Do Not Be Afraid of What Others Think | Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. reflects on Matthew 10 and Christ’s command: “Fear no one.”

We often live according to how we are perceived by others, shaping our lives around their judgments, whether favorable or critical. This tendency can become so strong that our sense of identity is rooted more in the minds of others than in reality itself.

But Jesus redirects our attention. We do not exist most truly in the thoughts of others, but in the knowledge and love of God. Human opinion does not constitute our being, nor can it save us.

The problem is not that others think about us—but that we allow their thoughts to define us. What others think is neither creative nor salvific.

God’s knowledge, by contrast, is real, creative, and sustaining. He knows us into being, and His knowledge is ordered toward our salvation.

To “fear no one” is to live not in reference to human judgment, but in the truth of how we exist before God.