Raymond of Peñafort was born in Catalonia in Spain in 1175 into a noble Spanish family with ties to the royal house of Aragon. Catalonia is the region of eastern Spain that includes the city of Barcelona. He was educated as a philosopher, a canon lawyer, and civil lawyer. He was instrumental in the founding of the Mercedarians, a Catholic mendicant order established in Barcelona in 1218 that was dedicated to charitable works. Raymond entered the Dominican order at the age of 47. He was summoned to Rome to work for Pope Gregory IX to work on a compilation of the decrees of canon law, which was an important resource in the Church for many centuries until the revision of canon law in 1917. He served as Bishop of Tarragona in the region of Aragon in Spain and as the head of the Dominican order. He died at the age of 100.
In the Gospel, Jesus is walking on the water, approaching the disciples as they are being tossed about by the rough seas. Rather than being comforted, the disciples are seized with anxiety and fear, thinking they are seeing a ghost. Jesus tells them: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.” This is echoed in what we hear in the first letter of John: That God is love, and whoever remains in love remain in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. We are told that there is no fear in love, because perfect love drives out fear. Yet, the world we live in can be very frightening. We can be fearful just thinking about the future. We can be fearful of the challenges and obstacles we have in trying to practice our faith in our modern world. But Jesus tells us to not be afraid. Even with the joyful spirit of our Christmas season, our lives during this time of the year may also be filled with stress, conflict, and unmet expectations. We are to bring the reality of our lives to God, to let our faith interact with our problems, our struggles, and the reality of life. If we place our hope and trust in God, then truly we have nothing to fear.
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