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Fear God and live Modern psychology, which tends towards atheism and is often anti-Christian, looks upon fear as a disvalue. But in the Bible, which is the revealed Word of God, fear of the Lord is praised and is said to be the “beginning of wisdom.” A healthy fear of God, therefore, is the first step towards holiness. If you look up the word “fear” in your dictionary, you will find that it has several meanings. As it is used in Ps. 111 fear does not mean fright or anxiety in the face of some physical evil or danger, such as coming close to being injured or killed. When the Bible says that “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” (Sir. 1:12), it is talking about “reverential fear,” awe or respect before the majesty of Almighty God. In this sense it is almost equivalent to what we mean by “love” and is more properly known as “filial fear,” that is, the fear that a good son has towards his father in the sense that he does not want to offend him in any way because he loves him. When we were studying our catechism we learned that the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are infused into our soul at Baptism along with the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity. The Gifts are described as “instincts” or “movements” of grace from the Holy Spirit which help us, in a positive way to grow in the knowledge and love of God, and in a negative way to avoid sin in all its forms. The seventh Gift of the Holy Spirit is “fear of the Lord.” This type of fear is practically identified with wisdom, for the one who fears and reverences God will love him, be obedient to him, and worship him alone as the source of all that he has. Ben Sira in his first chapter says it is the basic ingredient of wisdom, its fullest expression, its garland and root, that it warms the heart, giving gladness and joy and length of days (vv. 9-18). God is both infinite justice and infinite mercy. His justice gives rise in the guilty human heart to a healthy fear of punishment, which often leads to repentance for past sins, and his mercy gives rise to hope because the person of faith knows that God is infinitely good and that his very nature is love (see 1 John 4:8). Therefore, true love of God is always tempered with a reverential fear because God alone has the power to reject one into hell and we know that we are weak and, in the heat of temptation, can fall from grace. We know deep down that we are sinners and that we do not deserve the love God has for us. In the Old Testament, wisdom is a practical virtue rather than theoretical knowledge, such as the Greeks understood it. For the Jews the “wise” person is the one who obeys the Ten Commandments, especially the first one about avoiding idol worship; so he worships the Lord God of Israel alone, is obedient, humble, temperate in the use of material things, and charitable to his neighbor. My reason for writing about fear of the Lord is that I have been reading the wisdom books of the Old Testament and the emphasis on that virtue struck me as very timely. Many Catholics today seem to take God for granted and expose themselves to the sin of presumption. In effect, they deny the existence of hell and assume that everyone goes to heaven, no matter what they do. Consequently, they neglect the fear of the Lord and would do well to consider Psalm 1:6, “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.” Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor |