Daily Reflection Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

There is so much in both readings today that could be worth discussing, but we have to focus on one. The final part of today’s gospel passage has Jesus tell us that in the end, there will be nothing that is not known. That could mean several things, but one of those could be that in the Kingdom, everyone will know our deepest secrets and we will know theirs. In that case, we would be revealed at our worst but also at our best. And that would be how we saw others. The question is, I suppose, if that were true, would that lead us to forgive one another as well as ourselves by seeing that we are all the same? Or as Paul put it in his letter to the Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If we are truly all the same and we believed that fully, then the only thing we could do would be to forgive one another and ourselves.

That might be the more positive interpretation of, “everything shall be known.” Many others would carry some sense of judgement, even condemnation. Jesus seems to understand this judgmental side by calling to mind the traditional fear of God who can cast into hell. “Be afraid of that one,” Jesus says. But immediately after this, as if to belay what he had just said, Jesus tells us that God knows every sparrow and that, “You are worth more than many sparrows.” And that every hair on our heads has been counted. It brings to mind the Parable of the Prodigal Son (also in Luke) where there is no judgement by the father, no condemnation or punishment (the Prodigal’s brother’s desires). Only absolute forgiveness and reconciliation.

That is what God offers us, if we would but believe it. As if to make sure that we understand, and immediately after he had told us to be afraid (perhaps afraid of what we have turned God into), Jesus finally tells us the real truth, “Do not be afraid.” And first, we must cease being afraid of God. What will truly free us is if we can lose all our fears by trusting only in God. Only when we become aware that we are all the same, all in great need of compassion and acceptance, mercy and understanding, the mere embrace, and the forgiveness that brings all love and true fellowship and our giving of those in return to all others in need, will we find all peace. In the fulness of the Kingdom. But that Kingdom is being born among us now in all the hearts of those who love and forgive.