Seen, Known, Loved

Fear has a way of taking hold before we even realize it, but Jesus offers a powerful reminder: you are seen, you are known, and you are deeply loved. Using the image of a sparrow, one of the most common and overlooked birds in the world, Jesus makes the point that if God's care reaches even the smallest creature, how much more does it reach you. God's love is both expansive and personal. It covers everyone, and it reaches you specifically, in the middle of your fears, your struggles, and your circumstances. Fear is one of the greatest obstacles to faith, and Jesus speaks directly to it: do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. We are never sent through life alone. God goes with us, and He places us in community so we can carry one another. His door is always open. The question is whether we are willing to walk through it.

Transcript

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My brothers and sisters in the Lord, you may be familiar with the little story of the first grade teacher who asked her class to draw a picture of God. So she distributed all the crayons and all the blank sheets of paper, and she asked the students to begin drawing their depiction of God. And there were all sorts of images that were drawn. One child drew a rainbow, another child drew an old man reaching out from the clouds, another child grew an image of a figure that appeared to be Superman. And there was one little girl, when the teacher asked her, What was she drawing as her image of God? This is what she said. She said, I don't really know what God looks like. So I drew a picture of my daddy. Today, my dear friends, we celebrate Father's Day. And we celebrate Father's Day, my brothers and sisters, in a time when it is not easy to be a father. When the vocation of fatherhood and the call to authentic Christian masculinity is under constant attack in the society in which we live. And so we are strengthened in that vocation of fatherhood, that mission that the Lord gives to many of us by the grace and the love and the mercy of God. In fact, in the gospel today, Jesus is speaking his words to the disciples. And these words, my friends, are meant to challenge them, but they're also meant to comfort them. Because he too is sending them on mission. Just as our fathers have a mission that the Lord has given to them, and we as disciples all have missions the Lord has given to us. The disciples, the 12 in the gospel today, were going to be given a mission. They were going to be sent forth. And Jesus knew that when they were going to be sent forth, there was going to be persecutions and there was going to be opposition to the message of the gospel. And things haven't changed much in 2,000 years. And I just want to focus this morning on two verses that Jesus speaks to them before he sends them forth. He says this aren't two sparrows sold for a small coin. Yet not one falls to the ground without your father's knowledge. Every hair on your head is counted. Do not be afraid. There are millions upon millions of sparrows in the world. They're found in almost every part of the world. In fact, in some parts of the world, there are so many sparrows that they're categorized as a pest. Yet, even in spite of all of that, Jesus says, not one sparrow falls to the ground without the Father's knowledge, without the Father's care. It's a reminder to the disciples and to each and every one of us, my dear friends, of the extensive and expansive and intensive love of our God. Last weekend we consecrated ourselves, our families, our parish, and our archdiocese to the sacred heart of Jesus. And every single day, my dear friends, we are called to ensure that our heart is a vessel to receive the graces and the mercy and the love that God desires to pour into us. Because Jesus goes on to say, and know that every hair on your head is counted. Now, some of us, my dear friends, have a little less hair than we did five years ago, including myself. But every single hair is counted. My brothers and sisters, it reminds me of St. Augustine's words, and I'm paraphrasing here, but Saint Augustine writes that God loves you as if you were the only one that existed. That's how much God loves you. God loves you as if you were the only person in the world that existed. That's how intense his love is as for you as an individual. But then Saint Augustine says, God loves all of us as he loves each. God loves all of us as he loves each. You see, God's love, my brothers and sisters, is universal, but there's also an individualized compartment of that for you personally. God's love is expansive, and God's love is intensive in our lives. And that's what supports us and carries us through times of persecution, times of rejection, times of tragedy, whatever it may be in our lives. And then come those important words that Jesus speaks to the disciples. And do not be afraid. Do not be afraid because you are worth more than many sparrows. My brothers and sisters, the biggest obstacle for faith in our life is fear. And the devil loves to use fear in your life and in mine. And all he has to do is plant a little seed of fear, and we take it the rest of the way. Fear is an obstacle, my dear friends, to God's will, God's way, God's mission. It closes us off to God's love and God's mercy and to be able to trust in the Lord. Do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. My brothers and sisters, do we truly trust in God's love? And