St. Paul announces to the Romans that if we experience solidarity in evil in the first Adam, we are offered a more radical solidarity in the new Adam, Jesus Christ. Death, failure, rejection … don’t have the last word in our lives: that belongs to Jesus Christ and his Easter victory. Even what we now live in darkness, because of the first Adam, by Jesus Christ, the new Adam, will be led into the fullness of light. Therefore, “do not be afraid”: three times this word of Jesus resounds insistently in the passage of Matthew. As the evangelist recalls by introducing the missionary discourse (9,35-38), the sending of the Twelve is generated by the compassion of Jesus for the crowds, sheep without a shepherd. Now his gaze guards the disciples themselves. Indeed, victory over fear is not based on the resources of personal courage, much less must it rely on powerful means, capable of prevailing over dangers and threats. On the contrary, Jesus reminds the disciples of their weak, fragile, defenseless character. They are like sparrows that sell themselves just for a penny. I am like the prophet Jeremiah, who confesses that he is a poor man, whom the Lord has freed from the hands of evildoers. Here is what allows you to overcome fear: knowing that you are guarded by God, because they are precious in his eyes.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey