What is our greatest fear in life? Perhaps most of us would say death. But for some, death is not the greatest enemy; for them, it is anonymity, uselessness, or meaninglessness of life. Jesus warns his disciples that the way he was treated by his enemies could also be the way they would be treated.

Already, perhaps, seeing his impending death at the hands of his opponents, Jesus warns the same of his followers. But he is quick to reassure them that what they should fear more is that of spiritual death, more than physical death that their enemies could inflict on them. Besides, from what we see in nature, God will take care of us, more than he takes care of sparrows.

We are worth more than sparrows; so God will not allow something that serious to befall on us. This show of inner strength and fearless witness is what we often read or hear about the witness or lives of saints. Because of their lives being so attuned to that of the Master, they could face opposition and threat to life with full trust and confidence. We are therefore to pray for this grace.

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.

They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “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!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

“The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.”

Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!

“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. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”