DON’T BE AFRAID!
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this feast of the Immaculate
Conception is, “Don’t Be Afraid.”
At this Mass we’re celebrating Mary - the Mother of Jesus
- the New Eve.
TODAY’S FIRST READING
In today’s first reading from Genesis 3: 9-15, 20, Adam
says “I was afraid.”
God is looking for Adam
in the garden, where he is hiding from God. God says, “Where are you?”
And Adam says, “I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid, because I was
naked.”
And God says, “Who told you that you were naked? You have
eaten the forbidden fruit.”
Then he blames Eve and they blame the snake.
We have here a profound story. It gets at the heart of
who we are.
We want to walk with God. We want to be with God. We want the world to be a beautiful garden.
But we mess up. We eat the forbidden fruit.
That’s the naked truth.
And so we are afraid.
The word “afraid” appears 103 times in the English
translation of our Bible. The word “fear” appears 454 times.
“Waira” is the root Hebrew word for “fear” or “afraid”. Phobos” is the word for “fear” in Greek. “Fear” and “afraid” are the key
words in English.
And we hear 454 million times in our lives: “Don’t be
afraid.” We say that to ourselves and to
others.
The naked truth is we are afraid.
We are afraid of God, ourselves, and others.
We’re afraid of failure, being seen, making mistakes,
sinning, striking out, being rejected, failing.
TODAYS GOSPEL
In today’s gospel - an angel comes to Mary - it’s another
basic human story - and says, “Hail full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
And she is greatly troubled. She ponders with an “Uh Oh!’
- the two sounds we say all our lives when we see a request coming, “Uh oh!”
And the angel asks her to bring Christ to our world.
The angel begins by saying, “Don’t be afraid.”
And she says that she can’t do it. She’s not married. She has had no relations
with a man.
And the angel says, “The Holy Spirit will come to you,
and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and you will bring the Holy
One to this world.
CONCLUSION:
US
These two stories are our story.
We want to be with God - we want to walk with God - but like
Adam and Eve and unlike Mary - we sneak like snakes and take the forbidden
fruit.
Yet God still calls us to be his mother and bring the
most high to our world.
And we’re afraid.
Yet God still calls us each day. God
still sends angels to us each day and says, “the Lord is with you” - And “Don’t
be afraid.”
Hopefully we all say what Mary said, “Behold I am the
handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”
