What is the most common command in the Bible?
Many people think it is “Love one another.”
Others think it is “Repent.”
Others think it is “Believe.”
But the command that appears again and again throughout Scripture is:
“Do not be afraid.”
And that is exactly what Jesus says three times in today’s Gospel.
“Do not be afraid.”
Why?
Because fear is one of the greatest forces in human life.
Fear shapes decisions.
Fear controls behaviour.
Fear stops people doing things they know they should do.
Fear keeps people silent.
Fear prevents people becoming the people God created them to be.
Think about how much of modern life is driven by fear.
Fear of failure.
Fear of being judged.
Fear of not fitting in.
Fear of missing out.
Fear of being left behind.
Fear of what people might think.
Fear of the future.
Fear of death.
Many people spend their entire lives making decisions based not on what is true, but on what they are afraid of.
Jeremiah understood that.
In the first reading, he is exhausted.
He has done what God asked.
He has spoken the truth.
And now he finds himself surrounded by opposition.
People are whispering.
People are plotting.
People are waiting for him to fail.
He says:
“All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall.”
Not strangers.
Friends.
People he trusted.
People he cared about.
People waiting for him to collapse.
That is one of the hardest experiences in life.
Not being opposed by enemies.
Being disappointed by people you thought were on your side.
And yet Jeremiah refuses to give in to fear.
Why?
Because he knows something more important than the opinions of other people.
He says:
“The Lord is at my side, a mighty hero.”
That is the difference.
Jeremiah knows he is not alone
The same truth lies at the heart of today’s Gospel.
Jesus is preparing His disciples for a difficult mission.
He is not promising them an easy life.
He is not promising popularity.
He is not promising comfort.
He is not saying that everyone will admire them.
Quite the opposite.
He knows there will be rejection.
Opposition.
Ridicule.
Persecution.
Yet He says:
“Do not be afraid.”
Not because the dangers are unreal.
But because God is greater than the dangers.
Then Jesus says something extraordinary.
“Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny?”
A sparrow was one of the cheapest things imaginable.
Something almost nobody noticed.
Yet Jesus says:
“Not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.”
Think about that.
Not one.
Not a single tiny bird escapes God’s attention.
And then Jesus makes His point.
“You are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.”
In other words:
If God notices the sparrow, He notices you.
If God cares for the sparrow, He cares for you.
If God governs the life of the sparrow, He governs your life too.
One of the great temptations of modern life is to think we are insignificant.
The world is vast.
There are billions of people.
The universe is unimaginably large.
What difference does one life make?
What difference does my life make?
The answer of the Gospel is simple.
To God, an infinite difference.
Because God does not love humanity in general.
He loves persons.
He loves names.
He loves faces.
He loves souls.
He loves you.
Not some ideal version of you.
You.
Exactly as you are.
Jesus pushes the point even further.
“Every hair on your head has been counted.”
There is nothing about you that is unknown to God.
Your worries.
Your struggles.
Your fears.
Your failures.
Your prayers.
Your hopes.
Your future.
All of it is known and loved by God.
That is why St Paul can speak with such confidence in the second reading.
He looks at the human race and sees a tragedy.
Sin entered the world.
Death entered the world.
Humanity lost paradise.
The story could have ended there.
But it did not.
Because God refused to abandon His creation.
Paul says:
“The gift itself considerably outweighed the fall.”
That is one of the most hopeful sentences in the New Testament.
The gift outweighs the fall.
Grace outweighs sin.
Mercy outweighs guilt.
Christ outweighs Adam.
Love outweighs death.
Many people secretly believe that their sins are greater than God’s mercy.
That their failures are greater than God’s grace.
That their past is stronger than God’s future.
The Gospel says otherwise.
The Cross says otherwise.
The Resurrection says otherwise.
And that brings us back to fear.
At the root of many fears is the suspicion that we are alone.
That nobody is really in control.
That nobody really cares.
That everything depends on us.
The Christian faith says exactly the opposite.
You are not alone.
God knows you.
God loves you.
God guides you.
God accompanies you.
That does not mean life will be easy.
Jeremiah still suffered.
The Apostles still suffered.
The saints still suffered.
But they suffered differently.
Because they knew they belonged to God.
At the end of the Gospel Jesus says:
“If anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.”
Those are remarkable words.
Christ is asking for courage.
Not aggression.
Not arrogance.
Courage.
The courage to belong to Him.
The courage not to hide our faith.
The courage not to be ashamed of the Gospel.
The courage to live as Christians in a world that often prefers us to remain silent.
The greatest saints were not fearless people.
They felt fear just as we do.
The difference is that they trusted God more than they trusted their fears.
And that is the challenge of today’s Gospel.
Not to become fearless.
But to become faithful.
Because the opposite of fear is not courage.
The opposite of fear is trust.
Trust that God knows us.
Trust that God loves us.
Trust that God is with us.
Trust that Christ has conquered sin and death.
Trust that whatever happens, we belong to Him.
And when that trust takes root in our hearts, we begin to understand why Jesus repeats the same command three times:
“Do not be afraid.”
Because the God who created the stars knows your name.
The God who watches over every sparrow watches over you.
And the God who raised His Son from the dead will never abandon those who put their trust in Him.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 