12TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: WORTH MORE THAN MANY SPARROWS

Three times in today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Do not be afraid.” Not once. Not twice. Three times. Whenever Jesus repeats something, it calls for special attention.

Fear is one of the greatest struggles of the human heart. We fear sickness. We fear rejection. We fear failure. We fear losing control. We fear the future. Today, Jesus speaks directly to those fears: “Do not be afraid… You are worth more than many sparrows.” And I will caution against treating fear as only a psychological problem because it goes to the core of our spiritual origin and human dignity.

Fear has always been part of the human experience, but perhaps it takes new forms in every generation. We live in an age of constant information, constant comparison, and constant anxiety. Every day, we are bombarded with news, opinions, predictions, and warnings. The result is often a culture of fear.

This concern is strongly echoed in Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on human dignity in the age of Artificial Intelligence. The Holy Father warns that technology, if not guided by a proper understanding of the human person, can reduce people to data, performance, productivity, or efficiency. In that sense, human beings can begin to see themselves as projects to be optimized rather than persons to be loved.

Yet the Pope reminds us that our dignity does not come from our achievements, our intelligence, our usefulness, or our digital profile. On the other hand, our dignity does not come from a lack of achievement. It comes from God. Even our limitations, failures, disappointments—illness, aging, suffering, and vulnerability—are not defects to be eliminated but places where we can encounter God and one another more deeply.

That truth lies at the heart of today’s Gospel. Jesus tells His disciples that even the hairs of their heads have been counted. In other words, nothing about your life escapes God’s attention. Then Jesus points to the sparrows. In first-century Palestine, sparrows were among the cheapest birds sold in the marketplace. They were small, common, and easily overlooked. Yet Jesus says that not one of them falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge. And then comes the astonishing conclusion: “You are worth more than many sparrows.”

The world often tells us that our value depends on what we produce, what we own, how we look, or how successful we become. Jesus says something entirely different. Your worth comes from being a child of God.

Jeremiah understood this truth by becoming a radical example in the Old Testament. Surrounded by enemies and threatened for speaking God’s word, the prophet could easily have surrendered to fear. Yet he boldly proclaimed: “The Lord is with me like a mighty champion.” Jeremiah’s courage did not come from his own strength. It came from knowing that God was with him.

The same lesson appears in the story of Gideon (Judges Chapter 7). God deliberately reduced Gideon’s army from thousands to only three hundred men. Why? So that everyone would know that victory belongs to God, not to human power.

Fear works so hard to denigrate faith in our lives. Fear says: “You are not enough.” Faith says: “God is enough.” Fear says: “You are alone.” Faith says: “The Lord is with me like a mighty champion.” Fear says: “You will fail.” Faith says: “You are worth more than many sparrows.” Fear says: “You are a sinner, you will die.” Faith says: “My grace is sufficient for you. Your strength is made manifest in your weakness.” Saint Paul reminds us, “how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”

Perhaps Jesus is inviting us today to examine the sources of fear in our lives. Perhaps some of them are closer than we think. Look at your phone. How much of your anxiety, comparison, anger, or discouragement enters your life through that small device – what you see and what you listen to? Technology itself is not the enemy. But if we are not careful, we can become trapped in a digital world that constantly feeds fear rather than faith.

What if we reversed the trend? What if we spent as much time listening to God’s voice as we do listening to the voices of the internet? What if we filled our minds with Scripture instead of anxiety? What if we used technology to grow in prayer, hope, and communion rather than fear and isolation?

Jesus’ message today is simple: Get off the grid of fear. Step into the truth of your dignity. Trust in God’s providence. The Father knows you. The Son died for you. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. And because of that, you never need to live in fear. Pope John Paul II once said, "Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ." Always remember this: “For you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Readings: 1^st- Jer. 20:10-13; 2^nd- Rom. 5:12-15; Gospel- Mt. 10:26-33