Be Not Afraid

There is so much negative in the news these days. CRT, Covid-19-God-only-knows-what-strain-next, prices going up, threats of door to door visits from the government, citizens in custody for simply being at the Capitol on Jan 6th, voter fraud, BLM, Antifa, Pope Francis trying to help ring in the New World Order, human trafficking, drug cartels running amok on our southern border. The list goes on.

And yet I find myself curiously untouched by all the madness. I simply don’t have it in me to get all frothed up about these things. The more fear and confusion I see around me the more I remember Pope St. John Paul II reminding us of the words of Our Lord. “Be not afraid.”

When I converted to the Catholic faith twenty-five years ago Pope John Paul II was a rock for me. I read all of his writings I could find. I love his encyclicals and still re-read them. He was, and still is, a calming influence on me, especially in light of the nonsense coming out of the Vatican these days.

I don’t take my faith for granted. I don’t doubt my faith. It’s ingrained in my being and I’m aware of it every day. Maybe that’s why I’m not buying in to all the fearmongering. I know better. As the saying goes, “I’ve read the Bible. I know how it ends.”

Along with the negative news I’m reading more and more about members of the public reacting to these things in positive ways. Parents are confronting school boards over CRT, more and more people are putting serious thought into the so called Covid-19 vaccines and deciding not to get them. People are stepping up and running for local school board and city council positions. More and more conservatives are challenging the liberals who are in office. And winning.

Average citizens like me don’t like that so many of our elected senators and representatives have become millionaires after decades in office. We want an accounting. And it’s coming, sooner or later.

Don’t let all this ‘stuff’ in the news make you crazy. It’s what the media and the people in positions of power in this country, and the world, want: You to be afraid. That’s how they control you. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Pray. Talk to people. Speak out. Fight back. Be not afraid.