‘Do not be afraid!’

By Fr. Vincent Hawkswell

4th Sunday of Easter, Year A
April 17, 2005
First Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36b-41
Second Reading: 1 Pet. 2:20b-25
Gospel Reading: Jn. 10:1-10

“Do not be afraid!” is the title of the Vatican’s Internet overview of the life of Pope John Paul II. “This is the same exhortation that resounded at the beginning of my ministry in the See of Saint Peter,” the Pope said in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

“Christ addressed this invitation many times to those He met,” he explained. “The angel said to Mary, ‘Be not afraid!’ The same was said to Joseph: ‘Be not afraid!’ Christ said the same to the apostles, to Peter, in various circumstances, and especially after His Resurrection. He kept telling them: ‘Be not afraid!’”

“The words Christ uttered are repeated by the Church,” the Pope continued. ”And with the Church, they are repeated by the Pope. I have done so since the first homily I gave in St. Peter’s Square: ‘Be not afraid!’”

I recall these words now, in the days immediately after the Pope’s death, because I think many of us are afraid: afraid that his papacy is too hard an act to follow, afraid that the Church will let the world down in its choice of a successor, afraid that the new Pope might give in to the pressure from those who believe that right and wrong should be determined by majority vote. In response, our beloved Pope still says, “Do not be afraid!”

“Peter, as a man, demonstrated that he was not capable of following Christ everywhere, and especially not to death,” the Pontiff said in his book. Nevertheless, after the Resurrection, “Christ confirmed Peter’s mission,” for ”it was no longer only a question of Peter, and of his simple human strengths; it had become by now a question of the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ to the one who would take His place on earth.”

“Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ could have confidence in Peter; He could lean on him.” Peter “became the ‘rock,’ even if as a man, perhaps, he was nothing more than shifting sand. Christ Himself is the rock, and Christ builds His Church on Peter.”

(It was only in the rock-like strength of Christ that Peter could address the crowd in this Sunday’s First Reading.)

We have nothing to be afraid of. Whoever the Church elects in the upcoming conclave will be backed by Christ’s guarantee just as Peter was: “You are ‘Rock,’ and on this rock I will build My Church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Christ’s guarantee

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (for which we have to thank Pope John Paul II) says, “Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals... The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in the faith – he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.”

This, of course, does not mean that the Pope can redefine right and wrong, as the media seem to think. As the Catechism explains, the task of the Pope and the other bishops is to give “authentic interpretation” to “the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of tradition.” They carry out this task “in the name of Jesus Christ.” They are “not superior to the Word of God,” but its servants. At Christ’s command, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, they listen to God’s word, “guard it with dedication, and expound it faithfully.”

They cannot change, add to, or subtract from, the deposit of faith, either in the Bible or in sacred tradition. That is why Pope John Paul II, in his 1994 document Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone), did not say that he refused to ordain women priests (as the media seem to think); rather he appealed to sacred tradition and said that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women priests.

Persevere in prayer

As the cardinals gather to elect a new Pope, we have nothing to be afraid of. Nevertheless, “the universal Church, spiritually united with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, should persevere with one heart in prayer,” so that the election of the new Pope “will be in a certain sense an act of the whole Church,” Pope John Paul II said in his 1996 document Universi Dominici Gregis.

He therefore laid it down that from the time of his death, “in all cities and other places, at least the more important ones ... humble and persevering prayers are to be offered to the Lord, that He may enlighten the electors and make them so likeminded in their task that a speedy, harmonious, and fruitful election may take place, as the salvation of souls and the good of the whole People of God demand.”

Christ called Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the only “gate for the sheep,” as He says in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading; the “Shepherd and Guardian of our souls,” as Peter calls Him in the Second Reading. However, now that Christ has ascended to heaven, the Pope is His vicar, His substitute, on earth. It is through him that Christ now offers us the guidance without which we all go “astray like sheep,” as Peter put it.

This Sunday is Vocations Sunday. Let us pray, therefore, that men and women today will hear the voice of Pope John Paul II still exhorting them not to be afraid, but to “gladly spend their entire lives” to make Jesus Christ “known and loved by all.”