Ordinary Time 33
November 13, 2016
Fear of the Lord
My first
year here at St. Mary’s/St. Benedict’s we ran a Vacation Bible Camp for over 60
kids. I was helping with music, which was fun but by Thursday I had run out of
ideas of how to keep them interested. So, I decided to do an in-depth church
tour where we got to see the sacristy where the priest gets ready, and to see
up-close the vessels we use for Mass, and to explore the sanctuary. The climax
of the tour was when I opened the tabernacle for the kids to see inside. There
was utter silence when we opened the tabernacle, and after a moment, one of the
older boys whispered, “This is the first time I’ve been in awe!”
He was
experiencing what is known as fear of the
Lord – being in awe in the presence of God, filled with wonder, trembling
at the presence of the Almighty. This is a good virtue to cultivate frequently.
Fear of
the Lord requires us to recognize that God is God and we are not God. God is
all-powerful, all-knowing, all-just…and we are weak, frail, ignorant of so much.
God created the world with only a word…and we cannot even guarantee that we
will take another breath. Fear of the Lord is closely related to humility – we recognize
how great God is, and how small we are.
The
first reading makes it clear that only those who have fear of the Lord will be
saved. Not the arrogant, not those who think they can “do life” without God,
not the prideful or boastful or those who think they’re “all that” because of
their bank accounts or their good looks or their PhDs or their talents.
Scripture
says that “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” since humility and
fear of the Lord is nothing more than recognizing the truth about who we are in
the sight of God. We gain wisdom when we live according to the truth!
Now,
some may say, “Why should we fear God? I thought we were supposed to love Him!”
Of course we are, and St. John says that “perfect love casts out fear”, so in
Heaven we will not need Fear of the Lord – just like in Heaven we won’t need
courage, since there will be no obstacles to overcome, and we won’t need
patience, since there won’t be anything to annoy us…all virtues, except for
love, are solely for this-world alone. But none of us here have perfect love –
thus, we need Fear of the Lord.
When my
dad went away on a business trip, we kids at home used to take advantage of mom
so much! We knew that mom wouldn’t punish us as much as dad, so we pushed the
limits, we misbehaved, we acted up. Of course we loved our mom – but we didn’t
love her perfectly! Our love was mixed with childish mischief – and so we
needed “Fear of Dad” to keep us in line! I knew – and still know – that my dad
loved me very much, but I needed to respect his power and authority…otherwise,
I’d be tempted to abuse that love!
In the
same way, because we do not love God perfectly, we do still need to grow in the
virtue of fear of the Lord. We trust
that He loves us very much…and because He is the King of the Universe, we must
obey Him. We want to get to the point where we love Him so much that we would
never want to offend Him…but until that happens, we should obey Him out of awe
and wonder at His power and justice.
How do
we grow in this virtue? Honestly, for me, I experience awe at God’s majesty
mostly through nature. This past summer our youth group was having one of our
Tuesday night bible studies, and right after the bible study ended, we went
outside in time to see one of the most magnificent lightning storms I had ever
seen. There was no rain, and the clouds were far away, but we could see these
incredible bolts of lightning dancing around in the clouds, sometimes
stretching down to the ground, and illuminating the dark evening sky. All of us
were amazing! It was breathtaking, it was magnificent…and it made all of us
recognize the power of God. We were in awe!
In the
Gospel, Jesus describes some natural phenomena that will accompany the end
times: earthquakes, famines, plagues, signs in the sky. All of this is God’s
way of showing us our place in the cosmos – we are profoundly loved by Him, but
we are also not God. Our response to this ought to be wonder, awe, and fear of
the Lord!
In
addition to nature, we can grow in this virtue through beautiful liturgy. I
remember a powerful moment in my own life was when I was a high school teen and
went on a weekend retreat with thousands of other teens in Steubenville, Ohio.
The Mass had reached the point of the distribution of Communion, and there were
about twenty-five priests on the altar preparing to distribute the Lord to the
huge congregation. As they began to march off the altar in pairs, holding Jesus
in their hands, the music swelled, and all of a sudden I was struck with awe at
the priesthood – here were these 25 soldiers for Christ, men who have laid down
their lives for Jesus, bringing Jesus to a broken world through the Eucharist.
The whole dignity and beauty of it all moved me to tears.
Ultimately,
fear of the Lord should lead us to love of the Lord, because the Lord’s power
is always used for our benefit. We
marvel at His power – the power that is used to redeem us. If God is so
powerful as to be able to destroy the world, then His power can also destroy my
sin. If God can create the world with a word, then He can create a new heart in
me. If He is so powerful that He can break open the tomb and rise again on the
third day, then He can break open Heaven’s gates to let me in. It’s good to be
the beloved son of a mighty Lord! Because He is so powerful and loving, I can
trust myself to Him completely. As our first reading says, “For those who fear
the Lord, the son of justice will arise with its healing rays.”
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