DEALING WITH OUR FEARS THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS

20160130 DEALING WITH OUR FEARS THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading

2 Samuel 12:1-7,10-17 ©

The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David. He came to him and said:

‘In the same town were two men,

one rich, the other poor.

The rich man had flocks and herds

in great abundance;

the poor man had nothing but a ewe lamb,

one only, a small one he had bought.

This he fed, and it grew up with him and his children,

eating his bread, drinking from his cup,

sleeping on his breast; it was like a daughter to him.

When there came a traveller to stay, the rich man

refused to take one of his own flock or herd

to provide for the wayfarer who had come to him.

Instead he took the poor man’s lamb

and prepared it for his guest.’

David’s anger flared up against the man. ‘As the Lord lives,’ he said to Nathan ‘the man who did this deserves to die! He must make fourfold restitution for the lamb, for doing such a thing and showing no compassion.’

  Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man. So now the sword will never be far from your House, since you have shown contempt for me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.”

  ‘Thus the Lord speaks, “I will stir up evil for you out of your own House. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. You worked in secret, I will work this in the face of all Israel and in the face of the sun.”’

  David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Then Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord, for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die. Yet because you have outraged the Lord by doing this, the child that is born to you is to die.’ Then Nathan went home.

  The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David and it fell gravely ill. David pleaded with the Lord for the child; he kept a strict fast and went home and spent the night on the bare ground, covered with sacking. The officials of his household came and stood round him to get him to rise from the ground, but he refused, nor would he take food with them.

Psalm

Psalm 50:12-17 ©

A pure heart create for me, O God.

A pure heart create for me, O God,

  put a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

  nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

Give me again the joy of your help;

  with a spirit of fervour sustain me,

that I may teach transgressors your ways

  and sinners may return to you.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

O rescue me, God, my helper,

  and my tongue shall ring out your goodness.

O Lord, open my lips

  and my mouth shall declare your praise.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Ps26:11

Alleluia, alleluia!

Instruct me, Lord, in your way;

on an even path lead me.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:

everyone who believes in him has eternal life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 4:35-41 ©

With the coming of evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’

DEALING WITH OUR FEARS THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2Sm 12:1-7.10-17; Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 16-17; Mk 4:35-41

Like the apostles, we all face storms in life.  Yet, often we think that the storms are outside of us.  We blame others for our sufferings.  Worse still, we even blame God for the sufferings we are going through.  When we think that way, we root our lives in fear.

The truth is that fear does not come from without.  The real fear lies within.  The gospel tells us that in spite of the storm, Jesus slept soundly in the boat.  This was because Jesus had no fear in his heart.  He had conquered fear and hence was not afraid.

Indeed, fear is the cause of all our sins.  King David lived in fear of being found out after committing adultery with Bathsheba. This led him to further commit the sin of murder. It is because of fear that we are hypocritical, selfish and protective of our interests.  It is fear that makes us envious of others’ success, lustful so as to possess the person we love, greedy because we are afraid we do not have enough.  It is fear that makes us proud because we are afraid that others might despise us, angry because we fear that we might lose our dignity. So fear leads to all sorts of sin.

How then can we overcome the fear in our hearts?  The first step is to acknowledge it.  Otherwise in attempting to suppress it, we will become hypocritical, self-righteous and judgmental.  This was what caused David to react so strongly to Prophet Nathan’s tale of the rich man who took the poor man’s ewe lamb to feed his visitors.  Yet he failed to realize that he had acted in an even more shameful manner when he took the wife of his poor soldier and had the innocent and loyal subject killed at the battlefront just to satisfy his lust.

How true for us that instead of confronting our fears and our sinfulness, we often act as if we are sinless and perfect.  We criticize others for their mistakes and pronounce judgment on their sins. We condemn them and even delight in seeing them punished or suffer for their offences.  Why do we react so strongly when we see sin in others?  Often, it is because they remind us of who we really are, but we cannot accept such imperfections in ourselves.

David shows us the way to conquer our fears.  When confronted with his sin, he immediately repented and admitted his fault.  Although a King, he was humble enough to accept correction from the prophet of God without any attempt at denial or apportioning blame to others.  So if we want to conquer our inner fears, the first thing we need to do is to be conscious of where our fears lie, and acknowledge them.

Secondly, King David asked for forgiveness.  We too, must quickly turn to the Lord for forgiveness, especially in the sacrament of Reconciliation, when we sin.  We must seek the Lord as David did for the forgiveness of our sins.  This is an important step in being delivered from our fears.  The moment we acknowledge and confess our fears and the sins that result from them, the Devil will lose its foothold over us.  Acknowledgement and confession of sins put us immediately on the side of God.  The prayer of contrition that David wrote in the responsorial psalm shows the depth of David’s contrite heart and remorse for what he had done.  We too, when we seek forgiveness with a sincere and contrite heart, will receive the strength to break away from our fears and sins.

Thirdly, we must rest in the love and mercy of God.  If the apostles were worried and anxious because of the storm, it was because they did not know who Jesus was.  Indeed, the question raised after Jesus calmed the storm was, “Who can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him.”  They still did not know Jesus and hence had no faith in Him.  Jesus, on the contrary, always had faith in His Father’s love and therefore could remain tranquil in times of adversity.  David too, knew that the Lord is merciful and hence, in confidence turned to Him for forgiveness.  Do we know God’s love and mercy and His power enough to trust Him to deliver us from the clutches of fear?

The process of overcoming our fears is, however, a gradual development.  Besides forgiveness of sins, we need to be healed of our memories.  Inner healing is a gradual process which can take place only when we place our confidence in Jesus’ love.  This requires that we face the consequences of our sins, accepting them and learning from them so that we can be purified.  One must be clear that the consequences of sin are not punishment from God, because He is not a revengeful or vindictive God.  Rather, God permits us to suffer the punishment that comes from sin itself so that through our suffering we learn obedience.

With God’s love and forgiveness, we will find the courage to go through life acknowledging the mistakes we have made and the pain we have caused not only to ourselves but to others.  When we are able to see all these events as graces from God to help us overcome our hidden fears and sinfulness, then we can give praise to God for them.  We can then love others who are imperfect like us.

Finally, this whole process of rooting out fear from our lives must be accompanied by the Word of God.  It was the Word of God delivered through the Prophet Nathan that awakened David to his sin.  It was the Word spoken by Jesus that calmed the storm.  So too, if we are to be awakened, we must be in contact with Jesus, the Word of God, especially through the scriptures. By reading the scriptures prayerfully, the Holy Spirit will enlighten us about our true selves. The Holy Spirit which convicts us of our sins will help us to see the fears in our lives.  More than just confronting us, the Word will also inspire us and build up our faith in the love and mercy of God.  It will provide us the necessary wisdom and guidance to live a life of freedom in love and truth.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved