It is made clear in the gospel accounts that our Lord Jesus Christ gave the apostles the mission to “seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and He entrusted to them the powers they would need to carry out that mission. He also warned them about the real dangers they would have to face. He warned them about the difficulties they would endure because people would not want to hear what they would have to say. They would feel the power of the wrath of others. And having described the persecutions they would face, He told them, “You will be hated by all on account of me.” But Jesus told His disciples not to be afraid to proclaim His message, and He told them exactly why:
“…do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven…” [St. Matthew 10:28-32]
Of course, the message given by our Lord to His apostles is His message to us, too. Our Lord’s words can help us to overcome a common fear that often holds Christians back: that is, the fear of clearly proclaiming the Gospel to others with our words and in our lives – to be public in showing our faith – whether that involves giving our Catholic witness in the workplace, within our circle of friends, and within our own families. How essential it is that parents be bold in living their Catholic lives! What greater gift can we give our children than a firm, clear example of what it is to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ?
The nearly universal message we get from society is that faith is a “private” matter, which is why there are those who try to change “freedom of religion” into “freedom of worship.” Their thought is that few people will care how faith is expressed behind closed doors, as long as their faith is not demonstrated out in the open. People very often make their faith so “private” that others have no real idea that they actually belong to Christ. There are all too many Catholics, whether clergy or laity, who have allowed fear of “what people will think” to make them shy away from a direct and powerful proclamation of God’s truth. This leads to an uneasy peace with the world, seeing the gospel message as something completely private, or perhaps even abstract, useless, and outdated. Even from some of our spiritual leaders, the gospel is sometimes presented in a way that there is such a wide gap between the gospel and the current values of the world, that seeds of doubt are sown about the value or the validity of Christ’s teachings. When laypeople see uncertainty in their clergy, or when children see confusion in their parents, it is no surprise that this same uncertainty and confusion is found in the hearts and minds of those who are looking for a strong example.
As more Christians remain silent about their faith, or water down their convictions, so the gap between the word of God and the needs of the world widens. As believers show themselves to be afraid to speak out because they are no longer certain of what they believe, or because they do not want to seem to be “out of step” with the rest of the world, or because they are fearful of losing employment, so our children and others who are seeking truth are left empty and confused. And because a void eventually must be filled with something, that “something” is very often some false religion, or an immoral life, or a destructive lack of direction and values.
This fear of “standing up” for the truth is a real fear. We have seen faithful priests and religious set upon and cancelled by their own spiritual fathers for daring to speak words of truth. Jeremiah reflected the horror of being turned upon by one’s own acquaintances when he wrote of hearing others say, “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” And to be quite honest, few people want to be denounced for some principle which does not seem to be valued even by many of our spiritual leaders. But Christ wants to strengthen the integrity of our faith so that we can be bold in our witness to Him. So how does He do this?
First of all, He makes a point which is simply plain common sense: “Nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” In other words, people cannot hide God’s truth forever. In any attempt to conceal the truth, the real story eventually comes to light. We know this, even from our human experience in childhood: “Mom and Dad eventually find out.” And so it is with the truth of God: people can try to escape it, but the consequences of trying to live outside God’s truth will eventually catch up. And then Jesus draws a conclusion about this: because the truth cannot be hidden forever, there is really no reason for us to hide or to keep silent about the truth which has been entrusted to us – it will all be revealed eventually anyway.
And then Jesus gets down to a harsh reality. He makes it clear that there is a real danger in proclaiming the truth to a world which is opposed to the truth. The apostles would risk their lives in the mission which was being given to them. And so we might be, too – whether figuratively or even literally. So Christ makes a distinction between those who can kill the body, and the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. In other words, Christ is saying that bodily death is not the most serious risk. After all, death is the eventual fate of all physical existence. The real danger, Christ, says, would be to let the devil rob us of that eternal life which God has promised, which is precisely what would happen if a person refused or was afraid to speak the whole truth that has been revealed to him by Christ through the Church.
Our Lord knew this would be hard for the apostles, and also for us, to understand, and so He explains it further. He uses the beautiful image of the sparrows that were sold in the marketplace. They were so little regarded that they were sold for next to nothing, and yet each one of them was under the watchful eye of Almighty God. And as for us, He reminds us that every hair of our head is counted. We are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows. Christ’s point (which is a difficult one, but a true one) is that the only risk we face as His witnesses is the risk of bodily death, or perhaps only a death of our reputation in the eyes of the world. But that’s not the essential thing. No one can rob us of our souls unless we show cowardice in proclaiming the truth of our faith. Only we ourselves can put our infinite trust in our heavenly Father. No one can do it for us.
There may well be times when our fear and timidity mean that we fail to show sufficient courage and boldness in proclaiming God’s truth. It is not easy to strike a proper balance between appropriate boldness and the danger of being simply overbearing. Sometimes silence is preferable to making a statement which will only inflame rather than be helpful. But silence must never be prompted by some personal fear of endangering our reputation, or upsetting our worldly comfort.
The Lord has called each one of us to speak the word boldly, as a medicine which is needed by a sick world. It is the solution to every problem. We have heard the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know Him to be true. Let us then be faithful witnesses, so that the whole world may know real peace and true liberty – freedom from fear – which Christ came to give to us all.
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Painting: "Christus Consolator" by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858)