The Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 21, 2020

Matthew 10:26–33

Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. 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. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”  Jesus says that he speaks to the Apostles in “the darkness”.  We might wonder about this since we see the Lord presented in the Gospels as constantly speaking to large crowds.  He often argues in public with the Pharisees and the scribes.  Only on rare occasions does he do anything hidden, as when he brings in only Peter, James, and John and the parents when he raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead. Still, five people see this happen, and then the crowd outside the house quickly learns about it.  Indeed, the Lord seems to contradict what he says here when he reminds the Sanhedrin, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither all the Jews resort: and in secret I have spoken nothing” (John 18, 20).  

One way to consider what he means is to keep in mind how Jesus speaks about darkness in the Gospels, such as how the thief breaks in and steals at night (cf. Matthew 24, 23).  In the Gospel of St. John, we read that the Light, Jesus, shone in the darkness and the darkness did not understand it.  The darkness was a place or a condition of incomprehension, even of danger.  Good is done in the daylight, but evil in the night.  In Greek mythology, Night was the child of Chaos.  Thus, we can see what Jesus says about speaking in the darkness as speaking in this world, which is devoted to ambition, lust, pride, and the other deadly sins.  What Jesus says to the Apostles while he is in the world, they are to preach far and wide, shouting it “from the rooftops”.  We can also understand this speaking in the darkness as the Lord revealing the mysteries of salvation to the Apostles, who often find them difficult and obscure, but to whom the Holy Spirit will impart great clarity at Pentecost.  

Jesus tells the Apostles twice in these few verses to not be afraid.  They had little to fear during the Lord’s lifetime: he is saying this for them to remember later.  We hear this admonition throughout the New Testament: The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph each are told by angels to not be afraid at the beginnings of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and we hear it in the last book in the New Testament, that of Revelation.  This is one of the essential messages God has for the Christian, and fostering the virtue of hope is a critical occupation for the believer.  Hope distinguishes the faithful just as despair characterizes secular people, for whom this world is all there is.