Worth more than many sparrows

The recent celebration of Father’s Day makes us grateful for various manifestations of paternal love and care, and recall our spiritual growth in the Father’s love, a growth in Faith. It is faith in a God [Jesus] who loves that has provided strength, especially to martyrs to heroically face torture and false accusation, and stand for the Truth. “With the strength which comes from God, bear your share of the hardship which the Gospel entails” (2 Tim:1). There are personal hardships in struggles with prayer and bearing our cross with patience. But God gives us the particular grace(s) we need to keep on our ascent to the mountain of faith, as did our fathers of old, with the example of Abraham the patriarch of faith. Abraham simply obeyed because God said so, without fully understanding or seeing the end result.

The Lord knows that we face difficulties and modes of persecution but He tells us not to be intimidated by them (cf. Mt 10:26-28). “Do not be afraid: you are worth much more than many sparrows” (Mt 10:31). Jesus teaches that there is no need to fear the power of men because their power is limited; the worst they can do is kills us. This impels us not to fear death, but to look to life after death, and to fear God Himself, “who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Mt 10:28). “Not a single sparrow falls to the ground without God’s consent,” but His fatherly care cannot stop a man’s decision to go against His will through sin. However, our Redeemer Jesus has taught us victory through obedience, and to joyfully share the gift of faith.

Sharing Jesus means living Jesus first and deeply internalizing His whole way of life with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Then,‘christified,’ we can courageously, joyfully and freely proclaim Jesus even in the quiet witnessing of our lives. Indeed one’s life is beyond worth as coming from the hands of our Creator God, who makes available to all the rich resources of mother earth. Let me end with the closing words of an old prayer: “Lord, it will be sufficient for me to feel that I am a sparrow to find again the hope when the tempest will fall on me, because the pennies that you give for the sparrows are not counted in your knapsack.” Amen.