Today's Gospel forms part of what in Matthew we call the mission discourse where Jesus is instructing the Twelve about what awaits them. In their mission to make public the message of Jesus, the disciples are urged: "Do not be afraid". Throughout the Old Testament, as today we read from Jeremiah, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the proclamation of God's Word has always been risky.

So it was a constant temptation for Christians since the beginning to flee the world, to consider the world as mostly evil, and to seek and find refuge in some sort of out-worldly religion. But this would be all false and misleading. The temptation to escape from the world, the so-called fuga mundi which characterised certain facets of Christianity itself, is no solution. Even fleeing God is no solution at all. We've tried both. And there is always a return back to where we started from.

Christianity is the religion of the 'there is no place for him here'. This is what characterises mostly the advent of Jesus, God made man. But on the other hand, Christianity is the religion of the incarnation, of the Word made flesh, of God who entered the world of space and time to be one of us. It's in the world that we are called to create sacred spaces. This is basically what Jesus himself was struggling to explain to the Apostles on the darkest of nights and when they were thoroughly confused on what he was saying and what was happening, when he spoke to them about their being in the world but not of the world.

Jeremiah, in today's first reading, personifies the fear of persecution, to the extent of sounding at times paranoid. And here we are speaking about someone who not only faced risky situations but suffered imprisonment for what he stood up for. Fear is very conditioning in life. Fear keeps us from seeing clearly and from facing life boldly. It keeps us from being true to ourselves and consistent with what we stand for. Jesus is practically urging his disciples to stand up and be counted. But he is also urging them not to count the risk. Jesus's "Do not be afraid" is very often found throughout the Gospels.

There are so many things we fear in life. We fear losing a job, getting cancer, or the possible breakdown of a marriage. Because in spite of everything, ours is a civilisation heavily marked by fear. There is a diffused sense of being lost, of being alone, of homelessness. And in the midst of all this, the Christian is strongly urged to be just the same inserted in the progression of time and trustfully to be part of the patient and at times fearful uncovering of history. That's why we believe that the future has been anticipated in Jesus of Nazareth.

For so long we associated persecution simply with early Christianity when Christians were put to death because they were considered a danger to society. Or with the silent Church in the Eastern bloc at the time of the communist and atheistic regimes. But persecution in our times may assume different forms and expressions.

We are living in modern and post-modern times when the only few absolutes left in our creed seem to be freedom and the individual. Yet, where faith is concerned, the world is becoming ever more aggressive. And Jesus asks of us to be there, to enter the very heart of the world. There is no salvation outside the world.

Jeremiah in today's reading and in the midst of his tragedies exclaimed, "The Lord is at my side". We have never been promised, as Christians or as believers in God, that no evil will ever strike us as result of our faith. We have only been instructed to trust and daily to pray "Deliver us from evil". It's only God's care that can outweigh our fears and troubles.