Love or Fear

Homily for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

When Jonah set out to preach to the citizens of Nineveh, there was something of an ulterior motive that prompted his preaching. Nineveh day was a city of Gentiles who were examples of those who hated the children of Israel. Notice the words that Jonah uses when he is preaching: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” At his word, the people of Nineveh repent. However, their repentance was probably motivated by fear rather than a genuine desire to be close to the God of Israel.

The responsorial psalm for today is the great penitential psalm of David. What prompted David’s repentance? When the prophet Nathan confronted David about killing Uriah and taking Uriah’s wife in adultery, he spoke these words: “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” Once again, I suspect the David feared the Lord’s reprisals.

The Gospel text for today is a sample of Jesus’ preaching. While Jesus usually uses an invitation when addressing a sinner, this text is different. Jesus threatens them with condemnation at the hands of their Gentile neighbors. They had rejected the invitation to follow Jesus. The Gospel does not tell us whether or not this particular crowd of people repented. However, if they had repented, it would most certainly be because of the fear of being condemned by non-believers.

While I am sure that fear still is present among some people, it really isn’t the best motivation for repentance. Those of us who celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord every day in the Eucharist are constantly reminded of how much God loves us. It is this love that motivates us to seek the Lord in conversion of our lives. As we are reminded in the First Letter of St. John, “Where there is love, there is no fear.” Love and fear are mutually exclusive.