Casting Out Fear

The following comes Catholic Exchange:

September 6, 2015
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isa 35:4-7a
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090615.cfm

What are you afraid of? Fear grips all of us some of the time and many of us most of the time. We fear what the doctor will say after the test; we fear the stock market crashing; we fear the other drivers on the road; we fear the outcomes of elections and we fear the things inside of us that lead us away from our own best intentions. But living out of fear is a bad idea. Fear causes us to act irrationally and too quickly—like scared investors who pull their money from the market when it dips only to miss its climb back up or like animals hemmed in who run every which way seeking an escape. Fear also paralyzes us like a deer in headlights and makes us unable to act and react as we should. God does not want us paralyzed by fear.

The Ransomed Will Return

In this Sunday’s first reading, he sends us a messenger with an alarmingly fear-free message: “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not!’”  (Isa 35:4 RSV). The Lord sends Isaiah to announce the end of fear, the fear that weakens and incapacitates us. In the previous verse, the fearful of heart are identified as those with “weak hands” and “feeble knees.” Fear unmans us by its ferocious festering, but God swoops in to vanquish fear and restore his people. In this section of Isaiah, chaps. 28–35, the prophet has been going back and forth between judgment and deliverance. This final chapter culminates with the people of God returning from exile back to an abundant land that bursts forth with blossoms and water (35:1-2, 7). Creation is celebrating the return of God’s people, their restoration, the fulfillment of their hopes as “the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing” (Isa 35:10 RSV).

Fear Not!

I can almost hear the thick Polish accent of St. John Paul II uttering once again his favorite encouragement, “Do not be afraid!” (Here’s a video of him doing just that.) Fear is the opposite of hope, the opposite of fortitude, the opposite of faith. But in such an untrustworthy, strife-ridden world, why shouldn’t we be afraid? Isaiah’s answer is “Behold, your God will come with vengeance…He will come and save you” (Isa 35:4 RSV). That’s just it. We don’t have the capability to defeat fear on our own. In fact, fear is a rational response to a haywire world. But God, Creator of all, Master of everything, he has the power to defeat fear, to vindicate his captured, fearful, humiliated people. They might have been afraid of foreign powers who would drag them away from the Promised Land, but these serve for us as metaphors for sin and evil which can drag us away from communion with God. Yet the slavery to sin that we sometimes find ourselves in need not be a permanent confinement, a life sentence. God comes to us, he sends his Son to us, he sends others to us to rescue us from that imprisonment, to vindicate us and defeat the fear that lurks inside.

To Fear or Not To Fear

Many times when the Lord speaks to someone in the Bible, his first words warn against fear. Abraham (Gen 15:1), Hagar (Gen 22:17), Isaac (Gen 26:24), Joshua (Josh 10:8), St. Joseph (Matt 1:20), and Mary (Luke 1:30) all receive such messages. God does not come to fill people with terror, but to conquer fear and set people free from its hold. In fact, the New Testament teaches, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18 RSV). But fear has two faces. Other points in the Bible remind us to “fear the Lord” (Deut 10:12; Prov 3:7). How do we reconcile the Bible encouraging fear in some places and in other places telling us not to fear? I think Blaise Pascal said it best, “Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear.” It sounds a bit silly, but the idea makes sense: If you don’t fear God and therefore flaunt his ways, you ought to fear him because of punishment. Yet if you do fear God and find yourself afraid of the world around you, then do not fear, since God is your Savior. It is a paradox, but God seems to love those.

Finding Fulfillment in Jesus

When Jesus comes, he fulfills parts of this passage. He makes the blind see. He makes the deaf to hear and he heals the lame so they can leap. These signs that Jesus performs indicate that he is bringing Isaiah’s prophecies to fulfillment. While Isaiah’s contemporaries might have looked for mere political deliverance from foreign oppressors, Jesus’ actions reveal that the prophet’s message goes much deeper—to deliverance from our spiritual enemies (sin and death) not just our political ones. When Jesus heals people, he shows that he is the Messiah, the savior who comes to set us free from fear, free to live in love. Isaiah depicts the transition from fear to freedom beautifully: “the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water” (Isa 35:7 RSV). What had been a parched, dry desert will flow with water and blossom with flowers. The dried-up, fearful heart will gush with praise.

Now of course, we wait the final fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies, which will not come to full fruition until the Second Coming. But in the meantime, we need not wait with impatience, fear, doubt and anxiety. Instead, Jesus offers us hope and courage in the midst of a dark world. God will come. He will rescue us. That should be consolation enough, enough for us to look forward with a heart brimming with joyful anticipation, rather than to bring “weak hands” and “feeble knees” upon ourselves by a doom-and-gloom perspective. Isaiah’s message, “He will come and save you,” should unburden us from the paralysis of fear and let us look to God for our future.

