CHRISTMAS DAY MASS
Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged
“Fear”
Rev. Ronald Knott
December 25, 2020
The angel said to the shepherds. “Do not
be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you and all people good news of great joy.
A savior has been born to you.
Luke 2:11
Do you know what the first thing human beings said to God? According to the Book of Genesis, the first thing we said to God was this: “I was afraid.” The word “afraid” appears many, many times in the Bible, most of the time along with the command, “Do not be afraid.” They were the words of Gabriel when he appeared to Mary when she first conceived. They were the words of the angel to Joseph when he decided to accept Mary and her unexpected pregnancy. They were the words the angel said to the women after the resurrection. They were the words of Jesus to his disciples when he appeared to them in the upper room after he had risen from the dead. They are his words to the shepherds in the gospel today and they are words addressed to us gathered here again this Christmas, in the midst of a COVID epidemic at the year 2020!
As one who has preached 50 Christmases, it has occurred to me several times that more often than not, we have the tendency to reduce the Christmas story we just read to childish sentimentalism, when underneath it has at its core a very adult and real message of hope in times of great disappointment and loss. When we reduce it to pious sentimentalism, we can just keep it safely “out there” somewhere. When we infantilize it and reduce it to mere “cuteness,” “sweetness,” “sentimentalism,” and “niceness” we don’t have to deal with its very adult message. Santa Claus is for children, but the message of Christmas is for serious adults.
“Do not be afraid,” is a message directed to the shepherds and to us! “Do not be afraid,” however, is easier said than done! Most of us are afraid at some time or another and some of us all the time. We are afraid of the dark, afraid of being alone, afraid of strangers, afraid of flying, afraid of heights, afraid of the water, afraid of germs, afraid of getting old and sick, afraid of dying, afraid of crowds, afraid of closed spaces, afraid of failure, afraid of success and, yes, afraid to move on after a terrible loss - the list goes on and on.
It occurred to me the other day that the fear we experience after a loss is not so much about fear of what has happened to the person we lost, but fear about what is going to happen to us without the one we lost. Sometimes the hardest part of a loss isn’t letting go of the past, but rather learning to start over. It is embracing a “new way of being” that most fills us with doubt and fear. It’s as if the question “What am I going to do now?” keeps flashing before our eyes without letting up! My own niece summed it up quite well when her young husband died of cancer. “I knew who I was yesterday, but I don’t know who I am today!” That’s what fear is usually all about – not the past, but the future – our future.
Five years ago, I had to go through the death of a dream I had for retirement. It hit suddenly and it hit hard, leaving me disappointed, angry and confused. I had to come to terms with the fact that the future I expected, wanted and planned on for years was not going to happen after all. I went through a grieving process – a painful process of letting go. One day, I read something that restored my hope and helped me let go. This is what it said: “A “plan B life” can be just as good or better than a “plan A life.” You just have to let go of that first dream and realize that God has already written the first chapter of the new life that awaits you. All you have to do is start reading that new chapter.” Thinking about it, this has been true over and over again in my life. As it turned out, my plan B life is actually better than my plan A life would have been.
As I waited for God to reveal “plan b” for my next few years, I remembered a quote from Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, that applied to me. You will probably remember part of the quote, but maybe not know who said it. “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Jesus was right when he said, “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust.” In my own life, it seems that the closer I have become to God, the less afraid I have become of life’s ups and downs. The older I get, the more I can look back on the times I was afraid and realize that most of it was useless. I like to think of it as practice for facing the “big fear,” my fear of dying. The more times I have been able to let go of my fears and chose to trust God, the more I can do it. Most of the things I worried about never happened. In fact, most of the time when I have been able to trust God, unimaginable good things have happened instead. I did get through the seminary, even though the head priest at St. Thomas Seminary called me a “hopeless case!” I did enjoy my assignment in Somerset even though I thought it was going to be hell! I was successful at the Cathedral even though I thought it was way beyond my abilities. Even though I thought the world was coming to an end when the sexual abuse scandal hit Louisville, it led to writing my column in the Record weekly for fourteen years and publishing 32 books instead. I thought my years as a vocation director was a disaster, but instead it led to a $2 million dollar grant to implement my dream of starting the Institute for Priests and Presbyterates at St. Meinrad Seminary. I thought leaving Saint Meinrad was a disaster, but now am happy working in the Caribbean missions.
Friends, the words in Isaiah are meant for us. “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: be strong, fear not!” The words of the angels to the shepherds in the gospel today are meant for us: “Do not be afraid!” The words of Jesus in both the gospels of Mark and Luke are also meant for us, “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust.” These words are invitations to turn it all over to God and wait for “plan b” to reveal itself. Remember, also, that many of the things that appear to be a tragedy one year may become something marvelous, more marvelous than we could ever imagine, the next! The secret is not to give up or give into our fear. As Dale Carnegie said “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” An unknown author said this, “Don’t get discouraged; it is often the last key on the ring that opens the lock.”
And
so, I say to any of you whose hearts are frightened today, “Be strong! Fear
not!” Today’s breakdown may just be tomorrow’s breakthrough. In the meantime, tell yourself this: “Do not
be afraid! With God’s help, I will be
able to handle this too!”
Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy.
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