Fear is a weakness and a strength, a sin and a virtue. For most it is probably an evil, since human nature shrinks from present pain, and is the more vividly afraid of what more immediately threatens. For that reason it would appear that man is more likely to be too much, than too little, afraid in life. No doubt there are many who need to be more circumspect, more cautious; but these adventurous spirits are fewer in comparison than those who find in the life of the soul too much matter for depression and discourage ment. Naturally the real determinant as to whether fear is legitimate or no, is to be sought in ascertaining the object of fear. Obviously the whole question is: What exactly is it of which I am afraid? Should the thing feared be, indeed, an evil which it is reasonable to dread, then we are justified in our alarm; otherwise, of course, we are not. Yet whenever there are two opposing menaces, we must needs be careful in our choice. This must be made under the high light of God's good grace, since in the deliberate words of Scripture men "fear where there is no fear"; by which it is evident that the sacred writer means only that there is often a fear out of all proportion to the thing feared. The body naturally shrinks from pain and loss, and consequently we have always cause for some fear, but not for the excessive fear we entertain about material things. For the body must one day perish, but the soul can never die.
Fear, then, of God must necessarily be ours; nor, when we are conscious of His terrible judgements, can we well help it. The justice of God, and the words that the compassionate Son of Man has used of that " day of wrath," certainly justify us in being alarmed at all that it entails. Yet love, too, must sweeten and soften it. We have to prevent ourselves from becoming obsessed by the mere shadow of fear, for love and fear must no man put asunder. We start, then, with the assumption that both are essential to the proper worship of God; but we add as a note of practical wisdom that, of the two, most people need to insist in their hearts more on love and less on fear, since by nature one's feelings by themselves incline more to fear than to love. Saint Thomas asserts this in more than one passage: " Between the two extremes of timidity and boldness, it is more necessary to overcome the first than the second. For it is more difficult to repress timidity than to moderate boldness, because the dangers that result from the latter are sufficient to make us quick to temper its excess, whereas the thought of the serious evils that result from timidity ends in making us more timid still." Of the two, therefore, fear is usually the extreme that needs least encouragement, for it is already in most people quite sufficiently active in fact, predominant.
In consequence of this I may be led to wonder whether in my own case my fear is too little or too much, whether it be properly motived, whether it is really the servile fear which I learn God dislikes, or whether it partakes of that filial fear out of which comes love. What signs can I look for to discriminate between the right and wrong fear? This surely is the infallible test: the fear that is really and truly from God should take me nearer and nearer to His feet a fear that keeps me from His presence and holds me at arm's length from Him can never be His gift. I think of the Magdalen whose sins brought her near to her Master, made her come boldly into His presence and kiss His feet; nay, made her so little timid of Him that in the garden of the Resurrection He had to rebuke her: "Touch Me not, I am not yet ascended to My Father." So, again, the fear of Peter that drove him out of the courtyard of the High Priest after his triple denial and made him weep bitterly, could yet extort no other words from his heart than " Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee." So, then, the true fear of God should hold me to His love and to His reverence. It must prevent me from turning away from the pathway of His commandments, nor should it further disturb the peace and serenity of my soul, nor torture my conscience nor bruise the tenderness of love or lead the enemies of God to speak of Him reproachfully. I may know what is a false fear of God. for it will lead me from Him.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.