What’s the worst it can do?

“What’s the worst it can do?” some thrill seekers ask, “Kill you?”

Most of us, in some way or another, have some fear of death.

Shakespeare, in Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, discussed how “the dread of something after death” affects so many of the choices we make in life.

In today’s Gospel, our Lord reminds us that we must “not be afraid of those who kill the body, but after that can do no more.”

We, however, too often let fear control us: fear of death, fear of pain, fear of embarrassment, fear of loneliness, and so forth.

To be sure, we must be prudent: we must fulfill our God-given responsibilities and also balance risks against potential gains.

But too many Christians (and I do not exempt myself) get the balance very, very wrong: avoiding relatively minor risks by shrinking away from what God wants us to do.

The martyrs are the great examples of Christians who got the balance right. To us, they seem like superheroes, whose example we cannot approach. Yet they too generally had a healthy fear of death.

St. Thomas More, a brilliant statesman and lawyer, used all the force of argument and law he could muster to avoid martyrdom. St. Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop who personally knew the Apostles (and whose memorial this year falls on a Sunday), had to go to great lengths in order to psych himself up for what he knew was inevitable.

Fear is natural, but the grace and the glory that God holds for us in Christ is more powerful and more enduring than anything that we might suffer in this world. We cannot let fear of anything keep us from being faithful to Christ and from always doing the right thing in our lives.

Be not afraid. Go forth in this world with the power and love of God.