{"id":7324,"date":"2015-01-31T14:26:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T14:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=7324"},"modified":"2015-01-31T14:26:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T14:26:34","slug":"human-fears-3rd-sunday-of-ordinary-time-25-01-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=7324","title":{"rendered":"Human Fears. 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (25.01.15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (25.01.15)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Human Fears<\/strong><\/h4>\n

An aspect of fear links the three Scripture passages for this 3rd<\/sup> Sunday of the Year (25 January). Jonah (3:1-5, 10), 1 Corinthians (7:29-31) and Mark (1:14-20) focus our attention on disaster and death. Each, in a different way, invites us to \u2018look into the signs of the times\u2019.<\/p>\n

The subject of death can generate fear. Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat. It causes a change in the brain and organ function and, ultimately, a change in behaviour such as flight, hiding or \u2018freezing\u2019.<\/p>\n

In humans and animals, the process of cognition and learning can modulate fear. Psychologists suggest that fear is one of a small set of innate emotions including joy, sadness, fright, dread, horror panic, anxiety, acute stress and anger. Fear should be distinguished from anxiety because fear results from threats that are perceived as uncontrollable and\/or unavoidable. Fear has been preserved throughout evolution because it serves survival by generating appropriate behavioral responses.<\/p>\n

The top ten fears in adolescents from a 2005 Gallup poll were: Terrorist attack, spiders, death, being a failure, war, criminal or gang violence, being alone, the future and nuclear war.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1970s a study of members from various Christian denominations, who were regular attenders at church and firm in their belief, were the least afraid of dying. God has revealed, most especially in the Person of his Divine Son, that neither death nor the process of dying needs be feared. It follows that, when our life in centered on Jesus Christ, fear of death is diminished. Equally, when closeness to Jesus is diminished, fears, including that of death, grow.<\/p>\n

Fear can be learned through experience or through witnessing a dramatically frightening, traumatic incident. It can also seep into a person\u2019s life almost unnoticed. A Baptised person can cause their personal relationship with Jesus to deteriorate by their making successive choices that ignore God\u2019s Commandments. When this occurs, the Baptised often separates from the believing community, the Church. The process can be lengthy. Little by little fear will infiltrate where once there had been confident hope. Such a person may remain unaware of fear\u2019s presence until a particular happening. Then, like the fabled \u2018Mother Hubbard\u2019, they go to the cupboard only to find it bare!<\/p>\n

Fear is affected by cultural and historical context. Early last century, people feared polio. Now, that fear has been relieved through medical research and development. Culpably, the Church, in earlier times, employed unreasonable fear to \u2018rule\u2019 the lives of the Baptised. How many went \u2018religiously\u2019 to Mass on Sunday out of a fear, instilled by preachers, that missing Mass would incur eternal damnation? Would Jesus have employed such means?<\/p>\n

Being Sacramentally separated from Jesus does threaten our eternal salvation but it\u2019s not Jesus who threatens us. We threaten ourselves! The Church, by allowing misplaced fear to be used as a control mechanism, inevitably undermined in the minds of the Baptised, its own authority. The analogy of \u2018the baby and the bathwater\u2019 sadly applies because many Catholics, understandably, did not distinguish revealed Truth, God\u2019s Law, from Church law that offers an evolving guidance.<\/p>\n

The Third Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs, \u2018Jesus, the Way to the Father\u2019<\/em>, includes this prayer after the Consecration:
\n\u201cGrant that all the faithful of the Church, looking into the signs of the times by the light of faith, may constantly devote themselves to the service of the Gospel. Keep us attentive to the needs of all that, sharing their grief and their pain, their joy and hope, we may faithfully bring them the good news of salvation and go forward with them along the way of your Kingdom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Commerce has invented a clever way of taking, at least some, of the \u2018sting\u2019 out of death. You may recall the quote from 1 Corinthians 15: 55:
\n\u201c\u2026 but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written \u201cDeath is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?”<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s become fashionable to pre-book your funeral. You can address every last detail through your chosen undertaker and your executor, provided that you have the necessary funds. Psychologically, this helps maintain the mirage that we are \u2018in charge\u2019 even of our death!\u00a0 The process of disposing of our mortal remains is the least important aspect of dying. We respect the body because it was, in our lifetime, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Once God has called us from our body, it reverts, inevitably, to the dust from which God formed it. We have absolutely no control as to when God will call us to eternity even if we presume to usurp God\u2019s authority by determining the time of our death.<\/p>\n

