On Saturdays, we pre-send the Sunday reflection for families - the same one Hearth & Altar subscribers receive at the table together.

Have a blessed Sunday - we'll be back Monday morning.

Sunday's Reflection — Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jer 20:10-13; Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33

Terror on every side. Jeremiah hears the whisperings - his friends watching for the misstep, the conspiracy forming. And then: but the Lord is with me like a mighty champion. The two sentences stand in the starkest contrast. The first is what the world is doing. The second is what God is doing. Both are true simultaneously.

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Jesus says this to the disciples he is sending out, who will face exactly what Jeremiah faced. The fear is not pretended away - the body can genuinely be killed. What cannot be killed is the thing that matters most. The Father knows when the sparrow falls. The hairs of your head are counted. Do not be afraid.

Through one man sin entered. Through one man, grace overflows. Paul holds the two Adams in parallel: the transgression of the one brought death; the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflows to the many. The overflow is the word - the grace is not calibrated by the scope of the transgression. It overflows.

The household that lives in the midst of terror-on-every-side and holds onto the but-the-Lord-is-with-me is the household the Sermon on the Mount has been preparing all week. Seek first the kingdom. Pray in the inner room. The mighty champion is real.

Universal Prayer

• For our family, that the but-the-Lord-is-with-me would be as real to us as the terror-on-every-side, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who are watching for missteps in our community - who have become adversaries - that the grace that overflows would reach them, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who have been acknowledging Jesus before others at personal cost, that he would acknowledge them before the Father, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Sacred Heart month, for the heart that is the mighty champion standing alongside the prophet in the terror, we pray to the Lord.

Faith in Action

Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. This week, acknowledge Jesus before one specific person - not as a performance but as the natural expression of what is real. The acknowledging is the practice of the truth that needs to be spoken in the light.

A Note for Parents

Even the hairs of your head are all counted. Say this to your children this week - that they are known by the Father to this level of precision, that not a sparrow falls without his knowledge, and they are worth more than many sparrows. The knowledge of being counted is the antidote to the fear.