A Sunday school teacher was quizzing her students after teaching them about God's omnipotence. At the end of her lesson she asked: "Is there anything God can't do?"
There was silence. Finally, one boy held up his hand. The teacher asked: "Well, what is it that God can't do?" The boy replied: "He can't please everybody." [Sermons.com, Gary W. Houston, “What God Can't Do” Cowherding Christians, CSS Publishing Company]
God offers us total love and that will please everybody, BUT we must choose to accept God’s love. Today’s Gospel urges us to acknowledge Christ without fear. Jeremiah follows the Lord despite this enemies plotting against him. St. Paul reminds us that death came through Adam yet Grace through Jesus Christ. And Jesus instructs His Apostles [& us] not to fear, in His Divine Providence He is watching over us.
Bette Midler’s hit song “From a distance” [1990] is a powerful & beautiful song. Some of the lyrics are: “From a distance the world looks blue & green … the ocean meets the stream… the eagle takes to flight… there is harmony. And it echoes through the land, It's the voice of hope, the voice of peace… the voice of every [one]. God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us From a distance.”
Although it’s a beautiful song, it gets one thing wrong, very wrong God is not watching us from a distance, God is with us in our waking and sleeping. Our God walks with us, talks with us in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist He will enter into us, into our very being.
The Biblical meaning of “the Fear of God” points us to a deep sense of God’s otherness, it leads us to wonder and awe. It leads us to abide in God who loves us & believes we are worth far more than many sparrows. It leads us to Joyful Hope for the Coming of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah experienced persecution, mockery and intense pressure yet he believed the Lord was with him.
Do you believe the Lord is with you?
In the darkness of our times, most of the attacks on our faith are subtle, in whispers to distract our minds and hearts from focusing our lives on God. Jesus teaches the Twelve and us to “Fear no one” and courageously proclaim the Good News with our lives.
Pope Leo XIV urges us in “Magnifica Humanitas” [“Magnificent Humanity”] “… to look at the ways we communicate the Gospel to a world deeply in need of it. At its heart, that communication is the sharing of Jesus Christ, the Word.” [“Priests: Please don’t let A.I. write your homilies for you,” America Magazine, Louis Cameli, 06/10/2026]
The famous Jesuit poet and writer, Daniel Berrigan said, “If you want follow Jesus, you’d better look good on wood.” We will have many splinters and crosses to deal with BUT True Hope, real Hope can only be found in Jesus Christ, the hope that the world offers is fleeting. Our world, our nation desperately need Hope today, we need Hope.
In the December of 1941 after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Franklin Roosevelt told the nation, “There is nothing to fear, but fear itself.” We have been Baptized in Faith and in the Hope of our Savior Jesus Christ. We are in Ordinary Time in the Church liturgical calendar, St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “Saints are people who do ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
We do a lot of ordinary things to do in our lives, so start now and offer them up to our heavenly Father. Take some time [today] and think about how you will offer up your Ordinary actions and thoughts to God.
May God Be Praised.
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