Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Through the power of his being, he has linked us to the creative source of all existence. And in that “place,” loved in the Spirit by the Father and the Son, we are safe—even from those who would kill the body.
But this means that our perspective can and must change. Most of us spend most of our lives defending ourselves against assaults on the “body”—keen, almost every waking moment, to protect our psyches, our emotions, our fortunes, our health, our reputations.
When we do that, we warp ourselves, turning our lives defensively inward, living in a very small spiritual space. But when we live out of the divine center, we breathe the air of real spiritual freedom. No longer cramped fearfully around the “body,” we can move into the wide expanse of the divine will, following God however he prompts us. And this state of affairs, this great soul, is simultaneously alluring in its beauty and terrifying in its demand.