"Be not afraid... Fear not." People have derived comfort from these words
for over 2,000 years, yet we are still afraid.
What's more, we are too frightened to admit our fears, particularly the
biggest fear of all - death. The fear of
death overshadows our lives. We have -
or likely have - lived longer than our parents and grandparents. We are better fed; we lose few babies, and
modern medicine protects us from contagion and disease that will lengthen our
lives... and yet, we are still afraid.
Shortly after 9/11 the words Fear Not seemed a
little out of place. Surely we had every
reason to be afraid. I am reminded of
Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest, who served as Chaplain to the New
York Fire Dept., and was the first registered victim at Ground Zero, the sight
of the former Twin Towers. The details
of his death are unclear: some say he
was fatally wounded as he administered last rites to a dying firefighter; others
recall his being killed while in silent prayer.
Whatever happened, his lifeless body was discovered in the lobby and
carried to a nearby church shortly before Tower I collapsed.
What does this have to do with our
gospel (Matthew
24:36-44)? Who knew how that fateful Tuesday that began
with skies so blue and air so clear, would end as it did? In many ways, Father Mychal lived this
gospel. In many ways this was a man who
had arrived at Ground Zero long before 9/11.
He had proved himself ready to lay down his life many times during his
career. For him 9/11 could have occurred
on any day or at any time... he was prepared.
If the thought of finding God amidst such harrowing
circumstances seems strange, perhaps it is because we are out of practice
looking for Him. However, we can be
certain that Christ's death and resurrection hold the deepest answer to all our
fears. Christ was executed like a common
criminal and was totally forsaken by his friends. By His overcoming death and our sharing in
his resurrection, He took away all our reasons to fear forever. Of course it does no good to recognize this
on a merely intellectual level. Knowing
that Christ loves us may not save us from fear, nor will it save us from
death. And so it comes down to this: The only way to truly overcome our fear of
death is to "be prepared" and to live our life in such a way that its
meaning cannot be taken away by death.
As with Father Mike, it means fighting the impulse to live for ourselves
instead of others. It means being
prepared to die again and again to ourselves, and to every one of our
self-serving opinions and agendas.
(Adapted from Johann Chrisoph Arnold, Be Not Afraid, Advent Readings, 2001)
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