom we came
and the Father to whom we are returning.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
