More About Fear

How do you think about fear? This last Sunday my homily focused on what a good godly fear really is, and a few people asked for a quick write-up to summarize what I said. This is that. We often have the wrong perspective on fear. Men who are falsely masculine (a worldly, macho, kind of "tough guy" masculinity that is not real masculinity) will pretend that they are not afraid of anything. Actually they are afraid of quite a lot (it just happens to be all the wrong things).

We all will fear something, no one is truly fearless (some may seem so, but they are usually just ignorant). Our Lord Jesus encourages us often to be afraid of some things and not others. We are not supposed to be "afraid" (in the sense of terror) of things like old age or dying. We should, however, be "fearful" (in the sense of serious awareness) of the harm that those things can bring to us if we are not right with God. Being aware of the power of something that is dangerous is not a bad thing (i.e. you are supposed to be "afraid" of drinking poison). If, however, that fear cripples you to point of where you are afraid to do anything, then the fear is not helping you, it is controlling you.

All worldly types of fear are crippling if we let them control us. Only true godly fear gives us strength. When we have a right understanding of Who God is, and we revere Him in all holiness, then all other things take their proper place. The tornado that we fear, the sickness that makes us worry, the rabid dog; it all can be seen with more clarity and we are then able to deal with it in the right way.

Anyone can become fearful (even the Blessed Virgin was told by the angel Gabriel "fear not"; whether she was already fearful or was just tempted to become so, we know that at least the possibility was there). When we feel fear for something we should quickly ask ourselves: is this worthy of being feared? If it is, then we can use that fear (balanced with fear of God first) to guide us into a proper response to the situation. If it is not, then we are required to reassess our attitude and ask for the grace of God to help us reorient our understanding of the situation.

If, however, we do not have the proper fear of God in the way that Jesus commands, then all other fears will hold the wrong place in our hearts and they will be used by the devil to control us. Think of the massive list of phobias that people today suffer from; many of those could be eliminated if they merely had a proper fear of God before all things. God is all powerful, and is the One Who will judge all mankind. We are entirely dependent on His grace to survive every day. That truth is enough to help us to fear Him rightly. When we understand that this same God is the One Who also loves us enough to save us, then that fear is a great blessing to us every day.