BE AFRAID OF GEHENNA!
Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
From time to time everyone needs assurance that God loves him and her. And that is what Jesus is trying to do to his apostles, assure them of his love. He knew that very difficult times were ahead of them. He would be taken from them and killed. They would be like those sheep without a shepherd he so often talked about. We all have times like that when we feel alone and frightened.
“Do not fear,” he told them. He and his Father would take care of them. Maybe their bodies would undergo pain, even death, but their souls were what he wanted them to see were much more important. And as long as they trusted him, their souls would be safe. Then he compared God’s love for his feathered creatures to his love for people. “Not a single sparrow falls to the ground without God’s consent...You are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows,” he told them.
God truly loves his creation. Maybe he doesn’t like what has happened to it, what we have done to it, but all that he has produced and placed in our world, he loves. He loves us above all, each and every one of us, as if each person is the only one in existence. Whatever comes your way, no matter how terrible and frightening, remember: God is with you. “Do not be afraid of anything,” Jesus tells us. A large order, but very sound advice. If God is with you, who can really hurt you?
