What are you most afraid of?

What are you most afraid of? 

This Sunday coincides with Father’s Day in Canada.  For those of us who knew our fathers, or had a somewhat healthy relationship with them, or a healthy relationship with some kind of father figure early in our lives – one of the things we probably thought about our fathers when we were young, was that they weren’t afraid of anything.

As adults, we realize now that it was not true.  Real courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to face our fears.  And real men, real fathers, are those who are not afraid to face their fears instead of being controlled by them. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us no less than three times, to not be afraid.  He is not saying we should not feel the emotion of fear – as if that were even possible.  What Jesus is actually saying is that we should not allow our fears to prevent us from living our faith.  And that’s because God is with us, and God remembers us.

Fr. Michael “Mickey” Prieur – a priest of the Diocese of London who served for many years as a faculty member at St. Peter’s Seminary in London and a spiritual director for many seminarians and priests over the years, had a saying – and he has many!  But one of them is: “thank you for bringing it to the light.”

Probably the single biggest obstacle to discerning or making decisions about our vocations is – fear.  We do all kinds of things out of fear – either directly as a result of fear, or indirectly to distract ourselves from, or avoid our fears.  But either way, it is our fear that is motivating our actions, and we would rather do these things than face our fears, or “bring it to the light”, as Fr. Mike Prieur would say.

But to trustingly bring our fears into the light of God’s presence can open up new paths for us that we never thought possible when we were merely reacting to our fears in the dark.  So what are you most afraid of?  And when was the last time you brought it into the light of God’s presence?