Fear can make us irrational, unreasonable

Published: June 27, 2009

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor

By Bishop Anthony B. Taylor

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered the following homily on Pentecost, May 31.

What are you afraid of? There's a lot of fear out there these days. When we are afraid we lock ourselves in, to keep those who threaten us out, but in the process we become prisoners of fear.

I wrote last year's pastoral letter on the human rights of immigrants for two reasons: 1) to bring hope to immigrants who live in fear because their most basic human rights are unprotected, and 2) to relieve the exaggerated fears of those who feel insecure about the future in our ever more diverse society. And while the letter was very well received in most quarters, fear was the common theme running through practically all of the negative letters I got: fear of demographic change, fear of lack of respect for the rule of law, fear of gangs and drug trafficking, fear of competition in the workplace, fear of a decline of American values, fear of terrorism, etc.

Some of our fears are irrational and some are reasonable, but locking ourselves in just makes us prisoners of our fears. I think it is significant that of the couple of dozen negative letters I got, as best as I can tell, a surprising number (maybe half!) come from people who live in gated communities. Fear is powerful and debilitating and unworthy of anyone who professes faith in a God whom we claim to be all powerful, almighty and all loving.

On that first Pentecost 2,000 years ago, the disciples had locked themselves in an upstairs room out of fear: fear that those who had arrested and executed Jesus would now come looking for them. They were admirers of Jesus but were not yet really followers of Jesus because they were still trying to avoid doing what he did, namely embrace the cross of sacrificial love. They were still trying to play it safe, which may seem reasonable, except that this isn't right after Good Friday. Jesus has risen from the dead!

They've seen him appear repeatedly over the course of 40 days, they've eaten with him and spoken with him and seen him ascend to Almighty God the Father in heaven. And yet they are still prisoners of fear, still debilitated by their own lack of faith. So on Pentecost God intervenes to empower them with the Holy Spirit, at which point they unlock those doors, leave that self-imposed upstairs prison and go forth to proclaim fearlessly the Good News that for the believer, there is nothing to fear.

The power of sin and death has been broken, human divisions of language and ethnicity going all the way back to the Tower of Babel have been healed in the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed in many languages yet professing the same faith throughout the world.

Today we celebrate the sacrament of confirmation, which is our own personal Pentecost, by means of which Jesus empowers us with the same gifts of the Holy Spirit first received by those frightened disciples 50 days after Jesus' death and resurrection, but for it to really make a difference in your life and in the life of others, you have to actually make a conscious effort to use these gifts.

Courage is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Well, the disciples had to make a conscious choice to overcome their cowardice and set aside their fears and unlock those doors and actually go out and let the Holy Spirit use them to change the world. And the same is true for you today, both you whom we confirm today and those present who were confirmed in the past but have not yet really done anything with these gifts that God has already given you.

The Holy Spirit is present here today, inviting every one of you to make a conscious choice to set aside your fears, your cowardice, your lack of faith in a God who is all powerful, all mighty and all loving, and so go out and let the Holy Spirit use you to change the world today.