FEAR NOT!

WHAT SHALL WE CHOOSE?

We crave security. Anxiety, as Jesus taught, underlies Our obsession with the future. Do not be anxious, he said, about what you shall eat and what you shall drink. It doesn't have to be said that 'shall' denotes the future.

What is not realized adequately is that insecurity is part of the flux of life. We fear that things may go wrong seriously 'in the future. Right now we are safe. But what about tomorrow? Will there be food to eat, clothes to wear?

All of our life we work hard and deny ourselves even basic necessities just to make the future more secure. But life has a rhythm of its own. That rhythm may not be, indeed will never be, quite the same as the rhythm of our individual lives.

So things are bound to go outside the bandwidth of our expectations and preferences. We know that to be the case. This very thing makes us anxious.

So, we do all we can to make ourselves more secure in the future. The result?

We become impotent in the present. Or we lived deprived and burdened. Anxiety about the future ruins the present. But life can be lived only in the present.

The trick that religion plays on us is to get us obsessed with the distant future. No one really knows, if the truth be told, what lies beyond the grave. Yet, we are urged and conditioned to think only of that! It doesn't matter how poorly, stupidly, and miserably you live now. Think only of life after death.

What do we really need? Security in the distant future? Or, vitality in the present?

Jesus emphasized the fullness of life. That implies a full engagement with the present. He also taught that we must not yield ourselves to anxiety about the future. Both teachings must be read together.

It doesn't have to be argued that we cannot be impotent in the present and also have life in its fullness.

So, Jesus said, 'Fear not'. Fear pertains to the future. Fear about the future paralyzes life in the present. It is a bad bargain.

Faith is the antidote to fear. We can't have faith and fear at the same time. But we live in fear, even as we claim that we have faith. This is absurd.

Most people resolve this problem by attaching faith to the future alone. Faith can, and must, heal not only the future but also the present. That is the message embedded in the miracle of calming the storm in the 8th chapter of St. Matthew.

Have a blessed day.