Sunday –12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 10:26-33

The Hairs on My Head!

Mass at Gethsemane

I admit it!  I am growing old(er)!  The legs creak and the muscles ache!  The energy dissipates rather too quickly!  And, as I look in the mirror, I see it all too plainly!  Bald spots are becoming alarmingly more noticeable and the hairs on my head are dwindling.  (No, that will NOT be the pic of the day!)  I guess it lends a whole new meaning to the old adage-the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!  Kind of like kneeling/genuflecting – he can get down; now let’s see if he can get back up!  With old age comes new fears!

But it also brings to mind the words of today’s Gospel!  “Even all the hairs of your head are numbered!
So do not be afraid; you are worth more!”  I imagine that, at this point in my life, I must be giving the Father a real headache as the number of hairs on my head keep changing on a daily (sorry, hourly) basis! 

There is a great comfort in knowing that God knows and recognizes each and every one of us, no matter the number of hairs we have.  And His love for us does not diminish in the slightest even though the hairs on our head decline, sometimes rather rapidly!  But that doesn’t stop us from being afraid – afraid of old age, declining health and physical ability, afraid of having to depend on others!

And yet Jesus makes it clear – with the most repeated phrase in the Bible – Be Not Afraid!  Some scholars have suggested there are 365 separate instances in Sacred Scripture, a comforting thought that God calms our fears each and every day of the year!  No matter what we are afraid of, no matter how hopeless we feel, no matter what stresses we are dealing with – we are not alone!  Every single day, God is with us, calming our fears and counting our hairs!

I know we can find that hard to believe; I know we all still stress; I know we all have had days and situations that we thought we would never survive.  But think about it!  All those days we thought we were completely alone, that we would never make it out alive, when everything seemed hopeless.  Looking back now, we did survive; we did make it, despite all our worst fears.  And if truth be told, we realize now that we couldn’t have gotten through it all by ourselves, all on our own.  Someone had to have been watching over us, looking out for us, calming our fears and reminding us that we were never alone.  That was God, Our Father in Heaven.

There is an old quote that seems rather appropriate here!  Worry is like a rocking chair.  It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere!  Maybe we need to remember about those wild sparrows in the Gospel.  They didn’t create themselves.  They put forth no effort or work to be beautiful.  Their existence, their beauty, their grace, all of it comes from the one who created us, God!

So too for us!  Our beauty, our worth comes from the Father, our Creator!  And the more we let go of our worries, the more we can enjoy the beauty around us and the beauty inside of us.  The more we can see and appreciate the many blessings in our life, the more we can deepen our relationship with and our faith in our Creator!

Time to stop looking in the mirror and find that rocking chair to enjoy a Tennessee sunrise!!

 

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