Do not fear: the Marian Saturday, fear, and Mary who did not fear

**Quote:**> “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)**Text:**The Thursday of the fourteenth week of Ordinary Time, in liturgical tradition, is Lady Day, the day dedicated to Marian memory par excellence. The Gospel pericope from the ferial liturgy for this Saturday, Matthew 10:24-33, part of Jesus’ missionary discourse on fear, offers an unexpectedly precise key to Marian contemplation on this day: Mary as the one who received the most radical “do not be afraid” in sacred history and lived it to the end.Jesus’ speech about fear, on this Marian Saturday, serves as a portrait, albeit indirect, of the woman who knew no fear.Matthew 10:24-33 presents three distinctions regarding fear: what is legitimate to fear, what is not legitimate to fear, and the foundation of Christian courage. The disciple is not above his Master (Matthew 10:24-25): if they called the Lord of the house Beelzebul, they will call worse things against his family. But he should not be afraid. “Do not be afraid” appears three times in this brief section (Matthew 10:26, 28, 31), making it the most concentrated passage on fear in the entire Gospel of Matthew.**I. “Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed”: The Courage of Truth**“Do not be afraid, therefore, these things. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing secret that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26), the first foundation of Christian courage is eschatological: truth will be revealed. What is slander will be exposed as slander. What is truth will be recognized as truth. The disciple’s fear of being misunderstood, falsely accused, or having his reputation ruined is relativized by the certainty that final judgment belongs to God, not public opinion.“What I tell you in the darkness, say in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27). The opposite of fear is proclamation. Fear leads to silence. Courageous evangelism leads to announcement. The disciple who heard the message “whispered” in personal intimacy with Jesus cannot keep it secret out of fear of consequences. What is received privately must be proclaimed publicly.Mary received privately, “whispered” at the Annunciation, the most radical message in all sacred history: “You will be mother of the Son of the Most High.” This message, received in private by an unknown young woman in a obscure town in Galilee, was not kept silent. The Magnificat of Mary at the Visitation is the “proclaim on the housetops” of the message she received privately; “from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things to me” (Luke 1:48-49). Mary transformed what she heard privately into a proclamation that echoes through the centuries.

The courage of Marian proclamation is not spiritual egocentrism: the Magnificat speaks of God (“the Mighty”), not of Mary as the protagonist. Mary proclaims what God has done, not what she is. The “proclamation from the rooftops” of the Christian disciple shares this structure: proclaiming what God has done, not one’s own spiritual experiences. Christian testimony is theocentric, not egocentric, and Mary’s Magnificat serves as a model of this proclamation that does not appropriate what it proclaims.

II. “Do not fear those who kill the body”: the hierarchy of fears

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot destroy the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Mt 10:28), Jesus establishes a hierarchy of fears: there is a legitimate fear (the fear of God) and an illegitimate fear (fear of persecutors). The fear of persecutors is illegitimate not because the persecution is not real or painful, but because the power of the persecutors is limited: they can kill the body, they cannot destroy the soul. God’s power is total: he can destroy both body and soul.

The “fear of God” that Jesus recommends is not servile fear, the fear of a slave before his cruel master, but filial fear: recognizing that God is God, that his judgments are final, and that no human power is comparable to divine power. This “fear” is the root of Christian freedom in the face of human powers: he who fears God needs fear no one else. The hierarchy of fears forms the basis of freedom: the disciple who placed God in the place of the greatest fear was freed from all lesser fears.

Mary experienced the fears that Jesus lists: the fear of judgment by men (the unexplained pregnancy before Joseph and the community of Nazareth), the fear for her Son’s safety (the Flight into Egypt, the trial by the Sanhedrin, the crucifixion), the fear of her own pain (the sword that Simeon prophesied). That Mary did not succumb to these fears, that she remained faithful to the “fiat” in all circumstances, testifies that she had placed the “fear of God” above all other fears. “Do not be afraid, Mary” (Lk 1:30) was the angel’s invitation. “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) was her response, the freedom of one who fears only what deserves to be feared.

III. “All of your hair is numbered”: providence that overcomes fear

“Two sparrows are not sold for a farthing, and yet neither of them falls to the ground without your Father’s will” (Mt 10:29-30), the innermost foundation of Christian courage is the Father’s providence: God who knows the number of each hair knows every threat and every vulnerability. The courage that Jesus asks for is not stoic indifference to suffering, but filial courage that rests on the certainty that the Father knows. “Do not be afraid, for you are worth more than many sparrows” (Mt 10:31), the logic of the argument “a fortiori” is characteristic of Jesus’ reasoning: if God cares for sparrows, he will care even more for his children sent on mission. This logic does not guarantee the absence of suffering; Christian martyrs were killed, Jesus himself was crucified. But it guarantees that the Father knows, that suffering is not abandonment, and that death of the body is not the final word.

Piety toward Mary throughout history has consistently incorporated this trust in providence: the rosary prayed in times of peril, promises of protection attributed to the Carmelite Scapular, reliance on Mary’s intercession in situations of extreme fear—these devotional practices are concrete ways of living out “do not be afraid” (Mt 10:28-31). Mary who did not fear is invoked by those who fear as one who can transmit, through her intercession, the peace she herself experienced throughout her life, the filial peace of “you are worth more than many sparrows.”

IV. “All that confess me before men”: The liberating testimony

“All that confess me before men, I will also confess before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32), the counterpart to “do not be afraid” is the promise of Jesus’ confession before the Father. The disciple who confessed Jesus before tribunals, synagogues, hostile crowds, will be confessed by Jesus at the final judgment. The courage of testimony has a escatological reward: whoever does not shame Jesus’ name will not be shamed by Jesus before the Father.

“But all that deny me before men, I will also deny before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:33), the symmetrical threat is “denial”: what Peter did in the night of the Passion, before the servant girl and the guards of the high priest. Peter’s denial was real, “I do not know this man” (Mt 26:72), and Jesus’ reaction was real: “Peter remembered the words of Jesus […] and went out and wept bitterly” (Mt 26:75). But Peter’s denial was not definitive: John 21 shows that Jesus’ mercy is stronger than the weakness of fear.

Mary’s Saturday is the day to pray with Mary, who never denied, who stood at the Cross when all fled. Her intercession for those who fear, for those who hesitate to confess, for those who have shamed Jesus’ name in difficult life circumstances has particular effectiveness: she who did not fear intercedes for those who do, she who confessed intercedes for those who denied, she who remained intercedes for those who fled. “Do not be afraid” (Mt 10:28) of Jesus is transmitted through Mary’s voice, who lived it and became a model and intercessor for those still learning not to fear.