Pope Francis: Fearful and joyless communities are not Christian

(Vatican Radio) Communities that are fearful and without joy are sick, they are not Christian communities. That was the message of Pope Francis at his morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

“Fear” and “joy” – those are the two words of the liturgy of the day. Fear, the Pope said, “is an attitude that harms us. It weakens us, it diminishes us. It even paralyzes us.” A person who is afraid “does nothing, doesn’t know what to do.” He is focused on himself, so that nothing bad will happen.” Fear “brings you to a self-centred selfishness and paralyzes you.” He continued, “A fearful Christian is a person who has not understood the message of Jesus”:

“This is why Jesus says to Paul: ‘Do not be afraid. Continue to speak.’ Fear is not a Christian attitude. It is an attitude, we could say, of a caged animal, without freedom, who does not have the freedom to look ahead, to create something, to do good… no, always: ‘No, but this is dangerous, there is something else, something else…’ And this is a vice. Fear damages.

“Do not be afraid, and ask for the grace of courage, the courage of the Holy Spirit that He sends us”:

“There are fearful communities, that always go on the safe side: ‘No, no, we aren’t doing this… No, no, this can’t be done, this can’t be done.’ It seems they have written on the gateway: ‘Forbidden.’ Everything is forbidden because of fear. And you enter into this community and the air is stale, because it is a sick community. Fear makes a community sick. The lack of courage makes a community sick.”

Fear, the Pope explained, must be distinguished from the “fear of the Lord,” which is holy. The fear or awe of adoration before the Lord, the fear of God is a virtue. But the fear of God does not diminish, does not weaken, does paralyze: it carries us forward, to the mission the Lord gives us.

The other word of the liturgy is “joy.” “No one can take away your joy” Jesus tells us. And, the Pope said, “in the saddest moments, in moments of sorrow” joy “brings peace.” Instead “a happy event, in a moment of sorrow becomes obscure, becomes dark. A Christian without joy is not Christian. A Christian who continually lives in sadness is not Christian. And a Christian who, in the moment of trial, of illness, of so many difficulties, loses peace – something is lacking in him.”

“Christian joy is not simply enjoyment, is not a fleeting cheerfulness. Christian joy is a gift, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And having a heart that is always joyful because the Lord has triumphed, the Lord reigns, the Lord is at the right hand of the Father, the Lord has looked upon me and called me and has given me His grace, and has made me a Son of the Father… That is Christian joy. A Christian lives in joy.”

And, too, a “community without joy” is a community that is sick. Perhaps it would be a “fun-loving community” but “it has grown sick with worldliness, because it does not have the joy of Jesus Christ. And thus, “when the Church is fearful and when the Church does not receive the joy of the Holy Spirit, the Church is sick, the communities are sick, the faithful are sick.” Pope Francis concluded with this prayer: “Lift us up, O Lord, to Christ seated at the right hand of the Father… raise our spirit. Take away our every fear, and grant us joy and peace.”

Fear vs. Encouragement

The following comes from Mark Giszczak at Catholic Exchange:

Acts 9:26-31

Fear prevents us from doing a lot of things that we want to do, ought to do. Fear divides people against one another. Fear builds walls, invisible psychological walls, between us. Sometimes we need another person to shake us out of our fear, to encourage us, to stir up the boldness that lies within.

Including and Excluding

This Sunday’s first reading begins on a note of fear. The recently converted persecutor of the Church, Saul (later Paul), comes to Jerusalem as a new convert and seeks to join the Christian community. But knowing his background as an enemy of the Church, they refuse to accept him. Perhaps they think he’s a spy or they don’t believe that a person can have such a dramatic conversion. But ultimately, they are driven by fear. They exclude Saul because they are afraid of him. While we might not confront a murderous persecutor of the Church at the doors of our parish, we would do well to think of the people that we “fear” because of their lifestyle, their social status, their appearance. Can we get past that fear and “touch the hands of the poor” as Pope Francis repeatedly encourages us?

Son of Encouragement

The journey from fear to boldness is not usually a solo journey. Often we need someone to encourage us, to “put heart” into us, to slap us on the back, tell us our potential, and push us to perform. We might think of a good coach, an inspiring teacher, or a loving parent, as an this kind of uplifting voice in our lives. Here in the Book of Acts, we get a great example in Barnabas. His real name was Joseph, but his nickname was “son of encouragement” or “son of exhortation,” in Aramaic, Barnabas (Acts 4:36). As we see from his name and actions, Barnabas was known for encouraging people. He was the one who went and sought out the newly converted Saul in Tarsus to bring him on one of the greatest mission trips in the history of the Church (Acts 11:25). Barnabas was so successful in encouraging and mentoring Saul that he himself fades into the background while Saul/Paul takes center stage.