do we truly trust that God leads us? Or do we live in fear? Has fear taken control of our life or our circumstances at this moment? You see, my brothers and sisters, we have to always remember that no matter what the situation is in our lives, no matter where God sends us on mission, in our homes, in our families, in the workplace, in the world, whatever the Lord sends us, that his love is always the one that carries us. And because his love carries us, we're also never going to go on mission alone. God always goes with us, and we always go with the support of the people of God. That's what it means to be the church. The people of God gather together. I was reading an article this week about a young boy who had autism, and he was performing in the talent show for school. And so he gets up there on stage in front of this huge audience in the auditorium, and he's gonna sing. And the song that he has chosen is the song from Frozen. Now, I always like to say it's Let It Be, but that's the Beatles. So it's Let It Go. So if I mix them up, you know what I'm talking about. It's Let It Go. And so he begins to sing. But then you know what one of the biggest fears is for a singer or a performer or someone on stage or even someone who preaches, you forget the next line. You forget what you're gonna say next, and that's what happened to this little boy. And he began to shake because he didn't know what to sing next. But you know what the audience did? They began to sing with him. It started off very slowly and very calmly and very softly, and then they continued to sing and sing louder until the little boy got his confidence back, and he began to sing at the top of his lungs until he was able to bring that song to conclusion. Those people in the audience carry that little boy. My dear friends, that's what we're called to do as Christians, because God loves us often through other people, and we are called to love others as God loves us, to help others in their journey, to carry others through. It's so important, my dear friends. It's why we gather as church, as the people of God. You know, oftentimes we talk about our Sunday best. And normally when we refer to that expression, we're speaking about how we dress for church. But you know, my brothers and sisters, when it comes to when it comes to us coming to the house of the Lord, we should be able to come and we should be able to say, I'm not at my best. I'm coming today, but I'm not okay. The doctor called last week with the with the pathology report. I'm not okay today. There's financial issues, I'm not okay today. Someone died last week that I was very close to. I'm not okay today. And we as the people of God, the church, we should be able to walk with one another and accompany one another and carry one another in those times of life. You see, we never go in mission alone. We always go with God and we always go with one another. And when we go into mission, my brothers and sisters, and we're wrapped in God's love and we walk in God's way, then, my dear friends, we can fulfill whatever God has asked of us. But oftentimes, we want to do it our way. And I think of this little example from my own life, this little image to give you this morning. Many years ago when I was a child, I was at my great-grandmother's house. She had one of these old shotgun houses in New Orleans. We were sitting in the kitchen, and a little bird flew through the window. Now, I was young, I don't remember what kind of bird it was. We're gonna call it a sparrow. It goes with the gospel. So the little bird comes in the window, and so my grandmother opens the screen door so that the bird can fly out to freedom. Well, if you know anything about old shotgun houses in New Orleans, what is above every door? There is a large window. We call it a transom. Before electricity, you opened the transom. Well, the house now had central air conditioning, and so the transom was closed and it was painted shut. The transom wasn't going to be opened. That little bird flew not to the door, he flew to the transom, to the window. And he flew right into the window, boom, and then he kind of backed up like this. And he flew right into the window again, boom, and he backed up like this. He did it like five or six times. He just flew into the window until eventually, on the fifth or sixth time, he got so tired he fell to the ground. And then he looked like he was kind of drunk. He sort of stumbled and he walked out the door. My dear friends, how many times are we like that bird? God has opened the door, and yet we're trying to bang ourselves on the transom. Because there's God's way, God's will, God's mission, and we won it our way. And we're banging ourselves until eventually we have to do what? We have to surrender and walk through the door. Just like that little bird did. Do not be afraid, my dear friends. You're worth more than many sparrows. I close with an old spiritual, many of you may be familiar with it. It goes like this. Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart feel lonely thinking of heaven and home? When Jesus is my portion, my constant help is He. If his eye is on the sparrow, how much more is he watching over me? If his eye is on the sparrow, how much more is he watching over me? I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. If his eye is on the sparrow, how much more is he watching over me? To that, my brothers and sisters, we can say as a church, thanks be to God. Amen?