At a regional bishop’s meeting that I recently attended, an animated dialogue took place regarding different catechetical approaches currently employed in our Catholic schools. The discussion was wide ranging, but several bishops lamented the all-too-common absence of any treatment of the “fear of the Lord.” It appears that many texts avoid all but a passing reference to it. What also became apparent is that, in numerous cases, the reason for its exclusion is that many teachers and catechists simply don’t understand it themselves! Many intentionally omit it in order to protect people, especially children, from what they judge to be a punitive focus that is out of keeping with modern religious sensibilities. The teaching is thought to be inherently Jansenist, and they fear its effect on children and catechumens. This is a tragedy, as nothing could be further from the truth.

Fear of the Lord is a critically important disposition of a person toward God. It acknowledges the infinite glory and majesty of the Supreme Being, the One Creator God who effortlessly sustains all that he has created in being. He is mysterious beyond comprehension, an all-consuming fire, at once terrible in power and fascinating beyond imagination. As the Catechism affirms, “we firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple” (202) and one “infinitely above everything that we can understand or say” (206).

To truly grasp the immense mystery of God’s infinite splendor and grandeur is to be amazed. It is to be filled with deep religious awe. God is discovered as the numinous, omnipresent presence to which every creature owes its existence and to whom they must answer. The Catechism affirms that, when faced with God’s presence, humans discover their own insignificance and recognize God’s holiness (see 208). This is, of course, absolutely true and profoundly important. But it is also where the confusion begins.

Servile vs Filial Fear

A critical distinction must be made that is too often neglected. There are two manifestations of the fear of the Lord: servile fear and filial fear. The two differ radically in the personal disposition toward God that they engender and inspire. In the context of mature Catholic faith, the first is a counterfeit of the second.

Servile fear of the Lord is what is often confused with the genuine article by many teachers. It recognizes God’s awesome majesty but somehow then imputes to him an angry, vengeful disposition toward humanity. It conflates power with anger so that what is portrayed is a wrathful, impatient God, remote and unapproachable, eager to judge and condemn people. As a result, people become scared of God, and the disposition of the believer becomes one of trying to appease his volatile wrath. Servile fear of the Lord is the fear of punishment and retribution. But this is based on a horrible caricature of the true God, quite obviously not the God of divine revelation, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Servile fear is definitively not the kind of fear celebrated in the Scriptures and given by God as a gift!

Filial fear also begins with the recognition of the infinite majesty of an almighty God, but it manifests in a very different way. It acknowledges that God is indeed awesome and terrible in power and majesty, but also that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), that “the LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Ps 145:8). It confesses that he is essentially wonderful and infinitely lovable. He is the one for whom our hearts desire and yearn in the deepest part of ourselves. It accepts and embraces the true nature and disposition of God toward humanity as it is revealed through the prophet Ezekiel: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ez 33:11). His loving kindness and tender-hearted mercy are recognized to be fully revealed in Jesus, who came “to seek and save the lost” (Lk 19:10). It understands that what the Scriptures describe as the “wrath of God” is the subjective painful experience of creatures harboring evil in their hearts because nothing dark and evil can survive an unveiled encounter with the infinite, luminous goodness that is God. It sees that God wants to be our Father, adopt us in Jesus, and fill us with his own divine life in the Holy Spirit, making us part of his covenant family forever. The foundation of filial fear is to be overwhelmed and overcome so that the all-holy God, the omnipotent Creator and all-consuming fire, can be our intimate and loving Abba.

