Startled and Terrified Witnesses April 30

Prayer

Jesus, please come among us. Help us to accept our fear not to harm the unrequited love that you offer endlessly. Give us the courage and wisdom and understanding to carry out the awesome commands that you have given to us, your friends. Give us the obedience in faith to go out into the world and profess your Holy Name by providing the service that such friendship deserves and demands in return for your never-ending love. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/043006.shtml

“[T]hey were startled and terrified.” Luke 24:37

“You are witnesses of these things.” Luke 24:48

How do we get from the first reaction to the final description?

When the Lord entered the place where the disciples were gathered, they were startled and terrified. At times like today, they don’t seem to know what to make of his appearance at first. At confirmations at the Easter vigil and through this season on to Pentecost Sunday, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit endows is “fear of the Lord.” In the Hebrew Bible, this is a sign of true piety. But, when we ponder the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Piety itself is already one of them and “Fear of the Lord” is separate. How does the sense of fear of the Lord differ in the New Testament?”

The virtue of “fear of the Lord” can not be reduced in modern times to mere awe. Its meaning is much larger and more beautiful. A person truly in love actually fears doing something that would hurt the beloved or create distance in the relations. This fear does not coincide with dread.

Only with this insight can we make the leap from groveling in fear to the witness stand. With this fear of the Lord developed out of love, Jesus confirms the choice He made when he called the disciples to follow Him. Then, He makes his disciples witnesses.

There are two senses of the word witness that Jesus confirms. First, there is the sense of personal knowledge of an incident. Second, there is the sense of testifying about that knowledge publicly. Witnesses take a stand and speak out verbally or through their actions. Having knowledge but not going public does not make you a very good witness.

So once Jesus calls us friends, he puts in us a sense of fear – not a Friday the 13th fear – but a fear that we don’t want to do anything to harm that friendship. To protect that friendship, we must have the same desires and the same dislikes as Jesus. So, as his friends, we do what he commands us to do to be in union with him. Cursillo gives us the model so we can, through piety and study, come to know Jesus as our friend and then, go out into the world and witness to that friendship in our actions.

Action

Look in your local newspaper for how you can support the Church’s call for justice and fairness in the US immigration laws. Why not look for Jesus at the peaceful protests planned for Monday to welcome strangers in a strange land? Pick up your flag and a candle and stand on the streets to publicly witness the need for fair immigration laws.