FEAR  THE  LORD 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 7^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time comes from  today’s first reading: “Fear the Lord.”

Sirach - in our first reading - has a  4 part litany about fearing the Lord:

You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy….

You who fear the LORD, trust him….

You who fear the LORD, hope for good things….

You who fear the LORD, love him….

TWO MORE TIMES

And two more times in today’s first reading we hear about fear.

When you come to serve the Lord, stand in justice and fear….

Trust in God and “keep his fear and grow old therein.”

ALL THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES

As you know all through the scriptures we hear “fear the Lord” and then we also hear, “Do not fear.”

Which is it?

Obviously it’s both - but this morning I’m looking at the fear issue.

In preparing this homily last night, I simply typed into the search box of Google, “Fear the Lord.”

I got some stuff to think and wonder about - stuff we’ve all heard in sermons. I’m sure we have thought at different times in our life about the complexities of fears and phobias.

For starters I heard the following:

There are two kinds of fear: good fear and bad fear. 

Bad fear is when we become paralyzed  - dreading God - and others and also ourselves. It’s wipe out fear. It’s too much fear in a given situation.

Good fear is prudence - pause -  aware that we ought to be hesitant of the seriousness of a situation and the consequences that could come out of our actions. Translation: think before we act. Pause before proceeding. Breathe.

Next I heard the practical teaching that Fear of the Lord is just a beginning - a first reaction. Fear of the Lord is a gift of the Spirit - the first of the seven classic gifts of the Spirit. 

So the first realization is that fear can begin things - but we need to move beyond the fear.

The two classic scripture texts are: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge and fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good example of this would be what police sometimes do: bring kids into a jail cell - to see what that’s all about - with the idea of instilling a bit of fear into the fog of their brains - so that they don’t end up there years later.

Or on the first day, week, month of a new job, we better have some good fears to be aware of - and we have dressed for the job.

Then at some point in any relationship or any situation, we need to let go of our fears and move into love - as well as enjoying the job or the relationship or the situation.

THE VALUE OF FEAR

So today’s first reading underlines the value of prudent  fear, practical fear, smart fear.

Don’t give a kid who is clumsy the keys to a Mercedes or Lexus.

I remember once I was holding a Boehm Porcelain statue of a bird and I asked the owner who made it, “How much is this bird worth? He  said, “$1,700.” I said, “Here, take this back from me very carefully.”

So too of anything, a sprinkling on - of some fear - helps.

I love e.e. cummings saying, which fits in right here, “be of love a little more careful than of anything.”

So too marriage - a little bit of fear - the high number of divorce statistics - hopefully keeps a couple aware of the need for good ongoing communication in one’s marriage.

So too preaching. I assume fear of criticism - as well as people yawning or looking at their watch - adds at least 5 more minutes of preparation to a sermon.

CONCLUSION

So too in our relationship with God.  St. Alphonsus told his Redemptorists that fear works in preaching - but it doesn't last. Love does.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Painting on top: "Fear" by Robert Vickrey [1954]

"In 1948, Robert Vickrey found a photograph of two nuns from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. He was fascinated by the image and created many paintings of nuns in austere and often sinister surroundings. In Fear, Vickrey used egg tempera paint to create a detailed view of a barren landscape, in which a nun appears to be running in distress. He once claimed that his paintings did not tell stories, but this image suggests that the nun, symbolizing purity and Christian charity, is fleeing from what Vickrey described as 'the rubble and erosion of contemporary civilization.'" (Mecklenburg, Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 1998)