Friday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 16, 2020

St. Margaret Mary Alocoque 

Luke 12:1-7

Today I met a seminary friend of mine whom I had not seen since those long ago days.  He is a friar here, and it did me much good to spend time with him.  He was — and is — one of the most gentle souls I have ever known.  We talked for hours about old and also recent times.  I have mentioned my admiration for the sisters here who are so much in love with the Lord Jesus.  The friars here are so much in love with him too.  I think I am leaving the retreat house tomorrow afternoon to spend the night at the friar’s house, their friary, which is close to the airport.

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.”

“At that time, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot.”  When we look at the preaching of the Lord Jesus, we see calls to repentance, dire warnings, a regular drumbeat of threats of hell, difficult and unnerving parables, and confrontations with authorities.  He gives detailed descriptions of the day of judgment, and he demands lived absolutely dedicated to himself in order to survive that day.  Mixed in with his preaching are cures and other miracles.  All things considered, we might well marvel at the crowds that thronged to see and hear him.  Jesus never spoke in the abstract, and so a given person who joined the crowds was likely to be seriously challenged as to his beliefs, his morals, and his actions, even if done in good faith.  Here, St. Luke emphasizes the size of the crowd: “They were trampling one another underfoot.”  This was an immense crowd that had come out of the cities into the wilderness in order to hear him and to endure his words directed at them.  Right away, he takes on the Pharisees, popular among a large segment of the people.  He speaks of their hypocrisy as though this were their primary attribute.

But then, as Luke tells it, the Lord challenges the crowd: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”  Now, this is disturbing.  The members of the crowd, and we ourselves, think about the actions and thoughts we hide, and tremble a little, but then we wonder what this means.  “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.”  Jesus is peaking of the future.  Two thousand years later, we think to ourselves that Jesus is speaking of the final judgment.  Luke gives no indication that Jesus links this with that last great day.  We think to ourselves that we are safe if this happens only in the distant future.  The Lord is telling us that we will be held accountable for all of our deeds, that all people will be judged for everything they have done or said or even thought.  It is not enough that a person refrains from actively harming another person, but he will be judged even because he hated him and hoped for his harm.  

Jesus repeats in a different way what he has said in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5, 21-22).  Jesus thus fulfills this commandment — he shows what “fills” the skeleton of its words.  Similarly, by saying, “There is nothing concealed . . .” the Lord sums up his teachings on the commandments.  The added detail that all of these wicked thoughts and intentions will be revealed — that is, to all people, since God already knows the secrets of our hearts — adds incentive for us to maintain a high level of vigilance so that we do not think them in the first place.  “Thinking them”, let us note, is different from being tempted to have them.  It is when we accept the wicked thoughts and nurse them that we commit sin.

“Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.”  While “Be afraid” is not wrong here, a better, because more direct, translation would be, “Fear”, or, even better, “Be terrified”.  The Greek verb is not the fear that really means “respect”, as in respecting a superior; the noun form of this word is Phobos.  In the Iliad we read of the god Phobos spreading panic during battle.  This is a very real, visceral terror.  The Lord is saying, in essence: Be terrified of the actual possibility that you may be cast into fiery Gehenna.  And be fearful of offending him who can toss you there.  

Next, Luke quotes Jesus as consoling the people: “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.”  Throughout the Gospels and perhaps most evident in the letters at the beginning of the Book of Revelation, we see a pattern of warnings and promises, of dire threats and of gentle urging.  The Lord so deeply desires us to join him in heaven.  This is the purpose for all the fiery talk he directs at his hearers.  It is not to discourage them, but to rouse them to look and to understand, and to take action on their own behalf even if not for the love of God.  And then here and there, when absolutely necessary, the Lord speaks calmly, almost sweetly, of how much we mean to him.