In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us about fear, conscience, confidence and God’s omnipresence and love. You will find this passage in Matt. 10:26-33.
“[Jesus said to the Twelve] 26 Therefore do not be afraid of [your persecutors]. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. 27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. 30 Even all the hairs of your head are counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
There are a lot of lessons we can learn from the teachings of our Lord, lessons that unfortunately man has refused to heed for two thousand years. The first lesson is that famous Bible quote used in the masthead of The Philippine Star that “The Truth shall set you Free!” No one knew for instance the extent of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth because the Marcos cronies were smart enough to “spread the wealth” to other cronies and friends. So when the EDSA Revolt came and the Marcoses left in a huff to Pao… err Hawaii, it has taken more than two decades to ascertain whether there was some kind of truth to the rumors that the Marcoses have amassed billions of dollars.
It is a sad plight for the Filipino people that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has gotten back some of this ill-gotten wealth, yet we never heard of any Marcoses convicted for these crimes? But our Lord Jesus Christ taught us these words, “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. 27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Just this year and last year, we heard public testimonies by two Marcos children, one claiming ownership of the companies belonging to Mr. Lucio Tan and the other claiming ownership of the Philippine Long Distance & Telephone Company (PLDT). No we didn’t get any convictions, but we heard the truth shouted no less by the Marcos children.
The ZTE-NBN scam was an ill-fated effort to bribe government officials to snatch a very exclusive and juicy deal. Then came the testimony of Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada who admitted to some corrupt practices and acts. But all this we saw and heard in a Senate investigation… but Lozada has not been jailed despite his public admission of wrongdoing and no one else stands accused of anything. But the truth has been shouted to the housetops via the TV antennas on the roofs of the homes of the Filipino people.
Next we learn from the other paragraph that our Lord teaches us from today’s gospel reading, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna…. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even the hairs of your head are counted…. you are worth more than many sparrows”
This particular passage tells us about the magnificence and the omnipresence of God. Just imagine if you see a sparrow fall into the ground. Jesus tells us that God knows even those small little things that we humans don’t even care to notice. God knows all our secrets, be it an illicit love affair or an illicit business deal or, worse, masterminding someone’s murder. All these things, big and small, God sees with His all-seeing eye. Even all the hairs on our heads are counted, except perhaps the bald ones.
Just imagine if you were to die and St. Peter would tell you that, regardless of the sins you have committed on earth, you can only enter heaven if you tell him how many hairs you have on your head? I’m sure you will fail that exam… because while we own our own heads, we never bothered to count how many hairs we have… or how many we have left! But Father God knows everything, which is why we must believe in His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who has taught us all these good things.
This brings us to the last paragraph of today’s gospel: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” His teaching is actually our final warning that if we deny Jesus Christ, He would in turn deny us before His heavenly Father. Accept Jesus, as our personal Lord and Savior and He will acknowledge us before His heavenly Father. This should be taken as a warning to all of you unbelievers out there!