Ordinary Time – Year C – Luke 12:32-40
“Do not be afraid, little flock….” Simply sell all that you own. Relinquish everything, and give. Fear attaches to things we cannot release, a ruinous mold spreading in the dark isolation of our grasping and clutching. Fear infiltrates all the systems of our life, alters our breathing and shows up masked as various anxieties and dis-eases. Fear erodes the realm God wants to give us. In his teachings, Jesus shines a healing light upon our minds and hearts to clear the mold of fear away.
The nuns of Providence House, where I lived in the late 1980s, said the ‘relinquished life’ had been expressed to them as one in which they would strive to live lightly enough, unafraid enough, that each sister could pack her possessions into a bag and be ready for her next assignment within the hour. Not because possessions are bad—their houses were filled with good things for the women and children and all of us to enjoy—but because it gives God, and by extension each of us, pleasure when we are unafraid to go, unafraid to stay, unafraid to follow. Unafraid of fear.
Living expectantly, unencumbered and light, we are more apt to be on the path that gives God/us pleasure. We are more apt to work with God to create serving, giving structures for all to live in, more apt to join God in eradicating fear. Even a thief coming in the middle of the night will not alarm us. Welcome! We’ve been expecting you. We are not afraid. Sit down, enjoy the feast!
