St. Matthew’s Gospel: “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” He continues, “be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul.”
I do not think enough of us take these lines seriously. What kills the body? Many things: disease, starvation, violence, war, and even age. Because Christians should not fear these things, we have never feared to minister to the sick, the hungry, and in times of persecution. We invented hospitals!
But what kills the soul? SIN. St. John teaches, in his first letter, that “sin may be wrong-doing of any kind; not all sin is fatal.” (1 Jn 5:17) We call this mortal sin in modern theology. While we must strive to root out all sin from our lives, we must avoid mortal sin as if our lives depend on it, because they do. Mortal sin kills the soul. And God himself told us that is the only thing to fear.
We must do everything we can to change our behaviors that do not lead to God. Christ taught us that this work, A.K.A. repentance, is best done through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We must pray more than the time we spend at Mass each week, e.g. by Adoration. We must fast. Friday penance is still a thing. In the USA, we don’t have to abstain from meat outside Lent, but we should do something. Honestly, I find it easier to just avoid meat. Almsgiving is not just tithing. It is helping those in need. Helping in our food pantry or the Lord’s Diner, for example, is part of almsgiving.
To live this way is HARD. It requires discipline. There is a reason the Church on this earth is called the Church Militant. But we are not alone. Even Jeremiah, writing 600 years before Christ could say, “the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion; my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.” How much more, then, is the LORD with us? He has conquered death and freed us from sin’s bondage. We have been baptized into his family and invited into his life. What are we waiting to see or to have happen before we stop being afraid or maybe just lazy - and engaging in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so we can be free of deadly sin?
St. Paul writes to the Romans “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” Let us follow Christ, leaving behind all those things that distract us from him, just as the apostles did when they were called. Christ is with us always, so do not be afraid. This life is fleeting anyway. The glory we are called to is eternal.