Of the Great Advantages That There Are in This Fear of God

THAT we may the better esteem and appreciate this holy fear, and endeavor always to preserve it in ourselves, we will enumerate some of the great advantages that it contains. In the first place, this fear of God is no source of discouragement or dismay, nor does it make men cowardly and pusillanimous; rather it makes them strong and confident and courageous, as the saints say of humility, for it makes them distrust themselves and put all their confidence in God. St. Gregory says this very well on the text of Job: Where is thy fear, where thy strength? (Job iv. 6). Rightly, he says, does Job join fear with strength; for the way of God is just the opposite to the way of the world, where boldness breeds fortitude; and fear, weakness and cowardice. But here it is the other way about: boldness breeds weakness; and fear, great strength, according to that saying of the Wise Man: In the fear of the Lord is the confidence of our strength (Prov. xiv. 26). And the reason is that, when one fears God, he finds nothing to fear anywhere in the world; all temporal things he despises and holds them of no account. He that feareth the Lord wiil have no dread of anything; he will not fear, because the Lord is his hope (Ecclus. xxiv. 16). Fear is a sort of subjection to the object feared, as to a thing that may do us harm. But he that fears God and puts in Him all his confidence, has nothing to fear from the world, nor from the persecutor, nor from death, nor from the devil, nor from hell. Nothing of all these can harm him, nor touch a hair of his head, without God’s leave; and that is a source of strength so great that there is nothing like it in all the strong men of the world, for God then is the man’s strength. The Lord is a covering protection to them that fear him (Psalm xxiv. 14).

Further, this holy fear of the Lord causes no anxiety or bitterness of heart; it is not painful nor fatiguing, but rather it is very pleasant and cheerful. Worldly fear of loss of social position or property, servile fear of hell and death, does cause sadness and melancholy; but the holy and filial fear that good sons have of grieving and offending a dearly-cherished Father, comforts the soul, makes the heart tender, and softens the affections, since it makes us live continually in the love of God, putting up such prayers as this: “Suffer me not, O Lord, ever to be separated from Thee; rather may I die than offend Thee.” The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation, and mirth and a crown of gladness; the fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and give gladness and joy and length of days. With him that feareth the Lord things shall go well in the end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed (Ecclus. i. 11-13). With what abundance of words and what variety of sentiments does the Wise Man set forth the joy and gladness that the fear of the Lord carries with it! This is not a fear to make men tremble like slaves for dread of tortures. It is a fear that takes its origin from love of God; so, the more one loves Him, the more does one fear to offend and displease Him. This we see is the attitude of a good son to his father and of an honorable woman to her husband; the more fondly she cherishes him, the harder she works to secure that there shall never be anything in the house that might give him any pain.

To say in one word all the praises, favors, prerogatives, and pre-eminences that Holy Scripture assigns to the humble, all may be found said of them that fear God, and almost in the same terms. Thus, as Scripture says that God looks and fixes His eyes on the humble and poor, so it says of them that fear God: The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him (Ecclus. xxxiv. 19). And as it says that God exalts the humble and fills them with good things, it says the same of them that fear Him. His mercy is from generation to generation upon them that fear Him; so says the most holy Queen of Angels in her canticle (Luke i. 50). And holy Judith: Lord, they that fear Thee shall be great before Thee in all things (Jud. xvi. 19). And as the saints say that humility is the guardian of all the virtues, and no virtue can stand without humility, so they say also of the fear of God; wherefore the Prophet Isaias calls this holy fear the treasure-house of the Lord (Isaias xxxiii. 6), because in it the virtues are well kept and treasured up. And on the contrary they say that, as the ship without weight and ballast is not safe on her voyage, any puff of wind being enough to capsize her, so neither is that soul secure that takes her course without this ballast of fear, fear being the soul’s ballast, which corrects the levity of the heart and keeps it firm and constant, so that the wind of favors, human and divine, may not lift it up and capsize it. However rich the soul be, if she lacks this ballast, she cannot go on her way securely.

St. Gregory calls this fear “the anchor of our heart”; ancora cordis est pondus timoris. St. Jerome says, “Fear is the safeguard of virtues,” while a false security facilitates a fall. And Tertullian: “Fear is the foundation of our salvation. By fearing we shall be on our guard, and by being on our guard we shall be saved; he who walks with circumspection and care may rest secure’—Timor fundamentum est salutis. Timendo cavebimus, cavendo salvi erimus; qui solicitus est, is vere poterit esse securus.

Finally, the Wise Man in many chapters of the Sapiential Books goes on extolling the great excellences and marvels of wisdom, and, to sum up and conclude all, he says that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and so says holy Job (xxviii. 28). Thus all that is said of wisdom we may say also of the fear of God. The Wise Man even goes on to say that the fear of God is the plenitude and consummation of wisdom, and that its fruits are copious and abundant (Ecclus. i. 20). And he comes to a conclusion in these words: Great assuredly is he that hath found wisdom, but he is not above him that feareth God. The fear of God overtoppeth and encompasseth all things; blessed is he to whom is given this gift of fear. To what shall we compare him who possesseth so great a gift as this? (Ecclus. xxv. 13-15).