Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time – 21st June 2026
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Gospel we have heard today begins with a message that comes like a gentle comfort from the heart of God: “Do not be afraid.” Three times in just a few verses, Jesus tells his disciples not to be afraid. It is as if he knew that, throughout the centuries, we too would need to hear these words again and again.
We live in a world where fear is everywhere. We worry about our health, our children, our families, our jobs, and the future. Sometimes we are even afraid to show our faith, to say that we pray, that we come to church, that we love God. Fear has a way of making our hearts smaller and making us forget who we really are.
But today Jesus looks at us with the same love with which he looked at his apostles and says: “Do not be afraid.” Notice that Jesus does not say, “You will have no troubles.” He does not say, “Everyone will understand you.” He does not say, “Life will be easy.” Instead, he says something much deeper: “Do not be afraid, because your Father is with you.”
To help us understand how precious we are in God’s eyes, Jesus speaks about sparrows. In his time, two sparrows could be bought for almost nothing. They were among the smallest and least important birds in the marketplace. Yet Jesus says that not even one of them falls to the ground without the Father knowing it.