"Fear of God"

Father Pisut,

What are your feelings on the term "fear of God"? It seems to me society has steadily gone down hill since that term has not been used like it was years ago. Now it is all the love of God, which I have certainly no disagreement with, but I think He expects something from us in return. I wonder, when the day comes, there are some people out there that should have had a "fear of God".

Thank you for your response,

Martin


Martin,

Fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the more that we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to the nature of God the more we would naturally fear him, properly understood. Commonly, the phrase "wonder and awe" is used to replace the word "fear." This has been done in part as a reaction to some quarters in which God had been portrayed excessively as a God to be feared in the most negative sense. It is important that we primarily understand God as love for that is how he was revealed to us by Christ. In coming to know God there is indeed a true "wonder and awe" in regards to who he is and what he has done. However, while it is most desirable that our salvation comes from loving God and doing his will out of love for him and the desire to live in the truth it is sufficient to do the right thing and be saved out of a fear of eternal damnation. It is no surprise that the concept of a wrathful God and eternal damnation are not popular to the modern ear. Nevertheless, they are scriptural and part of the Christian Tradition. While it is wrong to portray God and our salvation solely in these terms it is just as wrong to leave them out of the presentation of the Faith. After all, it is only natural to have a just fear of God. He is all powerful and all knowing, he created the world and can end it just as well. He could do anything to us if he so chose. Any person would have a just fear of someone who has even a shadow of this power over them. While God is love and does not act capriciously the Holy Scriptures do teach that there are ramifications for not following his commands. The modern world with its emphasis on unlimited personal freedom and tolerance for everything has unfortunately filtered into Christian theology to provide a one-sided and inaccurate understanding of God and the responsibilities of living the Christian life. While the desire to replace "fear of God" with "wonder and awe" may be admirable in its attempt to shift the focus from an inaccurate image of a God of pure wrath to a God of love too often I fear that the loss of the expression "fear of God" also deprives persons of a healthy and accurate understanding of our relationship with God and the realities relating to our salvation. While "wonder and awe" does describe a certain understanding of God "fear of God" I believe is a better term and is the preferred term of the Church as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Pisut