If you had a choice, how would you want to live?
With a gnawing fear of not having enough to make it?
Or with the knowledge that you have access to more than you can imagine to thrive?

Be not afraid!

We have a real contrast today in our Readings.  In the first reading we hear of a widow woman from a town called Zaraphath who is anxiously scurrying about collecting sticks, protecting her small supply of food. She feared she wouldn't have enough. She feared death.  You see, there had been a lengthy drought in the area, and people were dying all around her. The fields weren't producing any food.  She thought she and her son were the next to go. They wouldn't have enough.  Little did she know that she was to be richly provided for.

Then in our Gospel, we hear of a another woman. All we know about her is she is poor and  she gives everything she has, her entire life savings, to God.  She does so with a sense that she didn't need to fear for God would provide.

Now, which of these two women would you prefer to be?

When it comes to our spiritual lives, the practice of our religion, we often become like the widow woman from Zaraphath.  How many of us scurry about trying to pick up enough grace to make it to heaven? We worry, don't we, that we won't have enough to make it. So we say another prayer hoping to get some more grace;  we give a little money to the poor hoping to get  a little more; we may do an act of charity to earn a little grace.  Mind you, there is nothing wrong with praying or performing acts of charity. But we often do so, fearing we are lacking, fearing God will be angry with us someday, fearing our sinfulness.

Be not afraid!

We never have to be afraid of running out of God's grace, His love, His divine presence in our lives.

When we were baptized, God poured out immeasurably his grace, his love, his presence in our lives.  We cannot even begin to imagine how much grace he made available to us.  He didn't just give us a few drops of grace. He didn't just give us a pound or two. He didn't fill up a 55 gallon drum with his grace and warn us to make it last until we die.

No, he poured out his love into our lives.  An infinite amount of love and grace. It will never run dry.  It will never be exhausted. It will never go away.

He poured out his grace so abundantly that it would be like standing at the foot of Niagara Falls and being inundated by its waters.  Even then, that doesn't really describe how much God loves and graces us.

How often do we practice our faith by engaging in a life-long effort to earn enough grace, to accumulate enough spiritual wealth so we don't end up in Hell?

We are afraid of our sinfulness. We are afraid God will be angry with us.

Be not afraid!

Our faith, our religion, is not about our sin.  It is about God's mercy, his grace, his love for his people, for you and for me.

All of us by virtue of our baptism have been made in the image and likeness of God.  We are awash in the love of God, his presence,  his grace.

Can you imagine what our lives would look like if we really believed that? If we really believed that about the guy next to us?

Don't get me wrong;  we can sin, and we do, and it is no small insignificant matter.  We can turn away from God's grace, his love, his presence that surrounds us and lives within us.  We can shut our eyes and things become dark, and we will get lost.

But the love of God, his presence, his grace never will leave us in this world,  as long as we are alive.  You see, you can shut your eyes and everything seems dark, but you cannot make the sun go away.  It still shines and it still surrounds you and it still warms you.  You can't make it go away, but you can  deprive yourself of its benefits. That is the way it is with sin too.

Sin is no small thing.

But God's grace is infinitely bigger; his love infinitely stronger; his presence so much more reliable than anything sin can throw at him.

Jesus has conquered sin once and for all.  We need not fear.  If we have sinned, grace has conquered it.  We need only turn back to Him through the sacrament of reconciliation.

We don't have to pick up sticks in fear. We need only to open ourselves to the love and grace and presence of God poured into our lives and our world.

Be not afraid! As the psalmist prayed today after the first reading;

"The Lord keeps faith forever
 He sustains the widow and the orphan
 He sets us free!"