After the Jerusalem Christians exclude Saul, the text says that Barnabas “took hold of him,” from epilambanomai, which can mean to “seize” or “grasp.” I like to think of him grabbing Paul by the shirt collar and hauling him away. Barnabas then brings Saul to the apostles and advocates for him. His exhortation releases Saul from fear of being excluded from the Church and turns the Church’s fear into faith. His attitude toward Saul and his words of encouragement turn a bad situation of exclusion into a great reception of one of the greatest apostles.

Boldness

After being received into the Christian community at Jerusalem, Saul is soon exhibiting the great faith which Barnabas saw in him. He boldly proclaims the gospel in public in Jerusalem—a dangerous gamble in a time when Christians are being persecuted. Saul takes a stand with the Church he has just joined and even sets an example of fearless preaching for them. Saul is unafraid to proclaim the gospel, despite the dangers. Of course, soon some of the “Hellenists,” that is, Greek-speaking Jews, are seeking to put him to death.

Guarding the Treasure

While Paul does eventually die as a martyr in Rome, this is not the time. God still has work for him to do, so the Christians at Jerusalem hide him and send him away where those who want to harm him won’t be able to find him. To me, this is an interesting example. Often I think we view martyrs as reckless or determined, walking straight into the lion’s mouth. But for many martyrs, like St. Paul, there were many times when their life was threatened and they fled rather than be killed. Only at the time appointed by God do they come to offer themselves to him as martyrs for the Faith.

Fear vs. Encouragement

After Saul’s eventful visit, Acts offers a summary: The Church is growing just like Jesus said it would, starting at Jerusalem, then Galilee, then Samaria. The Christians throw off the fear of persecution and the world, embracing instead the right kind of fear: fear of the Lord (Acts 9:31). Fear of the Lord is not a servile, quaking, nasty fear, but a beautiful surrender of one’s life to the Author of Life, a giving back of what has been given, a wise submission to “the only wise God” (Acts 16:27). Not only do the Christians embrace fear of the Lord, they also have the “paraklesis of the Holy Spirit.” The word paraklesis is related to “Paraclete,” one of the titles of the Holy Spirit. Often it is translated as “comfort” or “consolation,” but I think the best translation is “encouragement.” The Holy Spirit comes to vanquish fear and to encourage our hearts to believe, to hope, to love.

No doubt fear has a good purpose—to help us hide from a tornado or escape from a sinking ship—but too often, we allow fear to boil over and invade areas of our lives where it should not. Fear of others, fear of failure, fear of being laughed at, often prevent us from doing what God wants us to do. This reading from Acts shows us that through the power of the Spirit and the aid of a good, encouraging mentor, we can overcome fear with faith. And sometimes we are called to be like Barnabas, encouraging and exhorting another person, helping him or her to let go of fear and grab onto courage. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”  (1 John 4:18 RSV).

Brother Roger: "Don't be afraid"

"Don't be afraid" from Taize on Vimeo.

Be Not Afraid

The following comes from the Standing on My Head blog:

If you analyze any human problem–any human sin–any human negativity–any human perversion–any violence or lust or greed or self pity you will find beneath them all the foundational fear.

The beauty of a dynamic Catholic faith is that the Holy Spirit is given which is NOT the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. This particular verse reveals an understanding of human psychology which is so profound and wise that it confirms the inspiration of Scripture. Who could have seen the depths of these few words?

This Spirit we have received–if we yield to it completely and live within the life of faith–will bring us into the graced condition of living with power, love and a sound mind. Without the Spirit we decline into the spirit of fear and we live with the opposite of these three gifts. If we descend into the ever deepening and ever narrowing spiral of life without the Spirit then we will live in weakness not power; hatred not love; and madness not a sound mind.

However, if we live within the Holy Spirit day by day, then we will, bit by bit, discover a new kind of power, a new kind of love and a new clarity of thought and vision. We will be truly powerful with a Divine power within us. We will be truly and genuinely loving–not trying hard to be nice people, but truly concerned and compassionate and loving towards others. We will be truly amazingly and dynamically of sound mind.

This is what we witness in the lives of the saints. They are not just good people. They are not just pious people. They are not just energetic or intelligent people. Instead they manifest in their lives a supernatural power, a supernatural love and a supernatural sanity.

