Few things punch people’s buttons like the phrase “fear of God.” It is widely misunderstood and commonly taken in its most unappealing sense. A recent poll in the United States showed that an overwhelming majority of folks believed in God, but that an alarmingly high number thought He was a rather demanding Judge and taskmaster. How very sad!
Perhaps a skewed understanding of theconcept of the fear of God has gone a long way to making folks feel that way.There is a very big difference between fearing to offend a touchy, nasty,
ill-tempered scoundrel and fearing to offend one we love deeply. Most people, quite unflatteringly, assume the fear of God is of the first variety. It isn’t. It is the fear of offending One we love, One Who deserves nothing shoddy or half-hearted from us.
When I love someone my heart breaks if I hurt or upset
them, I would never do so intentionally and even unintentional gaffs upset me because they upset the one I love. It is this sort of “fear” that we need to cultivate in regards to God.
This loving fear requires all the mindfulness and care and vigilance mentioned in this reading for reasons altogether different than terror. It demands them because of love, the same loving fear a mother has of failing to protect her child from harm or hurt. It is the lover’s fear, not the fear of the terrorized, cowering, scared-to-death slave of an unjust master. It is the fear
of a son or daughter who would never want to disappoint a beloved father or mother.
We don’t fear God because He’s mean, we fear Him because He isn’t, because He is so wonderful that nothing would be worse than to displease Him. To be sure, a lot of folks fear God in the scary way at square one. That’s not surprising. But “perfect love casts out fear,” so, in the natural order of things, as our love grows more perfect, our fear of the terror sort diminishes, changes, grows into the lover’s fear. It may not go entirely until
we know perfect love, but it is a great pity if it is not well on its way out.
When we find ourselves considerably beyond square one and trembling with the awful fear, we do a great disservice to the kindness and love of God, to His infinite mercy. Where is our trust?
St. Claude de la Colombiere, spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and great promoter of the Sacred Heart revelations given to her, also corresponded with a Benedictine abbess. This abbess had been elected at far too
young an age (20!!!) and later becoming aware of her failings, was despairing over all her sins and faults. St. Claude firmly rebuked her and said: “One would think that you had never heard of God or His infinite mercy…[R]emember that all the evil you have done is as nothing in comparison with that which you do by failing in confidence.”
That is a striking statement, but very true. Our right-minded fear of God never, ever forgets His love or mercy or tenderness. Never.
Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