Filial fear is to be awed by the wonder of God’s desire to purify us, heal us, and draw us into a communion of life and love that will never end. It is saturated by awe and wonder at who God is and all that he does. The infinite brilliance of God’s goodness, his love, and his saving purposes engenders and inspires love in return. Filial fear is the fear that a child might feel at the thought of being separated from the father they deeply love, respect, and admire. It is the fear of offending the all-powerful and all-good God—not for fear of punishment, but for fear of in any way hurting the one who is loved and deserving of all love. St. Thomas Aquinas defined it as revering God as sons and avoiding all that would separate ourselves from him.[1] Pope St. Pius X defined it similarly, as “a gift which makes us respect God and fear to offend His Divine Majesty, and which detaches us from evil while inciting us to good.”[2]

Jesus: The Exemplar of Authentic Fear of the Lord

How do we know that this is the proper interpretation of the fear of the Lord? Because it is perfectly realized and witnessed in Jesus. In his life we see the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah about the future Messiah, which declares that “But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD” (Is 11:1–3). Jesus is that future Messiah. He is the one whose delight is in the fear of the Lord. And as the unique and only-begotten Son of the Father, he demonstrates perfect fear of the Lord by his commitment and determination to never stray in the least from his Father’s loving designs. Even as a child he asked, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be concerning myself with my Father’s affairs?” (Lk 2:49). He is perfectly united with the heart and will of the Father, declaring that he does “only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also” (Jn 5:19). He willingly embraces suffering and redemptive death out of this same filial love: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39). His entire life can be characterized as the very personification of the fear of the Lord as witnessed by these words: “the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me” (Jn 5:19).

Pope Francis confirmed during one of his Wednesday catecheses that the fear of the Lord “does not mean being afraid of God: we know well that God is Father, that he loves us and wants our salvation, and he always forgives, always; thus, there is no reason to be scared of him! Fear of the Lord, instead, is the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom we are reminded of how small we are before God and of his love and that our good lies in humble, respectful and trusting self-abandonment into his hands. This is fear of the Lord: abandonment in the goodness of our Father who loves us so much.”[3]

Authentic fear of the Lord allows us to humbly see the greatness of God, the sheer insanity of sin, and the wonder of his gratuitous forgiveness and redemption. It allows us to stand in awe of the power of God directed wholly to our good, of the condescension of the Incarnation and the love that it revealed, and of the indescribable glory of the beatific vision that Jesus won for us. It puts us in the correct posture or disposition before God, that we might graciously and fully receive his magnificent plan of salvation. In Jesus we see what the Old Testament actually means when it calls “the man who fears the LORD” “blessed” (Ps 112:1), and when it claims that fear of the Lord leads to “glory and exultation, gladness and a festive crown,” that it “rejoices the heart, giving gladness, joy, and long life” (Sir 1: 9–10). It is not about being scared of God but a respectful reverence so strong that it avoids everything that is less than a complete oblation of love.

Fear of the Lord in the Liturgy

In the celebration of the Eucharist, we see the way the fear of God is meant to be manifest in our lives. It illustrates that “lex orandi, lex credendi,” or, “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” The sacred liturgy is permeated with examples, but a few will illustrate the point. In the fourth Eucharistic Prayer we see the loving purpose to which God has directed his awesome and terrible power: “It is truly right to give you thanks, truly just to give you glory, Father most holy, for you are the one God living and true, existing before all ages and abiding for all eternity, dwelling in unapproachable light; yet you, who alone are good, the source of life, have made all that is, so that you might fill your creatures with blessings and bring joy to many of them by the glory of your light.”[4] After singing the Sanctus—crying out holy, holy, holy to the Lord God almighty, declaring with the myriads upon myriads of the hosts and powers of heaven his infinite glory—he descends upon the elements on the altar and transforms them into the Body and Blood of his Son for our salvation. At communion, we humbly and truthfully acknowledge before the King of kings and Lord of lords, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed” (cf. Mt 8:8–13). Who would not love such a God? Who would not do everything possible to avoid offending such a Father? The fear of God, rightly understood, is inseparable from the love of God and is its very foundation.

The true fear of the Lord is beautiful and wonderful. It allows us to stand in awe of the glory of God and engenders and inspires ever deeper love of God. It conforms our lives more fully to Jesus, who revealed in his sacred humanity perfect fear of God the Father. It is so critical to the full flowering of God’s grace in our lives that it is given to us as a gift in baptism and sealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit in confirmation. It truly is a tragedy that the fear of the Lord is so often neglected in catechesis. There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of the fear of the Lord! In all places may a rich, full, and robust catechesis of the fear of the Lord ensue!