Daily HOMILY for November 20, 2016: Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle C

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Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle C

Terranuova Hermitage  

November 20, 2016

Fear or Fear?

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

I Do Not Fear

I want to tell you something about myself today, and it is this.

I do not fear God.  I do not fear the Lord Jesus.

In today’s Gospel, two other men are being crucified alongside Jesus and one of them asks the other, “Have you no fear of God?”  The other man never responds.

My answer to the question would be, “No!  I do not fear God or the Lord Jesus.”  When I was a child, growing up in the 1940s, I must admit I did fear God. 

In my faith formation or CCD, the primary image of God that I received was that of a judge.  I saw God was a stern figure, watching, maybe just waiting for me to do something wrong.

And I definitely got it that God would punish me and could even send me to hell.  So, as I look back, I would have to say, yes, I feared God. 

From Fear to Revere

But, things began to change in my college and young adult years.

What happened is that my faith formation became focused on the Gospel as the Word of God.  I began reading the Gospels and the center or focus of my faith became Jesus. 

Slowly and very surely, my image of God and my feelings about God began to change.  I came to see God – the Father – as a loving parent who only wanted what was best for me. 

I came to realize that God as leading me to a fuller, richer experience of life.  I came to know and love God as being very patient with me, always forgiving and giving me another chance if I fouled up, and foul up I did! 

I realized that in and through Jesus, God was with me – my companion and friend on the journey of life.  And because of all of this, for me it was no longer my doing or not doing things because of the fear of being punished.

Now I simply wanted to live with God and follow the wonderful way of Jesus.  So, it was no longer a negative reality, but a positive one.

And to this day, I do not fear God; I revere God.  Not fear, but revere.

King Means to Revere

    

St. Paul in our second reading helps to convey this sense of revering and definitely not fearing God.

He says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.”  Isn’t that an astonishing fact?

In seeing Jesus, we get to know God – who God is and what God is like.  We get to realize what a caring parent and close friend God is to us.

And then Paul makes the identity of Jesus even clearer.  He says that “in him the fullness [of God] was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things for him…”

So in and through Jesus, God doesn’t distant us from himself, judge us, or condemn us.  Quite the opposite; in and through Jesus, God reconciles us and draws us close to himself and and makes us one with himself. Again, quite amazing! 

Not Fear but Revere

So for me, it automatically follows: I do not fear; I revere.

I positively make the Lord Jesus the center of my life.  And he then becomes the positive force in my living.

And, by the way, I think that the one man who asks the other man being crucified with Jesus, “Have you no fear of God?” really means the same thing.  He does not fear God; he reveres God. 

I say this because he speaks so freely and personally to Jesus and calls him by his name “Jesus.”  The name “Jesus” means “God saves” and this man believes that God or Jesus will save him.

So, he does not fear.  He reveres God or Jesus.

That, my friends, is the kind of faith that the Gospel lifts up for all of us.  It is a mature and confident, a healthy and holy, faith.

So, I invite you to that, and if you are comfortable with it, to join me in saying: “I do not fear; I revere the Lord.”  “I do not fear; I revere the Lord.”