Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
For the past few months, each night at bedtime, I tuck my 6 year old son in and almost immediately he tells me, “Mommy, I’m scared.” When I ask him what he’s scared of he often can’t put into words what he is fearing. Sometimes it’s a fear of bad dreams, sometimes it’s a fear that something bad will happen to him or to someone in his family. Oftentimes he can’t name the source of the fear, he just knows he’s scared. This is developmentally appropriate for this age, especially in light of the heightened anxiety our whole world seems to be existing within right now. Each night, as I try to alleviate his worries, we say a prayer. In the darkness of his room, we pray for God to protect him and watch over him, we ask God to watch over his family and we pray that God will fill his head with good dreams, and then we say thank you for the many blessings that have unfolded in his day.
We hear in our gospel that we should not only be whispering these prayers in the darkness, but rather we should be proclaiming them from the rooftops, in the light of day. We should constantly be repeating these prayers of thanksgiving and petition all throughout our day. As we are told, we have nothing to fear - the very hairs on our head have been counted. We are worth more than many sparrows. When we trust in the Lord he will protect us. This does not mean that he will stop all bad things from happening to us - that’s not how it works. But in those moments of hardship, of fear, of persecution, of feeling alone in the darkness, our Lord will hold tight to us, remind us of his blessings and walk with us through our hardships.
I don’t think my son is alone in his worries right now. I think we are all carrying around big worries and big fears. And it is when we are in the darkness, feeling alone and apart from loved ones and from God, that it is easy for these fears to take over, to consume us. But we must turn to prayer. We must reconnect with our heavenly father and remember that he knows us, he loves us, he watches over us and he will be with us. And then, in the light of day, we must proclaim the goodness of the Lord. It is not enough to hold tight to God’s promises in our fear and in darkness, but we must also tell the world how good our God is. For we are told at the end of this gospel, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Matthew 10:32 - 33). Let us each take time today to boldly proclaim the goodness of our Lord in the glorious light of day. Amen.
AJ Grimm