Those, on the other hand, who refuse to move further and further into this Spirit of God–into the power, the love and the sanity–will move further and further into helplessness, hatred and insanity.

I have seen the saints. I have met them so I know this is true. I have also seen those who refuse the life of the Spirit and descend further and further into the dark. I am thinking not of the depraved and wicked sinners who have done so–even though they do show us the descent of the human spirit into the dark–but I am thinking of the “nice” respectable Christian people who, despite their Christian profession and practice, actually do not live in the Spirit, but live by the standards of the world.

They too, ever so gently but surely, also descend into increasing helplessness, hatred, distrust and insanity. I have seen them disintegrate. I have seen their worlds collapse. I have seen them act in desperation as the money they trusted disappears, as the friends they have trusted betray them and as the worldly mindset they have accepted without question has proven to be ephemeral and empty.

But let us turn instead to contemplate the lives of the saints, for they radiate the glory and light of eternity–which far outweighs the narrow alleyways and the ever decreasing downward spiral of those who live without the Spirit.

And how is this transformation accomplished? It is done simply and surely through the sacramental life of the church. To attend Mass with a pure heart, to go to confession for forgiveness of sins, to read the Sacred Scriptures, to discipline the flesh, give alms to the poor, visit the poor and helpless. Through this regular, simple and studied life we open the very depths of our soul to the Divine Mercy–for if the sickness was a primal fear–a nameless and inchoate fear at the deepest level, then the remedy is to receive unconditional and totally supernatural love for “perfect love casts out fear.”

When this infusion of the Divine Love–the Divine Mercy fills our souls, then we begin to be transformed from the foundation level up. It is as if the foundations of the house were weak and rotten and the Master Builder drills down to the depths and pours in the solid concrete of unconditional love. Once this transaction takes place the soul is set to receive the continued graces that bring about conversion of life.

This is what the Christian religion is about–all the prayers, all the works, all the faith, all the activity of study and worship is to bring about this conversion and eternal transformation.

Pope Francis: There are “bat-like Christians” who prefer the shadows to the light of the Lord

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said there are Christians who are afraid of the joy of Christ’s resurrection and who instead prefer sadness and staying in the shadows just like bats. The importance of Christians being joyful, rather than sad or fearful, was the focus of the Pope's reflections during his homily at Thursday's Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence.

Taking his cue from the gospel reading of the risen Christ appearing before his disciples, Pope Francis began by noting how instead of rejoicing over his resurrection, the disciples were struck by fear instead of joy.

“This is a Christian’s disease. We’re afraid of joy. It’s better to think: Yes, yes, God exists, but He is there. Jesus has risen and He is there. Somewhat distant. We’re afraid of being close to Jesus because this gives us joy. And this is why there are so many ‘funeral’ (mournful) Christians, isn’t it? Those whose lives seem to be a perpetual funeral. They prefer sadness to joy. They move about better in the shadows, not in the light of joy, like those animals who only come out at night, not in the light of day, who can’t see anything. Like bats. And with a little sense of humour we can say that there are Christian bats who prefer the shadows to the light of the presence of the Lord.”
But, the Pope continued, Jesus through his resurrection, gives us joy, the joy of being Christians and following him closely, the joy of travelling on the path of the Beatitudes.

“So often, we are either upset by this joy or fearful or we think we have seen a ghost or believe that Jesus is just a way of behaving. ‘We are Christians and so we must behave like this.’ But where is Jesus? ‘No, Jesus is in Heaven.’ Do you talk with Jesus? Do you say to Jesus: ‘I believe that You are alive, that You are risen, that You’re near me. That You will never abandon me’? A Christian life should be this: a dialogue with Jesus, because – this is true – Jesus is always with us, always there alongside us with our problems and our difficulties, with our good works.”
Pope Francis concluded by noting how many times we Christians are not joyful because we are afraid! We’re Christians who have been defeated by the cross.

“In my country there is a saying that goes like this: ‘When you get burnt by boiling milk, later when you see a cow you start crying.’ These people were burnt by the drama of the Cross and said, ‘No, let’s stop here. He’s in Heaven: that’s all well and good. He is Risen but it’s better that he doesn’t come again because we couldn’t handle it.’ We ask the Lord to do for all of us what he did for the disciples who were afraid of joy: to open our minds: ‘He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures;’ Let him open our minds and help us understand that He is a living reality, that He has a body, that He is with us,that he accompanies us and that He has won. We ask the Lord for the grace to not be afraid of joy.”

The devil in Pope Francis' teaching