These Scripture passages remind us not to be being caught \u2018off guard\u2019 by God\u2019s call to eternity. He has given frequent, repeated advance warnings. If we are unaware then the fault has to be our own. Uncomfortable though that may be, it is the truth.<\/p>\n

On the website of \u2018Good Funeral Guide\u2019 < goodfuneralguide.co.uk > you can read:
\n\u201cMaking plans for your dying and your funeral is a chore easily postponed.<\/em>
\nBut as the years go by and increasing physical decrepitude makes it clear that you are not, after all, going to be the first person in history somehow to duck under the radar of the Grim Reaper, it feels more and more acceptable, even desirable, to make plans. Decrepitude is nature\u2019s way of reconciling us with the inevitable. Dementia may or may not be nature\u2019s way of taking our mind off it.<\/em>
\nWhatever your state of decrepitude, remember this: the customary warning signs of impending death do not always apply. Pathologists will tell you that they spend their lives delving into the interiors of people who thought they\u2019d be going home that very day, as every day.<\/em>
\nDeath often predates decrepitude. It is only an embolism away.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, if you are still with me (and I hope you are!) there\u2019s some sagacity in the \u2018Good Funeral Guide\u2019 paragraphs. I was particularly struck by the one-liner \u2013 \u2018Death often predates decrepitude. It is only an embolism away\u2019. The glaring omission is all reference to God and the life to which He will call us. But then the funeral industry is a business aiming to entice clients and supporters, in our secular age, to believe in a false autonomy!<\/p>\n

I had to suppress a smile when one senor citizen confided that she had pre-booked her funeral \u201cwith all the trimmings of horse drawn carriage etc.\u201d and, in doing so, had spent a considerable amount of her savings. \u201cWell,\u201d she confided, \u201cthe relatives would only have fought over whatever I left. Now there\u2019s almost nothing to fight about!\u201d<\/p>\n

The citizens of Nineveh (1st<\/sup> Reading) paid attention to God\u2019s reluctant, hesitant, messenger Jonah. Their collective repentance demonstrated their restored belief in God. It would be surprising if a 21st<\/sup> century Jonah had the same effect today because, whether people realize it of not, a personal belief in God has diminished to little more than a veneer on so many people\u2019s busy lives.<\/p>\n

Paul writing to the Corinthians (2nd<\/sup> Reading) about \u201ctime running out\u201d caused some believers, then, to stop their daily work and just wait for the Parousia, as if Jesus, as King, was to come with immediacy. Paul corrected their mistaken understanding.<\/p>\n

Jesus (Gospel) speaks about the \u201cKingdom of God being at hand\u201d and he encourages his hearers to \u201crepent and believe in the Gospel\u201d<\/p>\n

In truth, we began our preparation for eternity in our mother\u2019s womb and every breath, subsequent to our birth, brings us closer. It\u2019s vital that we keep a clear long-term vision because the tendency to a myopic vision of the present moment does not serve us well in our preparations for that \u2018call\u2019, the day, hour and moment of which is unknown to us but is known to God.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (25.01.15) Human Fears An aspect of fear links the three Scripture passages for this 3rd Sunday of the Year (25 January). Jonah (3:1-5, 10), 1 Corinthians (7:29-31) and Mark (1:14-20) focus our attention on disaster … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7325,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324\/revisions\/7325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}