Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071412.cfm

Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah is one of my favorites because it is so graphic and realistic. It describes precisely our experience of attending Mass and seeing the Lord of Glory enthroned on his cross as the Church of the past, present and future joins the choirs of angels in heavenly song, holy, holy, holy!

This is a mystery revealed to us, a secret which we cannot keep secret. It must be made known.

Jesus tells us not to be afraid even as we hear Isaiah trembling before the vision,

"Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

That is something else I tried to explain to my class of AA neophytes, that the Fear of the Lord is the fear of good, which is altogether different from the fear of evil. The fear of the Lord must be learned, whereas the fear of evil comes naturally. We shudder at poisonous snakes and perilous heights, but Christians are drawn like iron to a magnet to the Love of God. That fear is sweet and delightful even as it throws us to the ground in trembling prostration.

Perhaps explaining the Fear of the Lord is the same as devotion, reverence, piety and awe will help. I cannot walk through a church or sanctuary without genuflecting. I am afraid not to. Even in a Protestant church I must show reverence to the Presence of God.

When I was here at Mount Saint Francis as a seminarian, on the rare occasion we were allowed out to see a movie, many of us genuflected before we took a seat in the theater. The force of habit is strong.

But that’s how Christians speak in the light what we have heard in darkness. We’re shaped and molded by our faith. We are not like other people. We see God in the poor and lowly; we sense God’s presence in jails and prisons. We hear the wail of an ambulance as a call to prayer. Along with Kleenex tissues, pocket knives and spare change we carry rosaries. Wherever we go, God is there. If our neighbors cannot feel God's presence, they will suspect we know something they do not.