St. Pius X Roman Catholic Parish

12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

According to Google, the word “fear” appears in the Old Testament roughly 280 times. Would it surprise anyone that in the New Testament it only appears about 40 times? One of the benefits of the Incarnation – or God walking the earth – is He brought comfort to the brokenhearted, even as His perfect love challenged the fears holding us back from truly loving one another and loving God fully.

At no time in the Gospels does Jesus pretend that fear is imaginary. He names it because He knows it is real. He knows that fear can silence us, shrink our faith, and make us forget Who holds our lives in His hands. If your life story were written out like Scripture is, how many times would the word “fear” be in your story? More than 280? As few as 40? We all experience fear at some point in our lives. It can trap us for a long time. Psychology says, rightly, there are three responses to fear: we either flee, fight, or freeze. But Jesus offers a fourth response: faith. He invites us not simply to run from what frightens us, attack what threatens us, or stand still in paralysis, but to bring our fear into the presence of the Father. There, fear does not always disappear immediately, but it begins to lose its power, because we remember that we are not alone.

The holy fear of God- a gift of the Holy Spirit- is different from the fears that trap us. It is not terror before a harsh judge, but reverence before a loving Father. To fear God is to remember that He is holy, that His love is not ordinary, and that His mercy should never make us casual about sin. It is the kind of fear that keeps us from wounding the heart of someone who has loved us completely. This fear does not push us away from God; it draws us closer, because it teaches us that our lives are safest when they are surrendered to Him.

What is our greatest fear, for the most part? It is the fear of loss of control. To love God or another person means giving up control. Fear tells us, “Protect yourself, don’t get too close, don’t risk being hurt or rejected.” But love always asks us to step beyond the walls we build around ourselves. Love asks us to trust, to forgive, to be vulnerable, and to place our lives in hands other than our own. That is why faith is so deeply connected to love: both require surrender. And surrender is frightening only when we forget the One to whom we are surrendering. When we place our lives in the hands of the Father, we are not losing control of chaos; we are entrusting ourselves to Love itself.

All of us are familiar with the account of the Apostles and Jesus in the boat. The storm comes up and the boat begins to take on water while Jesus sleeps peacefully in the back of the boat. The Apostles wake Him, terrified that they are about to drown, and Jesus calms the storm. In that moment, their fear is turned into awe. The storm exposed what they could not control, but it also revealed Who was truly in control. They could handle nets, boats, oars, and ordinary waves, but this storm was beyond their skill, strength, and experience. Fear showed them the limit of their own power, and Jesus showed them something greater: the world is not ultimately governed by chaos, chance, or danger, but by the voice of the Son of God. The wind and the sea obey Him, so the question becomes not, “How do I regain control?” but, “Can I trust the One who has never lost it?”

That question reaches the ordinary fears we carry every day. Can I trust Him when the doctor’s appointment is coming and I do not know what the news will be? Can I trust Him when a relationship is strained, when money is tight, when my children are struggling, when the future feels uncertain, or when I am afraid of being alone? Faith does not mean pretending these fears are small. It means allowing each fear to become a place where we say, perhaps with trembling voices, “Lord, I do not control this, but You are here. I do not see the whole way forward, but You do. I cannot still every storm, but I can stay close to the One whom even the wind and the sea obey.”

If your own personal life story, written out like Scripture is, contains many references to fear, do not despair. The New Testament does not entirely banish fear—it transforms it into awe. When the disciples saw Jesus calm the sea, they were filled with “great awe.” When we are consumed by the greatness of God’s love, our worldly anxieties naturally begin to shrink by comparison. We may still feel the waves, still hear the wind, and still know the weakness of our own hearts, but we also begin to see more clearly Who is with us in the boat. The fears that once ruled us can become invitations to deeper trust, deeper surrender, and deeper love. And little by little, as we learn to fear God rightly, every other fear is put in its proper place beneath the authority of Christ, who says to the storm and to the troubled heart alike: “Peace. Be still.”

One of the ways we calm our fears is to feel more comfortable giving God more control. So, this week, name the storms in your lives. Is it a relationship? A financial worry? A fear of being truly known by God? Bringing it out of the shadows reduces its power. Then, invite Jesus into your boat. In prayer, explicitly hand that specific fear over to God. It is a conscious choice to say, “I cannot control this outcome, but I trust that You are here in the middle of it with me.” And finally, take an extra step towards vulnerable love. Do one small thing that fear tells you not to do: have that difficult but honest conversation, offer forgiveness to someone who hurt you, or spend ten minutes in silent prayer allowing God to look at you with love.

Saint John tells us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” This does not mean that Christians never feel afraid. It means that fear is no longer meant to be the master of our hearts. The more deeply we allow ourselves to be loved by God, the more courage we receive to love Him and one another without hiding, without grasping, and without trying to control everything. Perfect love drives out fear because perfect love has a face, a voice, and a name: Jesus Christ. He is with us in the boat, He speaks peace into the storm, and He invites us again today to trust Him enough to love.