17 November 201333rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
As we near the end of our liturgical year (the new year begins with Advent), we are offered striking, maybe frightening warnings about the "last things" of our world. But this week the prophet who calls himself "Malachi" (Hebrew: "my messenger") softens the message just a little:
But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.But wait! Is God, Jesus' loving father, telling us to be afraid of him?
Fear. This word hardly seems to characterize a relationship with a loving God. But the Bible tells us that "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
So what is this "fear of the LORD" all about?
In English, the word "fear" is wholly negative. It is a synonym of "terror," "dread," "horror." But the word translated in the Bible as "fear" has a different sense in its original Hebrew. "Fear" speaks not of "dread" but of "reverence." It has to do with the respect and awe owed to God as our Creator.
"Fear of the Lord" reminds us that we are not in charge of the universe, and that we need to defer all power to our Creator. When we approach God with this attitude we recognize, deep in our being, that God has in hand everything and all time. Fear of the Lord recognizes the infinite power, majesty and goodness of God, as well as our place in creation: adopted children of a loving parent.
This fear of the Lord, then, is the necessary foundation of really knowing and loving God. It is the attitude that makes possible our living in God's Spirit. One who
reverences God not only strives to avoid sin, but also lives with a
profound sense of the sacramentality of all life, especially the Sacraments of the Church. And one who recognizes fear of the Lord as one of the seven gifts
of the Holy Spirit freely lives by the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
(Galatians 5:22-23).Fear of the Lord allows us to know and love the One True God, not the false gods we set up in God's place. As we consider our own attitude toward this gift of the Spirit and foundation of wisdom, we might want to ask ourselves:
Do we love God out of fear, or do we fear God out of love?
The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, The Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.
