On the Fear of God

Saint John says: "Perfect love casts out fear."

There is no doubt that God wishes to be feared; and it is not in vain that Holy Scripture declares in many places that He is terrible in His judgments, and that Saint Paul says that it is dreadful to fall into the Hands of the living God: it is quite true that the fear of the Lord is the "beginning of wisdom;" but it is only the beginning of it: love is its progress and its consummation. Fear is a gift of the Holy Ghost: but it is a gift by which He wishes to prepare us for more excellent gifts. It is useful and even necessary to have this feeling of fear, and to be penetrated by it, not only in our soul, but in our flesh. But we must not stop there: we must aspire to that perfect love which casts out fear, or rather, which so purifies and ennobles it, that it is changed into quite another sort of fear, the daughter of pure love.

If we have to rise from the state of sin, let us give ourselves up to all the terror of the judgments of God; let us fear His inexorable justice; let us dread His eternal vengeance. Let us permit this feeling to act with all its strength, and let us take care not to attempt to weaken it; it is the Holy Ghost Himself Who places it in our hearts, to lead us to a true conversion.

After our conversion, let this fear still sustain us in the practice of penance; let the thought of the fires of hell, which we have so often deserved, still animate our courage, render us holy enemies of our own selves, and make us embrace generously all that is painful to human nature, in a life of Christian mortification.

Let us still fear the constant occasions of sin to which we are exposed, considering our extreme weakness and the dominating strength of evil habits. Let us oppose to the attractions of sinful pleasure, to the suggestions of the devil, or to our own violent passions, that wholesome fear of the Divine justice, and its terrible threats against sinners who relapse into their former faults, after having received the pardon of them. Fear is a counterpoise as necessary to those happy souls who have preserved their innocence as to reconciled sinners; both need it, in thousands of dangerous occasions, to preserve them from sin.

But, after all, the motive of fear is not that which should predominate in the life of a Christian; that is not the Will of God; He deserves to be served for a higher motive, and the human heart is made to be guided by love. Love is the only feeling really worthy of God; He has made it the first and greatest of His commandments. He deserves this feeling on our part on account of His infinite perfections, the benefits with which He has loaded us, in the order of nature and grace, and the eternal happiness which He has promised us, which is to be the reward of our love. And also this feeling is the only one which can really change our hearts, which can really turn them towards God, and inspire them with dissatisfaction for creatures; which can really soften us, enlarge our hearts, raise us up, and make us capable of doing and suffering all things for God's sake.

Two things are commanded to the Christian: to avoid evil, and to do good. Fear can make us avoid evil; but it cannot lead us to the practice of good. Love, on the contrary, can perfectly produce both effects; it can efficaciously draw us away from evil, and even from the appearance of evil; it can lead us to good, and to the most perfect good, in spite of all difficulties and all sacrifices, however painful to nature.

Fear, which has only an eye to our own interests, is not generous; it goes no farther than to those things which are of obligation, and even then thinks it is doing a great deal in accomplishing so much.

It is not so with love. Love is always in advance of and above what it gives; so that it counts as nothing all it has hitherto done when it can see its way to do something more. All the refinements of devotion, the listening for the least indication of the Will of the Beloved, and the instant accomplishment of it, when known all these things are familiar to love, and to love only: fear has not even an idea of them. When, then, God begins to fill our hearts with His Divine love, when we feel that we do love Him, and that our greatest desire is to give Him a proof of it, we must give ourselves up entirely to this feeling, we must nourish it with the utmost care, and we must avoid everything which could weaken it. God Himself then takes pleasure in manifesting Himself to the soul in all His beauty; He grants to the soul such a lively sense of His goodness and tenderness, that she is almost astonished that He must also be feared; she can approach Him with the greatest confidence; she speaks to Him Who is her All with a holy familiarity, and all her language is love; the terrible truths of religion affect her no longer, she scarcely ever thinks of them; fear has given place to something infinitely sweeter, and she experiences with rapture the truth of what Saint John says: "Perfect love casts out fear" Yet she still fears; but with a sweet fear, which belongs only to the children of a loving Father. It is no longer because of the awful judgments of God that she fears to offend Him, but because He is her Father, because she loves Him so much, because He is infinitely perfect, and sin displeases Him above all things. She learns to have a horror, not only of mortal sin, but of the smallest venial sin, of the least fault, and she would never, willingly and with deliberation, commit one. She knows that sin is the evil of God, and to do the least evil to God, Who is her only love, appears to her greater than any other evil, whatever it may be. Now, what a strength does this filial, loving fear give her to fight against and resist all temptations! With what a constant and vigilant attention it inspires her! What precautions it suggests to her to avoid everything that could possibly displease Him Whom she loves so well! How easily she forces her way through all obstacles, breaks all ties, which would hold her back, triumphs over the world and its false pleasures, over the flesh, with all its seductions, over the devil and all his temptations! What a joy for that soul to find herself freed from all that held her captive, and to be able to love, with all the intensity of her affection, Him Who alone deserves to be loved! The fear of slaves, the fear which freezes the heart, and narrows and constrains it, can never produce effects like these.

If the fear of displeasing the Beloved can thus draw away the soul from all evil, the desire of pleasing Him can excite her to the practice of every good which He expects from her. She seeks out occasions of pleasing Him, but always quietly and peacefully, only desiring to do His Will; she joyfully seizes all those that are presented to her: labours, sufferings, sacrifices, cost her nothing. Provided only she can please God, she is content; and her greatest grief would be to have to reproach herself with any negligence or cowardice in this respect. As she knows that the greatest enemy God can have is herself, her corrupt nature, her self-love, she hates herself, as God hates all that is corrupt in her; she struggles against herself, will not live at peace with one bad inclination, mortifies herself in everything; and because she feels that of herself she cannot thoroughly succeed in overcoming nature, she offers herself to God in all simplicity, that He may strike where He will, destroy what He will, and do with her just as it pleases Him.

This is what perfect love does: when love takes entire possession of a heart, it is fear that first introduced it there; but once entered into possession, love banishes fear and reigns alone. And, in truth, these two sentiments are incompatible. Love, which only looks to God, renounces all self-interest; and, on the contrary, self-interest is the only thing which influences fear, the only motive of its actions. Love does not serve God because He is terrible, but because He is good; love does not fear Him as a Master, but loves Him as a Father; it is not the thought of reward or punishment which influences love; it is the thought of God alone, in Himself, and for Himself; not for His gifts, not for His rewards; simply God alone.

When, then, a soul which has given herself to God, without reserve, loving Him truly above all things, is nevertheless vividly impressed with the terror of His judgments, if this feeling comes from God, it is a trial and a heavy cross, and she must bear it with love and patience; if it is an effect of the imagination, she must not pay any attention to it, and must avoid all reflections that encourage it; if it comes from the devil, who in this way tries to tempt her to despair, she must raise up her confidence in God, she must cast herself in His arms, she must abandon herself entirely to Him, begging of Him to draw glory to Himself from this temptation, and make it serve only for the triumph of His love. For God only permits such a temptation, to draw the soul nearer to Himself, to make her love Him more purely and entirely, to detach her more completely from all remains of self-interest, and to force her to renounce herself in all that is most precious to her. If she will generously make this sacrifice, at once she is in peace; the devil departs, and loses all power over her; the reign of love is established and confirmed in her.

It is thus that fear, even when it comes as a trial and a temptation, can only end, according to the designs of God, in perfect love. Let us try, with the help of Divine grace, to make this use of it.

- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou