YEAR B: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRTEENTH WEEK WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (1)
YEAR B: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF.. JESUS HAS POWER OVER THEM
BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon
HOMILY:
(Mt. 8:28-34) Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In the day’s Gospel Jesus dealt with two demoniacs which were terrorizing the territory of the Gadarenes.
The people were so afraid of their savagery that they shied away from their places of attacks. When Jesus came, they lost their aggressiveness, boldness, and fearlessness. They questioned Jesus’s presence. And before Jesus could even respond and deal with them, they pleaded to Jesus to just drive them to the swine nearby. Jesus commanded them to go to the swine and drowned when the herd fell into the sea. The reaction of the villagers after the swine herds told them what happened was shocking. They begged Jesus to leave!
This is revealing! The demons recognized the power and authority of Jesus! To think that we are afraid and dread the presence of evil? But here, we have these demons afraid and weak before the Lord. They even asked to be brought to the swine, a very humiliating situation on their part. It follows that Jesus has power over them.
If we are with the Lord, then who can be against us? If the devil which we are most afraid of its afraid of Jesus, there is nothing to be afraid of. Now we understand the full import of Jesus' words to the disciples not to be afraid. And yet, fear still creeps in us. This is because we had not yet fully entrusted ourselves to Jesus. We still leave something to ourselves. We still claim that there are things we can control and deal with by ourselves without Jesus' help. Fear is a sign of Jesus' absence in our lives.
It is also a kind of fear which will allay our fears. Fear of the Lord and knowing we are apart from Him will remove all other fears whether they are death, devil, failure, poverty, or powerlessness. When we have the Lord Jesus, we have everything. When we are apart from Him, we have nothing and we have everything to fear.
