Homily | June 21, 2026 | How Fear Controls Us And How Faith Frees Us | (Episode 169)

One question.

What are these people afraid of?

What are they afraid to lose?

Because once you know what a person is afraid to lose, you can control them.

Find the fear and you find the handle.

Pull the handle and the whole person moves.

Maybe it's money, maybe it's reputation, success, security, maybe it's the approval of others, maybe it's the affection of someone whose opinion matters.

Find the fear, and you can find the chains.

That's why Jesus has something extraordinary in today's gospel.

He says, Do not be afraid.

And whenever Jesus repeats himself, it's because he knows how difficult it is for us to believe.

Because if we're honest, fear follows us everywhere.

Some people are afraid of losing their health.

Some are afraid of losing their marriage, their child.

Some are afraid of getting older and what retirement looks like.

Some are afraid of being forgotten.

Some are afraid of death.

Some are afraid of living.

And some of you came to Mass today carrying a fear that no one else knows about.

You smiled, you walked in, you greeted the people, you sat in your usual pew.

But deep down inside there is a worry.

A fear.

A question that keeps you up at night.

But Jesus knows it.

That's why he keeps saying, Do not be afraid.

Now there's something strange in today's gospel that most people miss.

In the same passage where Jesus starts this gospel saying, Fear no one, he also says, Be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul.

Sounds like a contradiction.

Fear no one, but fear someone.

Which is it?

The answer unlocks the entire gospel.

Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that there are two very different types of fear.

There is the servile fear, the fear of a slave.

The slave obeys because he fears punishment.

He fears being whipped.

He fears the consequences, he fears the suffering.

But then there's another kind of fear.

Aquinas calls it filial fear, the fear of a son.

Why?

Because the son is afraid, is not afraid of punishment.

The son is afraid of hurting the father's love.

He fears losing a relationship that means everything to him.

He's afraid of disappointing the father.

He fears being separated from the one he loves.

Servile fear shrinks us, controls us.

Felial fear makes us stand tall.

And here's a paradox at the center of the Christian life.

The person who fears God in the second way, the filial fear, becomes the freest person on earth.

Because once God becomes the treasure of your life, there is nothing left that can truly enslave you.

Fear makes us smaller than we really are.

Fear makes us compromise, do things we wouldn't usually do.

Fear makes us stay silent when we should speak.

How many marriages are have been damaged or are being damaged because someone is afraid to have an honest conversation?

How many vocations were never followed because someone was afraid of what others think?

How many people remain trapped in the same sin year after year because they're afraid to act?

Fear shrinks the soul.

Faith enlarges it.

That's exactly what we see in our first reading.

Jeremiah is not fearless.

Listen to his words again.

He says, terror is on every side.

His enemies surround him, they whisper behind his back, they wait for him to fail.

They want him destroyed.

Jeremiah feels the fear.

But he keeps going.

Why?

Because the saints were not people who felt no fear.

Saints were people who refused to let fear make their decisions.

And that's why tyrants and dictators have always feared the church.

Why?

Because Christians who live out their faith are only truly they are the only true free people in the world.

Some of you can understand this better than most Americans ever will.

Many of you are from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, other countries where entire systems were built upon fear.

I can control someone by fear.

That's how tyrants and dictators survive.

Not through love and care for their people, not through truth and well-being, no, through fear and control.

But every totalitarian regime eventually discovers something frustrating.

There are certain people they cannot control.

People whose souls are free, people who fear God more than they fear the state.

People who cannot be bought, people who cannot be intimidated, people who refuse to sell their conscience.

That's freedom, even within a communist system.

That's what Jesus is talking about today.

Perhaps some of you are sitting here thinking, I admire and the courage of the saints and courageous people.

I respect men and women who have stood up for truth.

But I'm not that strong.

I worry all the time.

I'm anxious.

I worry about my adult children.

I worry about my marriage.

I worry about my finances.

I worry about my business.

I worry about my health.

I worry about my retirement and future holdings.

I am afraid all the time.

If that's you, then I need you to listen carefully.

Because Jesus does not answer our fears with a lecture.

He answers them with a sparrow.

A tiny bird.

A bird so insignificant that most people would never even notice it.

But Jesus says, not one sparrow falls to the ground without your father's knowledge.

Not one.

At this very moment, God knows every sparrow, every leaf blowing across the parking lot, every wave breaking on the ocean, every star hanging in the universe, nothing escapes God's gaze.

Nothing is forgotten.

Nothing is unnoticed.

And then Jesus turns to you and says, Even the hairs on your head have all been counted.

Not counted ten years ago, not counted yesterday, counted today.

At this very moment.

The God who created galaxies knows how many hairs are on your head.

The God who holds the universe together knows exactly what kept you awake last night.

The God who conquered death knows the burdens that you carry inside.

He knows the diagnosis that you're waiting for.

He knows the adult children that you pray for.

He knows the marriage that is struggling.

He knows how your business needs attention.

He knows the loneliness that no one else feels.

He knows the grief that you carry.

And today he says to you, I know.

Trust me, I know.

I see.

I have not forgotten you.

You are worth more than many sparrows.

That's the antidote to fear.

Not willpower, not more exercise, not more positive thinking, not pretending everything is fine.

The antidote to fear is knowing that you are loved by a father who sees everything and forgets nothing.

Saint John says it beautifully.

Perfect love casts out fear.

When you know you are loved, fear begins to lose its grip.

When you know you belong to God, the world begins to lose its power over you.

When you know that Christ has conquered death itself, even the greatest fears no longer have the final word.

So let me ask you this final question that every tyrant and dictator asks.

But let me ask it for a very different reason.

What are you afraid to lose?

What are you anxious about?

Name it honestly before God.

What is the thing that keeps you up?

What's the thing you're clutching to so tightly?

What is the thing that frightens you the most?

Bring it to the altar today when you receive Jesus in the Eucharist.

Place it in his hands.

And when Christ enters your soul, fear does not necessarily disappear overnight.

But fear no longer gets the final word.

Christ does.

So hear his voice one more time, not as a command, not as a promise, but as a promise, where he says, Do not be afraid.

You are known, you are loved, you are counted.

I will always take care of you.

Trust me.

Why?

Because you belong to the Father.

Amen.