For the past few weeks, I’ve been conducting RCIA classes for adults who are seeking full initiation into the Catholic Church. The last two years we didn’t have anyone in RCIA, here at St. Ignatius, which was quite concerning, but this year we’re happy to have three adults preparing for the Sacraments. The first two months of RCIA consist of covering the basics, the elements of the Creed: what it means that Catholics believe in God, that God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, and that Jesus Christ is True God and True Man, and we begin to look at the parts of the Bible. On Monday, this week, we will begin our discussion of the Holy Spirit, and we’ll talk a bit about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Like the talents in the Gospel, these gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to each of us, to be utilized in the master’s service. We are to use the gift of wisdom to order our life according to the priorities of God. We are to use the gift of understanding to clearly explain our faith to others—to help them grow in faith. The gift of piety helps us to be mindful of God throughout our day and to set good Christian example for others.
Our psalm today speaks about that last spiritual gift—last, but not least, and maybe even the most important gift: the fear of the Lord. “Blessed are those who fear the Lord.” Our first reading, too, speaks of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs says, “the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”.
I say fear of the lord may be the most important of the gifts of the Spirit, because it seems to be a prerequisite for the other six. Elsewhere in the book of Proverbs, we find the well-known verse that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom”.
What do we mean by fear of the Lord? Fear of the Lord, of course, is completely different from the fear of spiders or fear of suffering. Fear can be good and fear can be bad, it can be healthy and it can be unhealthy. For example, Founding Father and third President, Thomas Jefferson, said "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When governments fear the people, there is liberty.”
There is a type of fear which is inconsistent with the Christian life. Over and over Jesus says, “do not be afraid”. “Don’t be afraid, to leave behind your old life” he says to peter, james, and john, “for you will be become fishers of men.” “Don’t be afraid” he says If you suffer for righteousness sake, or If they bring you before rulers and kings because of me…don’t be afraid, I am with you, don’t be afraid, for the holy spirit will give you what you are to say”. “Have no fear of those who kill the body…BUT…have fear of those who can destroy the soul and body in hell” In that last one, the Lord speaks of the type of fear that is good and holy. Just like when you are carrying something precious like a crystal vase, or a delicate baby, you should be afraid, to drop them. So, too with our souls. We should be afraid to expose our souls to evil through sin. So we need to care for our soul to protect it from sin, lest it be destroyed in hell forever.
The biblical Greek word for fear of the Lord is theosebeia. When that word, theosebeia, is used in scripture , it typically means having a special reverence for God, a consciousness that the eye of God is watching us always, and that there are consequences in our relationship with God if we violate his commands and fail to repent.
Hence the woman in the book of proverbs: she is to be praised for her fear of the Lord, because she seeks to live rightly in the sight of God. She seeks to bring good to her husband and to her family. She reaches out her hands in generosity to the poor; she seeks to live obediently to the commands of God. She is a model for all of us for living out the gift of holy fear. For, the fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift not just given to a select few of us, but to each of us at baptism. It’s like a seed, that if watered and nurtured through prayer and right conduct, it blossoms. It will also fail to blossom if you neglect it.
Healthy fear of the Lord motivates us to not only avoid sin, but also to seek God’s mercy when we do sin. It motivates us to go to Confession if we commit mortal sin, lest we appear before the judgment seat of God with unrepented mortal sin.
Again, there is healthy fear and there is unhealthy fear. In Scripture, one of the first instances of unhealthy fear is right after original sin in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, having sinfully eaten from the forbidden tree, run and try to hide from God. Their unhealthy fear is kind of silly, if you think about it. Trying to hide from the omniscient God…they knew they were guilty, but their unhealthy fear caused them to have this distorted image of God as some sort of cruel tyrant. The wicked useless servant in the Gospel too, was filled with unhealthy fear, we are told, unhealthy fear of his master which caused him to bury his talent.
With Adam and Eve, their unhealthy fear then led them to lie to God, as if he couldn’t see through it. Instead of coming clean with the loving God who made them, they start blaming each other for their sin.
If there is a sin that you are ashamed of that you have not brought to the sacrament of confession, please, stop running away from God. He loves you and he is ready to forgive you. But he will also respect your decision to run away from him forever if you fail to repent.
Again, holy fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift, like the talents in the Gospel, given to us to be cultivated, grown, multiplied, and utilized in service of the master. And we cultivate the gift of holy fear by praying repeatedly and continuously throughout the day, remembering that we live in the sight of God and are beholden to his commands.
The lazy wicked servant shows that he values the talent given to him so little, that he does nothing with it, and is consequently cast into the outer darkness.
But when we do use this talent wisely, our lives become wisely and rightly ordered. We begin to understand the ways of God, and grow in knowledge of the things of God. We become sources of good counsel for troubled souls, and sources of strength and courage for weak souls. We grow in piety, becoming examples of holiness for others, instruments the Lord uses to draw searching souls to himself. Having used the gift of holy fear in the Lord’s service, may we come to hear those beautiful words at the end of life, “well done, my good and faithful servant”, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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