i'm no longer the wimp afraid of ghosts // 2011.08.06

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I was afraid of ghosts when I was growing up. So does my children and my friends. Somehow I feel ghosts can do anything they want and I'm powerless to stop them. Thus it's easy to jump when I hear a voice in the dark, or run out of fear when I'm alone. There's just something about things we don't readily sense that makes us cower.

It's amazing that Peter, James and John were not afraid when they saw Jesus "shone like the sun with His clothes becoming white as light." They weren't afraid when they saw Moses and Elijah, because they were speaking to Jesus.

But when "a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.'”, things changed immediately. They were suddenly very much afraid.

Where did the voice come from? Why were those words uttered? Who is this man before us? Jesus tells them, "Rise, and do not be afraid." But how can they be not? They still didn't understand what happened.

Pope Benedict reflects the following before he became Pope:

But what has Jesus really brought, then, if he has not brought world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who once gradually unveiled his countenance first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in the wisdom literature—the God who showed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love.

After Pentecost, we see Jesus' disciples afraid of nothing. They even cast out evil spirits with much gusto! What changed? God's mission was successful to them. The voice they once feared is now someone they intimately know -- someone they know intimately loves and looks out for them. How? Because they finally got it that they have come to live with Jesus -- they have come to live with God.

How about you? Afraid of ghosts, evil men or the challenges you face? If you let Jesus enter your heart, there is nothing to be afraid of. Rise, and do not be afraid.