What if you could grow closer to God this Lent by allowing yourself to grow in fear — fear of the Lord, that is.
The Church teaches that we must have “a spirit of holy fear in God’s presence” (Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1303). In fact, it’s one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received during the Sacrament of Confirmation. Sadly, a lot of people tend to ignore this important concept or, at least, fail to understand its significance.
The penitential season of Lent is the perfect time to enter into a better understanding of the concept of fear and awe of the Lord. This gift of the Holy Spirit is about recognizing that God is God and we are not. This pairs well with Lent, which is about realizing what God has done for us and how we respond in humility to that great gift.
Think about how humbling it was for the Son of God to walk in the desert for 40 days, relying completely on the grace of God for his survival. Then, at the end of the journey, at his weakest, Jesus confronted the temptations of the devil. Those temptations were an attempt by the devil to remove all human fear of God. If the devil can get Jesus, or us, to not fear God, then he wins. The good news, of course, is that the devil didn’t win.
To fear the Lord means we must move past acknowledging God in just a casual, habitual, and even intellectual way. We need to acknowledge — all the time — that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving. He is the source of our every breath and the source of all glory. It is in recognizing his magnitude and mercy that we are called to fear the Lord, to bow down to his greatness.
Some people tend to be a little skeptical of this view of God. They will say this concept is too “Old Testament” or “harsh.” Some will even say that the God of the New Testament should not be feared, just loved. But when we are talking about God, there must be love and fear, because he is the source of all love, and we must always fear the loss of that love. It’s important to note that when we talk about losing God’s love, it is never God who takes his love from us, but rather we who separate ourselves from the love of God.
Popular preacher Father Mike Schmitz explains the concept beautifully in a homily entitled Fear of the Lord from a couple of years ago, available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching this video, perhaps breaking it into parts, as a Lenten activity. Father Mike’s reflection on the difference between the gift of fear of the Lord and being afraid of God is spot-on.
Father Mike quotes from the Catechism the words of St. John Henry Newman: “Are these feelings of fear and awe Christian feelings or not?” The saint answers this question by recognizing how we must respond to the presence of God. “They are the class of feelings we should have — yes, have to an intense degree — if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize his presence.” (CCC No. 2144)
In other words, if Jesus Christ walked into our living rooms, would we not tremble in his presence? Would we not shake with joy, amazement, awe, and humility in the presence of God? Then why do we not do so when we enter into the presence of the Lord in prayer, or when we walk into a Catholic Church, or especially when we receive the Eucharist, which is the physical presence of God within us?
The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Lent gives us a prime example of the importance of fear of the Lord. The story from Matthew 17:1-9 of the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountaintop gives an example of fear of the Lord. When Peter, James, and John hear the voice of God speaking, they prostrate themselves and hide their faces in fear of God.
On a practical level, fear of the Lord is about how we acknowledge the presence of God in our lives. What is our attitude when we pray? What do we do when we enter the Eucharistic presence of Jesus at Church? What is our state of mind and posture when we receive his body and blood?
St. Paul told us: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Take some time to recall, or maybe discover for the first time, why God deserves our fear, along with our love.
Lazzuri writes from her home in Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband, three of her six children, and her mom.
