So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows
My dear brothers and sisters, this line from the Gospel for this twelfth Sunday in ordinary time hit me like a blow. Our Lord Himself is telling us that we are worth than many sparrows. This assurance of our worth comes after the words “do not be afraid.” We have every reason to be afraid, human life in the contemporary world is severely devalued, and there is perhaps no bigger illustration of this than the fact that human lives are often seen as more important than those of animals. Take the case of India, where so many human lives are often ended because the meat they eat, and at times are presumed to eat, is considered to be of a sacred animal.
Another example, of animal lives being used to devalue human lives is when pets are referred to as babies, children, and the owners of these pets are hailed as the parents of these animals. Such comparisons are admittedly cute, but when a term for a human being is used for an animal, and an animal is anthropomorphized what we are effectively doing is demeaning human life. And the reason for this is that despite all the emotional drama around pets, at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, it is unlikely that we will treat animals as human beings, and perhaps not accord them the same consideration we might have offered a human being.
But perhaps that boat has sailed, so many of us have come so far in treating animals as human beings, that we do not treat human beings with the respect and dignity that they deserve. Indeed, it could be safely said that animals are so often anthropomorphized because we have lost communion with other human beings, trapped as we are in bubbles of hyper-individualism.
It is for this reason that Our Lord assures us today as insists, “do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Like Moses (Deu 30: 19), leader of Israel, Pope Saint John Paul II placed the choice that lies before us: a culture of life, or a culture of death. The culture that anthropomorphizes animals is, as should already have been obvious, is part of a culture of death. St. Paul, in the second reading today, in his letter to the Romans explains for us:
Through one man sin entered the
world,
and through sin, death,
Any lifestyle, any cultural practice, that is not ordered towards Christ, and His teaching – of love of God and our neighbour – is one that is disordered. To suggest that a human life is equal to, or worse less, than that of a human being is to live a life that is disordered. To recognize that a animal life is to be respected, that animal must not be treated cruelly, but that their lives are not equal to that of a human being is to recognize the order of the universe ordained by God.
Last week, offered occasion to observe how Holy Mother Church has now entered the liturgical season of ordinary time. One the one hand this term ordinary is unfortunate, because it suggests to us that there is nothing special about this liturgical season. However, when we read ordinary, as a form of saying ordered towards Christ, we recognize that this is the time when we place the learnings of the previous liturgical seasons as signposts to direct our life deeper into the territory of Our Lord.
Ordinary time is the time to return to contemplating the great mysteries of our faith, of patience and perseverance, of sacrifice and penance, of death and the sure truth of the resurrection. With these mysteries guiding our lives there is no way we can slip into a culture of death, no matter how seductive they are.
(This homily was written after concelebrating a Mass at the Sanctuary of Fatima. A Mass which I offered for those who read this homily.)
(Image reference: Agnus Dei, Francisco Zurbaran, c. 1635 – c. 1640, Museo del Prado, Madrid.)
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