LOVE MAKES USE OF NATURAL, SERVILE AND MERCENARY FEAR
Lightning, thunder, thunderbolts, storms, floods, earthquakes and such other unexpected incidents arouse even the most irreligious people to fear God. In such events nature goes before reasoning and forces the heart, the eyes and the very hands heavenwards to ask for help from the most holy Divinity. This is in keeping with the common feeling of humankind which is, as Titus Livy[1] states, that those who serve the Divinity prosper and those who despise it suffer. In the storm that put Jonah in danger, the sailors were afraid with a great fear, and they cried out immediately, each one to his own god (Jonah 1:5). St Jerome says “They were ignorant of the truth, yet they recognized that there is a Providence" and believed that it was by the judgment of Heaven that they found themselves in this danger. Like the people of Malta when they saw St Paul saved after shipwreck, bitten by a viper. They believed it was by divine vengeance (Acts 28:4).
Moreover thunder, storms, thunderbolts are called by the Psalmist the voice ofthe Lord (Ps 29:3-8). He further says that they fulfill his word (Ps 148:8), because they proclaim his fear and are like ministers of his justice. Elsewhere, desiring that the Divine Majesty should make his enemies tremble, he says, Make the lightning flash and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them (Ps 144:6). There he calls thunderbolts the arrows and darts of God. Before the Psalmist, the good mother of Samuel had already sung that even God’s enemies would fear him, if he would thunder over them from heaven (1Sam 2:10). In fact Plato, in his Gorgias and elsewhere, testifies that there was some feeling of fear among the unbelievers. This was regarding the chastisements which the sovereign justice of God inflicts in this world. It was also concerning the punishments he inflicts in the other life on the souls of those who have incurable sins. So deeply is the instinct of fearing the Divinity impressed on human nature.
This fear, however, when experienced by way of a first movement or natural feeling, is neither to be praised nor blamed in us since it does not proceed from our choice. It is, nevertheless, the effect of a very good cause and the cause of a very good effect. This is because it comes from the natural knowledge which God has given us of his Providence, making us understand how greatly we depend on the sovereign omnipotence, moving us to ask for his help. When it is found in a faithful soul, it does it much good. Christians, amid the fears that thunder, storms and other natural dangers bring them, call upon the sacred names of Jesus and Mary, make the sign of the Cross, prostrate themselves before God, and make many good acts of faith, hope and religion. The glorious St Thomas Aquinas, being naturally subject to fright when it thundered, was accustomed to say as an ejaculatory prayer those divine words which the Church greatly esteems: The Word was made flesh (Jn 1:14). On this fear then, divine love frequently makes acts of complacency and benevolence: I will praise you, Lord, for you are fearfully magnified (Ps 139:14). Let every one fear you, O Lord (Ps 33:8).O kings understand. Serve the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling (Ps 2:10-11).
But there is another fear which takes its origin from faith. Faith teaches us that after this mortal life there are punishments fearfully eternal or eternally fearful for those who in this world have offended the Divine Majesty and have died without being reconciled to him. Also that at the hour of death souls will be judged by a particular judgment. And that at the end of the world all will rise and appear together to be judged again in the general judgment. These Christian truths, Theotimus, strike with an extreme dread the heart that considers them. How could one represent to himself these eternal horrors without shuddering and trembling with fear? Now when these feelings of fear fill our hearts to such an extent that, as the sacred Council of Trent states, “they banish and drive away the affection and will to sin" they are certainly very beneficial.
It is said in Isaiah (26:18): We have conceived of your fear, O God, and have brought forth the spirit of salvation. That is, your face full of anger has terrified us and made us conceive and bring forth the spirit of penance, which is the spirit of salvation. As the Psalmist said, There is no peace for my bones, rather they tremble before the face of your great anger (Ps 38:3). Our Lord, who came to bring us the law of love, ceaselessly inculcates this fear: Fear him, he says, who can destroy both body and soul in hell (Mt 10:28). The Ninivites did penance on the threats of their destruction and damnation (Jon 3:10), and their repentance was pleasing to God. In short, this fear is included among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as many ancient Fathers have noted.
