July 8, 2013. Homily, Saturday, July 13, 2013

Matthew 10:24-33.

Jesus said to His Apostle; "No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household.
"Therefore, do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness,  speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever who denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."
The Gospel of the Lord.

Three times in this Gospel,  near the beginning, at the middle and near the end,  Jesus tells His disciples "do not be afraid".  When Pope John Paul II was consecrated Pope, he followed John Paul I who was Pope for only thirty days, Paul VI and John XXIII, and John Paul II's first words on assuming the papacy were "Do not be afraid".  John Paul II was shot six years into his papacy and he went on to work with Solidarity to free Poland, to see the Berlin Wall fall, and to serve 26 years in the papacy. Pope John Paul II was not afraid. He lived two decades with a bullet in his abdomen and showed us how to live as witness to Jesus and, eventually, how to die in the arms of Jesus. His final words, in Polish,  were "Let me go to the house of the Father."
John Paul the Great. The crowd outside the Vatican as he died called out "Santo subito". Make him a saint now.  ANd now Poope Francis has declared Pope John Paul II a saint, together with John XXIII.

Today is the feast of Saint Henry, born in Bavavria, Emperor at the turn of first millenium declared a saint together with his wife St. Cunegunda. Saint Henry and his wife ministered to the poor, missions to the Slavs.