Hikers climb Everest. When asked, “were you afraid?” The hikers said “we wanted to see if we could do it.” Storm chasers drive into a tornado were asked “if they were afraid.” They responded “we wanted to see if we could do it.” When Amelia Earhart became the first to fly over the Atlantic, the press asked "Were you afraid?" She said, "Yeah." They said, "Why'd you do it?" She said, "I wanted to see if I could. That's all. The desire was nothing new to me. I'd flown Atlantics before. Everybody has his own Atlantics to fly. When I was asked by Bishop Pep to come to North Java and serve as pastor of a reborn Holy Family Parish, my response: “God’s will be done.”
Everybody has his own Atlantics to fly. Whatever you want to do against the opposition of fear, tradition, neighborhood opinions, so-called common sense, that's an Atlantic."
What's your Atlantic? What are you afraid of? The dominant emotion in our society today is fear. We're afraid of rejection and failure, afraid of certain parts of town, afraid of certain types of people, afraid of criticism, afraid of suffering, afraid of change, afraid to tell people how we really feel, afraid of losing the things that we've worked so hard to buy, afraid of what society will think. Maybe you're afraid of the past, no matter how hard you try, you just keep reliving it. Or perhaps you fear change. We all have that. Change is scary and we'd rather not risk anything, prefer just to leave things as they are.
The Gospel is an invitation to get beyond the comfortable center and explore the margins. The parts of life we avoid or ignore are the very parts of life Jesus is probably the most interested in. The type of people we avoid and ignore were the types of people Jesus was most interested in. What does that say about our lives? How does that invite us to change? What prevents us from changing? And what are we afraid of? And have we ever even considered the other side of the question? Rather than always framing it negatively, what are the possibilities that might come about if we open ourselves to more fully embrace the gospel?
What phrase did Jesus repeat more often than any other throughout the gospels? Be not afraid. In fact, it's in today's Gospel reading three times. Be not afraid. Why? Because Jesus knew more than anybody else that the measure of your life will be the measure of your courage.
Following Jesus requires incredible courage, it will take incredible courage to be counter-cultural. Incredible courage to pursue the dreams God gives you and shares for your life.
A deep, genuine relationship with God banishes our fears and fills us with the courage to live a great life. Faith overcomes fear. We worry about the future. God says, "I hold the future." We worry about failure. God says, "Walk in my ways and I will bless you."
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and ask youself, what's your Atlantic? What are you afraid of? What's preventing you from being who God intends you to be? Because deep down, you know that God's power is greater than your fear.