If fear does not exclude the will to sin as well as the affection for sin, it is certainly evil and like that of the devils. Devils often cease to do harm for fear of being tormented by exorcisms. However, they do not cease to desire and will evil on which they meditate forever. This fear is similar to that of the wretched galley slave who would like to tear out his overseer’s heart but he does not dare to move from his oar for fear of being beaten. It is like the fear of the great heresiarch of the last century [Luther] who confessed that he had hated God for punishing the wicked. Truly a person who loves sin, and would willingly commit it in spite of the will of God, though he does not will to commit it simply because he fears damnation, has a horrible and detestable fear. Though he does not have the will to commit the sin, yet he has the commission of it in his will. He would want to do it if fear did not hold him back. It is as it were by force that he is prevented from doing the action.
To this fear can be added another , less malicious indeed but just as useless. Such was the fear of the judge Felix, who hearing God’s judgments spoken of was terrified but did not for all that give up his avarice (Acts 24:25-26). Moreover, it was like the fear of Balthazar who, seeing that miraculous hand which wrote his condemnation on the wall, was so terrified that his face was changed, and the joints of his loins were loosened, and his knees struck one against the other. (Dan 5:6), and yet he did not do penance. What is the use of fearing evil, if the fear does not make us resolve to avoid evil?
The fear then of those who like slaves observe the law of God to avoid hell is very good. But much more noble and desirable is the fear of mercenary Christians who like wage earners labour faithfully, yet not principally for any love they have for their masters but to receive the wages promised them. Ah! if the eye could see , if the ear could hear or if it could enter into the human heart what God has prepared for those who serve him(1 Cor 2:9), what dread would one have of breaking the divine commandments for fear of losing those immortal rewards! When one had lost them by sin, what tears would be shed, what groans uttered. But this fear would be blame worthy if it contained in itself the exclusion of holy love. For whoever would say, “I do not want to serve God for any love I intend to have for him but only to obtain the rewards he promises" would commit blasphemy. Such a person would prefer the reward to the Master, the benefit to the Benefactor, the inheritance to the Father, and his own profit to God almighty. This we have shown more fully in Book Two.[2]
But finally, when we fear to offend God not to avoid the pains of hell or the loss of Heaven, but only because God is our very good Father to whom we owe honour, respect, obedience, then our fear is filial. A good child obeys his father not in consideration of the power he has to punish his disobedience, not even because he can disinherit him. He simply because he is his father, so much so that though the father might be old, powerless and poor, he would not stop serving him with the same diligence. Rather, like the dutiful stork, he would help him with greater care and affection.
So also Joseph, seeing the good man Jacob, his father, old, in want and subject to his rule, did not stop honouring, serving and reverencing him with a tenderness more than filial. It was such that his brothers observing it thought that it would continue even after their father’s death. They used it to obtain pardon from him, saying, Your father commanded us that we should say to you on his behalf: I beg of you to forget the crime of your brothers, and the sin and malice they practised against you. When Joseph heard this he wept (Gen 50:15-17). So much was his filial heart touched when the desires and will of his dead father were made known to him. Hence those who fear God with a filial affection are those who fear to displease him purely and simply because he is their most gentle, most kind and most loving Father.
However, when it happens that this filial fear is joined, mixed and infused with the servile fear of eternal damnation or even with the mercenary fear of losing Heaven, it does not cease to be very pleasing to God. It is then called initial fear, that is, fear of beginners in the exercises of divine love. For like young boys beginning to ride horses, when they feel their horse rear up a little, they not only grip him with their knees but also catch hold of the saddle with their hands. But after they have had a little more practice they only use the pressure of the knees. Similarly, novices and apprentices in God’s service, finding themselves troubled by the attacks which the enemy delivers at the beginning, make use not only of filial fear but also of mercenary and servile fear. They hold on as best they can so as not to fall away from their resolution.
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[1] Titus Livy (59 BC 17AD): Roman historian
[2] Ch. 17